Projects
Current work project(s)
Persuasive technology in the PROMISS trial
A substudy of the PROMISS project
As the population is ageing, healhty ageing is becoming a more important research topic. The PROMISS project aims to understand protein energy malnutrition in seniors. Within a large trial, the PROMISS project studies a protein rich diet for seniors with a protein deficit.
The aim of the Persuasive technology substudy is to study the added value of persuasive technology in the trial of the PROMISS project. The technology used is a tablet application and a foodbox, specifically designed to assist the participants in their diet. Two different version of the tablet application are studied: with persuasive communication and one with persuasive communication and gamification. Within this project I developped the tablet application, assisted with practicalities during the trial and currently I am working on the final data analysis.
Self-compassion training
In this project a training is designed and implemented to improve adolescents their self-compassion. As adolescents are using social media, and specifically image based social media, they are often struggling with body image related issues. Self-compassion can improve your resilience against social media pressure and has a positive effect on body image related issues. The training provides users with exercises and journals that can be used on a daily basis to practise self-compassion. Moreover, gamification will be added to increase motivation and as a way to provide theory about self-compassion in a more fun way.
My activities in this project are designing the training, including both the content and the technology (website created using Django and Python). Currently, I am still working on the implementation. A pilot and final evaluation will follow later.
Previous work project(s)
Virtual training against doorstep scams (Virtuele weerbaarheidstraining babbeltrucs)
In collaboration with KBO-PCOB, NSCR
Doorstep scams are scams, often happening at the front door, in which a con artist has a convincing, but fraudulent, story with the purpose of coming into your house and/or stealing money. Various campaigns to educate people exist, but they do not focus on the verbal skills people can use to prevent themselves from becoming a victim.
The aim of this project is to develop a virtual training in the form of a tablet application to improve the user's verbal assertiveness, in order to be more resilient against doorstep scams. My activities within this project include writing doorstep scam scenarios and user feedback, as content for the application. Furthermore I have contributed to the development of the application, which is developed using Unity and C#. Finally, I have animated the virtual characters, used as avatars within the scenarios. For animating the facial expression of the virtual characters facial motion capture software and actors are used.
Side projects
Organizing Girlsday @ VU 2018 & 2019
Girlsday is an annual event coordinated by VHTO, an organization that organizes various events to promote girls in tech. On this day Dutch companies invite groups of girls to visit them. In 2018 and 2019, the VU also hosted an event on Girlsday, which I organized with the help of colleagues. The theme of the event is 'research in AI/computer science'. The girls had different talks with experts (researchers from the VU) and afterwards worked on a solution for a 'smart school' during a designathon.
