Empower Research Lab
Our projects focus on the design, development, and evaluation of interactive tools that aim to positively shape human behavior through a user-empowerment approach. Our research spans multiple domains, methods, populations, contexts, and interaction paradigms. Each project is therefore tagged to reflect what problems it targets and which sociotechnical approaches we employ to develop solutions, as well as who might use or be impacted by such engineered technologies, where that technology would be used, and how people will interact with and through the technology. To filter to projects that are recruiting, use the toggle to the left. You can express interest in getting involved in those projects by filling out our recruiting form: dartgo.org/empowerlab-apply.
The lab is currently focused on the following projects. Click on a project for more details, including associated people, publications, and recruiting opportunities.
games & play
narrative
user study
pain
patients
ethnography
co-design
art-making
2021 - Present
pain
patients
surveys
ethnography
natural language processing
2021 - Present
psychiatry
psychopharmacology
patients
clinicians
2023 - Present
mental health
patients
clinical
ethnography
co-design
2023 - Present
music
lab experiments
smartphones
computer vision
physical therapy
2022 - Present
Expecting parents
2025 - Present
We are involved in the following projects that are led by collaborators across institutions.
health
behavior change
physical activity
narrative
ambient displays
2017 - Present
mental health
visualization
2012 - Present
mood tracking
interviews
surveys
user study
personal informatics
human health
environmental sustainability
built environment
lab experiment
field study
While the lab is no longer actively working on the following projects, we remain interested in these topics and are happy to discuss opportunities to take these ideas in new directions.