Mobile Development and AI to Support Cancer Survivors
Peter Washington, Professor
UC San Francisco
Applications for Fall 2026 are closed for this project.
===Project 1===
Our interdisciplinary research team is developing the next generation of GAME PROs, a digital health platform designed to help people with cancer regularly monitor symptoms, understand changes in their health, and communicate more effectively with their healthcare teams.
GAME PROs builds upon the recently completed GAME Pilot Study, which evaluated Athena Companion, a gamified and mobile-friendly symptom-monitoring web application. In the pilot, participants used validated Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, or PROMIS, assessments to monitor symptoms such as fatigue, pain, anxiety, depression, sleep, and physical function. The application also incorporated progress tracking, personalized features, educational content, reminders, and game-based engagement strategies.
The next version will expand this work into a more personalized and engaging digital companion—what we envision as the “Duolingo of symptom tracking.” The platform may combine patient-reported outcomes, wearable-device data, personalized education, gamification, data visualization, and artificial intelligence to help users establish a regular symptom-monitoring habit and better understand their health over time.
Students will work with researchers, clinicians, designers, and software developers from the University of California, San Francisco, The Ohio State University, and collaborating institutions.
Students will contribute to a shared platform but may focus primarily on one of the following areas:
- Application and Software Development
- Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, and Personalization
- Human-Centered Design, Gamification, and Data Visualization
===Project 2===
Our interdisciplinary research team is developing E-PROOF, a digital health intervention designed to help older cancer survivors maintain muscle strength, physical function, and healthy nutrition through progressive resistance training and increased protein intake.
The project will build upon the existing mHealthy Hearts digital health platform developed by our team. Rather than developing a new application from the ground up, students will help adapt and extend existing mobile health infrastructure to support a new behavioral intervention focused on resistance exercise and nutrition. The platform may include personalized exercise programming, protein-intake goals, progress tracking, wearable-device data, educational resources, reminders, goal setting, gamification, and communication with intervention staff.
A major goal of the project is to translate an intervention that can be delivered through researchers and health coaches into a more scalable and engaging digital experience that supports participants between intervention contacts.
Students will work with researchers, clinicians, behavioral scientists, designers, and software developers from The Ohio State University, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and collaborating institutions. The project will be co-led by Dr. Roberto Benzo, Dr. Peter Washington, and Dr. Jessica Krok-Schoen.
Depending on their background and interests, students may contribute primarily to one or more of the following areas:
- Application and Software Development
- Digital Intervention and Personalization
- Human-Centered Design, Engagement, and Data Visualization
Role: Tasks: meet with the interdisciplinary research team to understand app specs, develop and iterate on the smartphone app, help co-write the resulting research publications that use the app as a published co-author
Learning Outcomes: (1) mHealth app development best practices, (2) designing digital health applications that satisfy the needs of multiple clinical stakeholders (doctors, behavioral scientists, clinical researchers), (3) research paper writing in the field of consumer digital health informatics
Qualifications: Applicants should have an interest in one or more of the following:
Software engineering
Mobile or web development
Artificial intelligence or machine learning
Data science
Human-computer interaction
User-interface or user-experience design
Digital health
Biomedical or clinical informatics
Behavioral science
Cancer research
Experience with programming, GitHub, mobile or web development, APIs, databases, AI systems, data visualization, or design software is helpful but not required.
Experience with technologies such as Flutter/Dart, Python, JavaScript or TypeScript, React, cloud services, REST APIs, Figma, or large language models may be particularly relevant.
Students should be dependable, willing to learn, comfortable working collaboratively, and able to communicate their progress regularly.
Hours: 12 or more hours
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote collaboration on Zoom, with opportunities to meet Dr. Washington (UCSF) in person periodically for mentorship via his weekly in person lab meetings+office hours at UCSF Parnassus campus.
Related website: https://u.osu.edu/lifestylelab/home/
Related website: https://u.osu.edu/lifestylelab/home/