Mental health app uses AI to deliver support

HALIFAX – On the heels of a Canadian Mental Health Association study indicating that Canadians believe our country is in a mental health crisis, a team of researchers at Dalhousie University are poised to deliver a first-of-its-kind mental health wellness app that taps into people’s emotional state at any given time, and offers personalized advice and interventions at the exact moment they’re needed.

And they’re tapping into the expertise of a top student from India to advance their groundbreaking technology, which is set to begin beta user testing next month.

Sanjit Jeevanand, an Integrated Master of Technology student at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and a game development expert, is one of 168 international students in Atlantic Canada this summer who are helping to solve tough innovation challenges through a unique initiative called the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program.

Jeevanand is working under the guidance of Professor Rita Orji (pictured), Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology, and Oladapo Oyebode, a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction and Persuasive Computing, to develop the innovative app, called Recilify – a breakthrough mental resilience building app designed to help people bounce back from challenging life situations, such as the loss of a loved one, financial pressures, traumatic events, or stress related to health issues or trouble sleeping.

Research shows that regulating negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and fear, and promoting positive emotions such as happiness, improves resilience.

What sets the app apart from other mental health offerings is that it learns about people’s emotional state and associated contexts the more they use it, and then builds a unique profile for each individual user. This includes tracking the user’s emotions, understanding their daily context and providing immediate, relevant and personalized support that includes videos, hands-on activities, chatting with an AI bot, and much more.

“The goal is to provide support at the point of need using evidence-based interventions, and we’re able to apply machine learning to understand exactly how an individual is feeling right in the moment and why, so that we can provide the most appropriate and effective mental health supports,” explained Orji.

Expected to be ready within a month, the app deduces a person’s current emotional state from user journal entries and other self-reported information, and then uses that data to make suitable recommendations.

For example, if it detects that a person’s anger or sadness is related to trouble sleeping, it might prompt them to participate in nighttime mindful practices or breathing exercises. If their anger is stemming from a negative mood, it might suggest gratitude, smiling activities, music, or guided meditation to move them to a more positive frame of mind.

“The more you smile (detected by the app), the more rewards you receive to unlock premium content in the app,” said Oyebode, adding that once a user profile is started, the app continues to learn about that person from their ongoing entries and will also keep track of which interventions work best. “The more you use the app, the more accurate profile it builds about you. Our primary focus is to provide interventions that are going to improve your overall emotional state on an ongoing basis,” he added.

Jeevanand’s internship involved writing more than 40,000 lines of code to solve both backend and frontend programming challenges, ultimately enhancing the app’s ability to deliver personalized interventions and improve how context is acquired respectively. He also helped to design the smiling feature, which uses a smartphone camera to measure how often and how long a person smiles.

“When I first arrived, I didn’t know a lot about app development and all of the work that goes on behind the scenes,” said Jeevanand, explaining that in India, his field is focused more on computer science applications as opposed to health and wellness applications. “This internship is an amazing opportunity for me to contribute to a novel technology in a state-of-the-art lab, and to learn more about the Canadian research culture at the same time,” he added.

Orji, who is passionate about mentoring young people, has routinely welcomed Mitacs interns to her lab each year since becoming a professor in 2017 and calls their research contributions invaluable. “It’s extremely fulfilling to watch their understanding move from zero to 100% as they see firsthand how we develop an idea from idea conception to actualization to real world deployment,” she said, noting that her team of researchers also learn from the diverse experience and expertise of the international students, many of whom have gone on to publish papers or pursue further education in Canada.

In total, 2,220 students from 15 countries are taking part in the Mitacs Globalink program this summer to help solve complex problems across a range of industry sectors, from health and wellness, to robotics, technology and the environment. Designed to foster international research links and boost Canada’s economy, the 12-week internships are available at more than 70 universities.

Since 2009, Mitacs has matched more than 10,000 senior undergraduates with Canadian faculty through its Globalink Research Internship program. The program promotes Canada as a top destination for research opportunities, facilitates interdisciplinary collaborations, and showcases Canadian research expertise around the world.

“Mitacs is very proud to support students through our Globalink Research Internship program so that research like Sanjit’s will ultimately help people in Atlantic Canada, throughout Canada and across the globe,” said Mitacs CEO John Hepburn. “The Mitacs Globalink Research Internship promotes strategic global partnerships and helps participants gain research experience in Canada, advancing innovation and creating attractive opportunities for international students who often decide to further their education here.”

About Mitacs
Mitacs empowers Canadian innovation through effective partnerships that deliver solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Mitacs assists organizations in reaching their goals, funds cutting-edge innovation, and creates job opportunities for students and postdocs. A not-for-profit organization, Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon. Learn more at mitacs.ca.