Invited Talk

HC@AIxIA + HYDRA 2025

International Joint Workshop of Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare (HC@AIxIA) and HYbrid Models for Coupling Deductive and Inductive ReAsoning (HYDRA)

Bologna, Italy, 25-26 October 2025

Featured Invited Talk - Keynote

Gabriella Casalino, University of Bari Aldo Moro, ITALY

Explaining Smartphone-Based Acoustic Data for Bipolar Disorder Monitoring

Abstract

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by significant mood fluctuations that are often reflected in changes in speech patterns. Psychiatrists intuitively use such vocal cues in clinical assessments, and with the ability to continuously collect speech data through smartphone applications, mobile devices hold great promise for early detection and continuous monitoring of mood episodes.

However, despite this potential, smartphone-based approaches that analyze vocal tone and acoustic features remain underutilized in practice. There is still a pressing need for standardized machine learning methods, transparent metrics, and clinically meaningful explanations that clarify how acoustic markers relate to symptoms and mood states.

In this talk, I will present a series of methods designed to generate interpretable and clinically aligned explanations for AI-driven monitoring systems, bridging the gap between data-driven models and medical reasoning in mental health care.

About the Speaker

Gabriella Casalino is an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) at the Computational Intelligence Laboratory (CILab), Department of Informatics, University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy). Her research focuses on Computational Intelligence methods for interpretable data analysis, with active involvement in eHealth, Data Stream Mining, and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). Her work primarily targets applications in the medical and educational domains.

She is a member of the IEEE Task Force on Explainable Fuzzy Systems, the Interdepartmental Center for Telemedicine (CITEL) of the University of Bari, and currently serves as Secretary of EUSFLAT – the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology.

Gabriella is an active contributor to the international computer science community, serving on organizing and program committees of major conferences such as ECAI and IEEE WCCI, and as Associate Editor for journals including Scientific Reports, IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, and Soft Computing. She has also acted as Guest Editor for Special Issues in IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems and Information Systems Frontiers.

She is a Senior Member of IEEE, participates in several national and international research projects, and has co-authored over 80 scientific publications, some of which have been recognized with awards, including the Best Paper Award at FUZZ-IEEE 2022.