DIAMANTE: Enhancing diabetes and depression self-management via adaptive mobile messaging
Peter Washington, Professor
UC San Francisco
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
There are over 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide, yet Spanish-language mental health resources (like therapy content) remain limited. This project explores how generative AI can deliver culturally adapted cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in Spanish. Prof. Adrian Aguilera’s Digital Health Equity & Access Lab at UC Berkeley (part of the Computational Precision Health PhD program), in collaboration with Prof. Rafael Calvo at Imperial College London, Prof. Courtney Lyles at UC Davis, Prof. Lucianna Benotti at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, and Prof. Peter Washington at UCSF (also part of the Computational Precision Health PhD program as well as the Biological and Medical Informatics PhD program) are working on leveraging data from a previous study (the DIAMANTE project) that used adaptive text messaging and sensor data to support diabetes patients.
Role: Students will train AI models to generate supportive CBT messages in Spanish and use mobile sensing (data from smartphones/wearables) to personalize the timing of these messages, so people receive help when they need it most. This is an exciting, interdisciplinary endeavor at the intersection of AI, health equity, and mental health – part of a larger research effort to bridge the mental health care gap for Spanish-speaking communities.
Qualifications: Skills requested:
- Python for data analysis and machine learning (including deep learning)
- Knowledge of and interest in generative AI
- Knowledge of and interest in analyzing mobile sensing data from smartphones and wearables
- Willingness to meet with an interdisciplinary team weekly and move fast to produce interesting results by end of November.
- Proficiency (or above) in Spanish language and at least one Latinx culture
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote, weekly team meetings
Related website: https://dheal.berkeley.edu/projects/diamante
Related website: https://techlab.ucsf.edu/