PhD Graduation Ceremony with Dr Filipe Barata, Dr Iris Shih, and Dr Florian Künzler

Today, October 23 2020, we are very proud of Dr Filipe Barata, Dr Iris Shih, and Dr Florian Künzler who all received their title Doctor of Sciences (Dr. sc. ETH Zurich). They received their titles on the basis of their doctoral theses on Enabling a Digital Biomarker for Asthma – Smartphone Contact-Free Audio based Nocturnal Cough Monitoring by Filipe, Smartphone-based Acoustic Breathing Patterns Detection for a Biofeedback-Guided Breathing Training by Iris, and Assessing and Predicting States of Receptivity for Physical Activity Interventions by Florian, and of the statutory doctoral examinations. The award ceremony was conducted in strict compliance with the Covid-19 code of conduct and protective measures.

Filipe was a doctoral student at our centre working on the project Clara: Nocturnal Cough Detection and Asthma Control PredictionAsthma Control Prediction Project. Still at our centre, his is now pushing forward our Artificial Intelligence and Digital Biomarker Research as postdoctoral researcher. In his first project, he works in close collaboration with our new doctoral student David Cleres and Prof. Dr. med. Martin Brutsche from the cantonal hospital in St.Gallen on the project Towards a Digital Biomarker for COPD.

Iris was a doctoral student at our centre working on the projects PathMate2: The Impact of Digital Coaches on Therapy in Overweight Teenagers and Breeze: A Gameful Biofeedback Breathing Training for Mental and Physical Well-being. Her lessons learnt are as follows: “My PhD and my computer science degree taught me how to build state-of-the-art tech. What excites me the most, however, is when technology actually improves patient lives in the real world.

Florian was a doctoral student at our centre working on the projects Predicting States of Receptivity for Just-in-time Adaptive InterventionsAlly: A Digital Assistant to Lift Your Level of Activity, and OPTIMAX: Optimising Outcomes in Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders.

We wish Filipe, Iris, and Florian all the best of luck with their next steps at our centre and Resmonics and that they are all able to help individuals in need and thus, to leverage the potential of digital health to reduce the global burden of chronic and mental conditions.

Thank you all!

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