Dong Whi Yoo, Ph.D.

Dong Whi Yoo is a researcher and media artist who studies the interaction between society and emerging technologies. As a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher, he explores design implications for emerging technologies, particularly for marginalized and underrepresented groups such as people with mental health disorders. Over the past few years, he has worked with individuals with schizophrenia to understand their underrepresentation in AI development and to design predictive algorithms that support their work practices. He investigates how people with psychotic disorders make sense of their symptoms and build their identities. His studies have been published in leading HCI and digital mental health venues, including CHI, CSCW, PervasiveHealth, JMIR and Internet Interventions.

As a media artist, he asks critical questions about the use of technologies like artificial intelligence. Recent advancements in AI, such as ChatGPT, have generated significant hype around their potential performance. However, the challenge of integrating these technologies into complex societal systems is often overlooked. He utilizes the language of art and design to explore ways of incorporating these emerging technologies into existing sociocultural frameworks. His work has been recognized by Prix Ars Electronica, the most esteemed media art competition. 

He received his Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing and a master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his Ph.D., he worked as a research intern at Meta and Mayo Clinic.

*The School of Information faculty are superstars in the field. Therefore, it is impossible to list all of the great work they do on one page. Listed below is a small selection of recent work. Further information can be viewed on Dr. Yoo's Google Scholar page, on ResearchGate or ORCID.

Selected Publications:

Yoo, D. W., Woo, H., Nguyen, C. V., Birnbaum, M., Kruzan, K., Kim, J., Abowd, G., & De Choudhury, M. (2024) Patient Perspectives on AI-Driven Predictions of Schizophrenia Relapses: Understanding Concerns and Opportunities for Self-Care and Treatment. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642369 

Yoo, D. W., Woo, H., Pendse, S., Lu, N., Birnbaum, M., Abowd, G., & De Choudhury, M.(2024). Missed Opportunities for Human-Centered AI Research: Understanding Stakeholder Collaboration in Mental Health AI Research. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CSCW1). https://doi.org/10.1145/3637372

Yoo, D. W., Bhatnagar, A., Ernala, S. K., Ali, A., Birnbaum, M. L., Abowd, G., & De Choudhury, M. (2023). Discussing Social Media During Psychotherapy Consultations: Patient Narratives and Privacy Implications. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CSCW1). https://doi.org/10.1145/3579479

Yoo, D. W., Ernala, S. K., Saket, B., Weir, D., Arenare, E., Ali, A. F., ... & De Choudhury, M. (2021). Clinician perspectives on using computational mental health insights from patients’ social media activities: design and qualitative evaluation of a prototype. JMIR Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.2196/25455

Yoo, D. W., & De Choudhury, M. (2019). Designing dashboard for campus stakeholders to support college student mental health. In Proceedings of the 13th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. https://doi.org/10.1145/3329189.3329200