Brief Bio

Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis.  Dr. Ozonoff is a past Joint Editor of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on earliest manifestations of ASD and infant screening and diagnosis. She directed an 18-year prospective investigation that followed children at familial risk for ASD from birth through adolescence. In a new project, she and colleagues in Engineering are exploring artificial intelligence approaches to detection of ASD-relevant behaviors in video. She has published over 150 papers and three books on autism-related topics and her work on early diagnosis has appeared on the television show 60 Minutes.

Brief Bio

Matthew S. Goodwin, PhD. is an Interdisciplinary Associate Professor with tenure at Northeastern University jointly appointed in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences and the Khoury College of Computer Science, where he is a founding member of a new doctoral program in Personal Health Informatics and Directs the Computational Behavioral Science Laboratory. He has over 25 years of research and clinical experience working with children and adults on the autism spectrum and developing and evaluating innovative technologies for behavioral assessment and intervention, including video and audio capture, telemetric physiological monitors, accelerometry sensors, and digital video/facial recognition systems. Goodwin received his B.A. in psychology from Wheaton College (Norton, MA) and his M.A. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology and behavioral science, respectively, from the University of Rhode Island. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Affective Computing in the MIT Media Lab in 2010.

Abstract

Unpredictable and potentially dangerous challenging behavior (aggression to others, self-injury, emotion dysregulation) can create barriers to accessing community, therapeutic, medical, and educational services for individuals with autism. The current line of research evaluates whether peripheral nervous system and physical activity data obtained from a wearable biosensor can be used to predict challenging behaviors before they occur. Iterative results in a sample of 70 psychiatric inpatients with autism suggest that aggression to others, self-injury, and tantrums can all be predicted 3 minutes in advance with 80% average accuracy using machine learning classifiers. These findings lay the groundwork for the future development of precursor behavior analysis and just-in-time adaptive intervention systems to prevent or mitigate the emergence, occurrence, and impact of challenging behavior in individuals with autism.

Brief Bio

Paul Wehman, Ph.D. has been a tenured faculty member with Virginia Commonwealth University since 1980 with a primary appointment in the School of Education, Counseling and Special Education and a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. His highly interdisciplinary background and pioneering work in the beginning of supported employment has facilitated thousands of persons with physical disabilities, mental health issues, developmental disabilities, brain injury, and spinal cord injury to enter competitive integrated employment. As Director of the VCU Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, he has written over 230 articles related to transition, postsecondary education, business engagement, and employment for young people with disabilities. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation and has been the recipient of numerous awards, plus functioning as the Principal Investigator on more than $80 million worth of federal and state grants since joining VCU.

Brief Bio

Janani Venugopalakrishnan, MD is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist with advanced training and expertise in diagnosis and treatment of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders and early onset psychosis. She is Director of the INSPIRE Early Psychosis clinic at LPCH, and Co-Director of the Neuropsychopharmacology clinic at LPCH.

Brief Bio

Mirko Uljarević, MD, PhD. is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychological Sciences at University of Melbourne. He is a medically trained early career researcher with a background in developmental psychopathology, psychometrics, and big data science. His primary research interest has focused on combining cutting-edge psychometric procedures and a big data approach to better understand structure of core autism symptoms and on using this knowledge to improve existing and develop new clinical assessments that are more effective for screening and diagnosis and tracking the natural and treatment-related symptom progression. In addition to his focus on the development of new measures, he is engaged on numerous projects spanning a range of topics including genetics, treatment and employment, with a particular focus on understanding risk and resilience factors underpinning poor mental health outcomes in people with autism

Brief Bio

Makoto Kawai, MD is a physician scientist in the field of sleep medicine in aging and brain function. Using combined polysomnogram and novel neuroimaging technology, he aims to identify potential sleep biomarkers to investigate the mechanism of progression from normal aging to Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia. Dr. Kawai also investigate the impact of sleep on cognitive/affective function or behavior abnormality in various neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

Brief Bio

Daniel Abrams, PhD. is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University where he conducts research investigating the brain bases of social communication impairments in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Dr. Abrams research focuses on understanding why children with ASD often "tune out" from the social world around them and how this impacts social and brain development. His research employs a combination of psychophysical, cognitive, and brain imaging techniques, with the goal of identifying key neural features underlying social deficits in children with ASD.