Varun Mishra, PhD
Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouvé College of Health Sciences; Deputy Director, Emerging Technologies and Data Analytics Core, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Dartmouth College
Varun Mishra is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, with joint appointment in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.
His research interest broadly focuses on developing novel sensing and intervention systems for smartphones and wearable devices. Specifically, he works on exploring and advancing the complete “lifecycle” of mental- and behavioral-health sensing and intervention, which includes (a) accurately sensing and detecting a mental or behavioral health condition, like stress and opioid use; (b) after detecting a particular condition, determining the right time to deliver the intervention or support, such that the user is most likely to be receptive to the interventions provided; and (c) choosing the best intervention delivery mechanism and modality to ensure just-in-time delivery and reachability.
Prior to joining Northeastern, Dr. Mishra was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Computer Science and the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) at Dartmouth College. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Dartmouth College in 2021, where he was advised by Prof. David Kotz. Before that, Dr. Mishra obtained his B.Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics from Shiv Nadar University, India (2015). He spent the summer of 2018 as a Research Intern in the Center for Computational Health at IBM Research.
Selected Publications
- Mishra V, Künzler F, Kramer JN, Fleisch E, Kowatsch T, Kotz D. Detecting receptivity for mHealth interventions in the natural environment. Proc ACM Interact Mob Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 2021 Jun;5(2):74. doi: 10.1145/3463492. PMID: 34926979; PMCID: PMC8680205.
- Koch K, Mishra V, Liu S, Berger T, Fleisch E, Kotz D, Wortmann F. When do drivers interact with in-vehicle well-being interventions? An exploratory analysis of a longitudinal study on public roads. Proc ACM Interact Mob Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 2021 Mar;5(1):19. doi: 10.1145/3448116. PMID: 35178497; PMCID: PMC8849608.
- Mishra V, Sen S, Chen G, Hao T, Rogers J, Chen CH, Kotz D. Evaluating the reproducibility of physiological stress detection models. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 2020 Dec;4(4):147.
- Mishra V, Pope G, Lord S, Lewia S, Lowens B, Caine K, Sen S, Halter R, Kotz D. Continuous detection of physiological stress with commodity hardware. ACM Trans Comput Healthc. 2020 Apr;1(2):8. doi: 10.1145/3361562. PMID: 32832933; PMCID: PMC7442214.