Dong Whi Yoo, PhD

I am a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher exploring the sociotechnical implications of AI technologies in medical contexts. My research investigates how emerging AI systems shape, support, or hinder complex collaboration among diverse stakeholders—patients, clinicians, and caregivers—in healthcare settings. To address these questions, I draw on methods and theories from HCI, science and technology studies (STS), and design research. Ultimately, I seek to contribute both to the theory of sociotechnical change and to the development of responsible, real-world solutions for healthcare work. My work has been published in leading HCI and healthcare technology venues, including CHI, CSCW, DIS, PervasiveHealth, JMIR, and Internet Interventions.

I am an incoming tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Human-Centered Computing at Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI, formerly IUPUI). At IUI, I will lead the Socio-Technical Exploration of Wellbeing (STEW) Lab. The STEW Lab is recruiting 1–2 students to join the HCI PhD program in August 2026. If you are interested in sociotechnical studies of AI in healthcare, please feel free to reach out via email.

I earned a PhD in Human-Centered Computing and an MS in Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Tech, as well as an MFA in Media Art from Yonsei University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Seoul National University.

NEWS

April 2025 - Our paper "Evaluating Theory-Driven Messaging to Overcome the Barriers to Meditation: A Large-Scale Digital Field Experiment" has been accepted to JMIR Mental Health! Huge congratulations to the first author and PhD student, Mike Bowen (Kent State)!”

April 2025 - Our paper "Toward Patient-Centered AI Fact Labels: Leveraging Extrinsic Trust Cues" has been conditionally accepted to DIS 2025. I'm grateful for my ongoing collaboration with Barbara, Xuan, and Austin (Mayo Clinic) and Jennifer (Yale School of Medicine).

Feb 2025 - I am invited to give a talk at Data Science for Mental Health (DS4MH) @ The Alan Turing Institute, where I will share my research on lived experience-centered AI in mental health.

Nov 2024 - I will be attending CSCW 2024 to present my work on human-centered AI research in mental health.

Oct 2024 - I will be attending DMCI 2024 to present my work on LLM and depression self-management at the NKOS workshop.

June 2024 - AI Fortune-Teller received an Honorary Mention in the Interactive Art+ category of the 2024 Prix Ars Electronica. It is among 15 awarded art pieces out of 1428 submissions.

June 2024 - I will serve as an Associate Chair (AC) for CHI 2025 and CSCW 2025.

June 2024 - I will attend CSST 2024 Summer Research Institute hosted by UC Irvine.

May 2024 - I will attend CHI 2024 to present one full paper and one late-breaking work.

PUBLICATIONS

2025

16. Bowen, M., Beam, M., Semb, J., & Yoo, D. W. (2025) Evaluating Theory-Driven Messaging to Overcome the Barriers to Meditation: A Large-Scale Digital Field Experiment. JMIR Mental Health. (forthcoming)

2024

15. 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 (Acceptance rate: 26.4%). CHI 2024. (pdf) (link)

14. 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). PACMHCI CSCW. (pdf) (link)

13. Kwon, S., Yoo, D.W., Kang, Y. (2024) Spiritual AI: Exploring the Possibilities of a Human-AI Interaction Beyond Productive Goals. In Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI EA 2024. (pdf) (link)

12. Mooghali, M., Stroud, A. M., Yoo, D. W., Barry, B. A., Grimshaw, A. A., Ross, J. S., ... & Miller, J. E. (2024). Trustworthy and ethical AI-enabled cardiovascular care: a rapid review. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 24(1), 1-12. (pdf) (link)

2023

11. 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). PACMHCI CSCW (pdf) (link)

10. Park, J. W., Sun, S. X., Cheng, T., Yoo, D. W., Zhou, J., Do, Y., ... & Arriaga, R. I. (2023). Exergy: A Toolkit to Simplify Creative Applications of Wind Energy Harvesting. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 7(1), 1-28. IMWUT (pdf) (link)

2022

9. Kruzan, K. P., Williams, K. D., Meyerhoff, J., Yoo, D. W., O'Dwyer, L. C., De Choudhury, M., & Mohr, D. C. (2022). Social media-based interventions for adolescent and young adult mental health: A scoping review. Internet interventions. (pdf) (link)

8. Hall, K., Yoo, D. W., Zhang, W., Bin Morshed, M., Das Swain, V., Abowd, G., ... & Kim, J. G. (2022, April). Supporting the Contact Tracing Process with WiFi Location Data: Opportunities and Challenges. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI 2022. (pdf) (link)

7. Ernala, S. K., Seybolt, J., Yoo, D. W., Birnbaum, M. L., Kane, J. M., & De Choudhury, M. (2022). The Reintegration Journey Following a Psychiatric Hospitalization: Examining the Role of Social Technologies. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-computer Interaction, 6(CSCW1), 1-31. PACMHCI CSCW. (pdf) (link)

6. Zhou, J., Saha, K., Lopez Carron, I. M., Yoo, D. W., Deeter, C. R., De Choudhury, M., & Arriaga, R. I. (2022). Veteran Critical Theory as a Lens to Understand Veterans' Needs and Support on Social Media. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW1), 1-28. PACMHCI CSCW. (pdf) (link)

2021

5. 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. (pdf) (link)

2020

4. Yoo, D. W., Birnbaum, M. L., Van Meter, A. R., Ali, A. F., Arenare, E., Abowd, G., & De Choudhury, M. (2020). Designing a clinician-facing tool for using insights from patients’ social media activity: Iterative co-design approach. JMIR Mental Health. (pdf) (link)

2019

3. 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. PervasiveHealth 2019. (pdf) (link)

2. Saha, K., Reddy, M. D., das Swain, V., Gregg, J. M., Grover, T., Lin, S., ... & De Choudhury, M. (2019). Imputing missing social media data stream in multisensor studies of human behavior. In 2019 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII).

1. Saha, K., Bayraktaroglu, A. E., Campbell, A. T., Chawla, N. V., De Choudhury, M., D'Mello, S. K., ... & Yoo, D. W. (2019). Social media as a passive sensor in longitudinal studies of human behavior and wellbeing. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI EA 2019.