Glenn Fernandes

Focusing on leveraging AI to drive positive societal change, particularly in healthcare, my research ambitiously aims to tackle the obesity crisis through innovative, impactful AI solutions. I’m leading the development of privacy-preserving AI-enabled wearable camera systems integrating computer vision and generative AI techniques to accurately detect, predict, and mitigate health-risk behaviors. Simultaneously, I’m innovating in the explainable machine learning (ML) space, by developing ML explainability tools aimed at improving decision-making for clinicians; providing early predictions for distal outcomes, and elucidating the underlying logic behind the predictions through precise, interpretable explanations.

news

Feb 28, 2025	Best 3-min presentation award at AAAI.
Nov 30, 2024	Abstract on Multi-Modal Hand-to-Mouth Gesture Recognition in Activity-Oriented RGB-Thermal Footage accepted at AAAI.
Jul 30, 2024	Conference Paper on stress monitoring using flexible ECG-PPG Patch accepted at IEEE BSN.
Jul 3, 2024	Journal Paper on privacy-aware, AI-enhanced multimodal wearable accepted at ACM IMWUT
Nov 1, 2023	Abstract on Privacy-Conscious Wearable Camera Systems accepted at SBM
Jun 9, 2023	Journal Paper on explainable AI was accepted at JMIR
Apr 9, 2023	Conference Paper on cartoonized life-vlogging accepted by ACM SIGCHI
Oct 24, 2022	Poster Presented at Conference on the Future of Human-Computer Interaction + Design

selected publications

HealthSense: Unobtrusive Continuous Stress Monitoring Using a Novel Dual ECG-PPG Patch

Glenn Fernandes, Boyang Wei, Christopher Romano, and 6 more authors

In 2024 IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks (BSN) 2024

Abs Bib Website

@inproceedings{fernandes2024healthsense,
  title = {HealthSense: Unobtrusive Continuous Stress Monitoring Using a Novel Dual ECG-PPG Patch},
  author = {Fernandes, Glenn and Wei, Boyang and Romano, Christopher and Ulusel, Deniz and Dambanemuya, Henry and Gao, Yang and Ghaffari, Roozbeh and Rogers, John and Alshurafa, Nabil},
  booktitle = {2024 IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks (BSN)},
  pages = {1--4},
  year = {2024},
  organization = {IEEE},
}

HabitSense: A Privacy-Aware, AI-Enhanced Multimodal Wearable Platform for mHealth Applications

Glenn J Fernandes, Jiayi Zheng, Mahdi Pedram, and 8 more authors

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 2024

Abs Bib Website

@article{fernandes2024habitsense,
  title = {HabitSense: A Privacy-Aware, AI-Enhanced Multimodal Wearable Platform for mHealth Applications},
  author = {Fernandes, Glenn J and Zheng, Jiayi and Pedram, Mahdi and Romano, Christopher and Shahabi, Farzad and Rothrock, Blaine and Cohen, Thomas and Zhu, Helen and Butani, Tanmeet S and Hester, Josiah and others},
  journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies},
  volume = {8},
  number = {3},
  pages = {1--48},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

An Explainable Artificial Intelligence Software Tool for Weight Management Experts (PRIMO): Mixed Methods Study

Glenn Fernandes, Arthur Choi, Jacob Michael Schauer, and 4 more authors

Journal of Medical Internet Research 2023

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@article{fernandes2023explainable,
  title = {An Explainable Artificial Intelligence Software Tool for Weight Management Experts (PRIMO): Mixed Methods Study},
  author = {Fernandes, Glenn and Choi, Arthur and Schauer, Jacob Michael and Pfammatter, Angela F and Spring, Bonnie J and Darwiche, Adnan and Alshurafa, Nabil I},
  journal = {Journal of Medical Internet Research},
  volume = {25},
  pages = {e42047},
  year = {2023},
  publisher = {JMIR Publications Toronto, Canada},
}

Is cartoonized life-vlogging the key to increasing adoption of activity-oriented wearable camera systems?

Glenn Fernandes, Helen Zhu, Mahdi Pedram, and 5 more authors

In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023

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Health science researchers studying human behavior rely on wearable cameras to visually confirm behaviors in real-world settings. However, privacy concerns significantly impede their adoption. Lens orientation and activity-oriented cameras have potential in balancing the need to visually validate the wearers’ activities while reducing privacy concerns. To increase adoption and further alleviate privacy concerns while maintaining utility, generative stylizing approaches, like cartooning using generative adversarial networks (GANs), have recently shown promise. We investigate different cartoon-based obfuscation of activity-oriented footage through two studies. The first deploys crowdsourcing methods (n=60), while the second is experiential, where participants (n=49) don the device for an entire day and report concerns on their footage. Our findings support that cartoonization of activity-oriented data significantly reduces privacy concerns, particularly among bystanders in high privacy-concerning scenarios, while maintaining context verification (90% of participants). Through thematic analysis, we provide further insight for the community on best practices for cartoonization of activity-oriented videos.
@inproceedings{fernandes2023cartoonized, title = {Is cartoonized life-vlogging the key to increasing adoption of activity-oriented wearable camera systems?}, author = {Fernandes, Glenn and Zhu, Helen and Pedram, Mahdi and Schauer, Jacob and Shahi, Soroush and Romano, Christopher and Gergle, Darren and Alshurafa, Nabil}, booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages = {1--8}, year = {2023}, }

Experience: Barriers and Opportunities of Wearables for Eating Research

Mahdi Pedram, Glenn Fernandes, Christopher Romano, and 4 more authors

In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023

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@inproceedings{pedram2023experience,
  title = {Experience: Barriers and Opportunities of Wearables for Eating Research},
  author = {Pedram, Mahdi and Fernandes, Glenn and Romano, Christopher and Wei, Boyang and Sen, Sougata and Hester, Josiah and Alshurafa, Nabil},
  booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  pages = {1--8},
  year = {2023},
}

Preventing Prototyping Pitfalls and Going Beyond: A Strategy for Affordable and Modular Wearable Embedded Systems

Glenn Fernandes, Mahdi Pedram, and Nabil Alshurafa

In Beyond Prototyping Workshop at CHI 2023 2023

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@inproceedings{fernandes2018preventing,
  title = {Preventing Prototyping Pitfalls and Going Beyond: A Strategy for Affordable and Modular Wearable Embedded Systems},
  author = {Fernandes, Glenn and Pedram, Mahdi and Alshurafa, Nabil},
  booktitle = {Beyond Prototyping Workshop at CHI 2023},
  year = {2023},
}