"Health-Related (Mis-)Information on Social Media and Its Impact on Young Adults" (HARMONY) 

(2025-2030)

Principal Investigator 1 Prof. Dr. Marcello Ienca ; Principal Investigator 2 Dr. Lily Frank 

TikTok, a rapidly growing social media platform, uses highly individualised content recommendation systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI). While these systems boost engagement, concerns arise about their impact on young adults, particularly around mental health and exposure to health (mis-)information. This project investigates how, when, and why young adults encounter health-related (mis-)information on TikTok. 

We will collect data on users' interactions and perceptions with TikTok’s recommendation systems, analyse healthrelated videos, and run experiments using digital twins to test how interactions with (mis)information alter future recommendations. In parallel, our research will employ qualitative methods in the form of focus groups, to assess users' attitudes, beliefs, and experiences regarding health-related content and their perceptions of its reliability on TikTok. Finally, our research will integrate critical ethical reflection on the communication of health-related content and introduce novel tools for the emergent field of digital bioethics. Combining expertise from ethics and philosophy, computational social science, and medicine, the proposed collaboration between TU Munich and TU/e will develop new methods to understand how users perceive AI-driven systems, the risks of misinformation exposure online, and the nature of health content on social media. These findings will inform ongoing regulatory discussions, especially concerning vulnerable groups like young adults, with important implications for policy making. 

Ethics and Human Factors Virtual Coach for Clinical Professionals: A Challenge Based Learning challenge 

(2024-2025)

This project is in collaboration with Philip Nickel, Associate Professor at TU/e and funded by the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Science, TU/e. 

The Quality of Life by use of Enabling AI in Dementia (Qo LEAD) 

(2022-2028)

This project is led by Prof. dr. Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn and is collaboration of TU/e with Maastricht University, Radboud University, TUDelft, TNO, UMCG, Fontys HS, UT/Tranzo, Rotterdam HS, UU, Vilans, JAIN-TIGNL, Avoord, Zonnehuisgroep Amstelland, Tante Louise, SVRZ Service Centre, UMCN/UKON, CZ and VGZ.

I am the Ethics Officer.

The 6-year research project focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), using data and smart algorithms to create solutions that match what people with dementia themselves want or need. 

https://research.tue.nl/en/projects/quality-of-life-by-use-of-enabling-ai-in-dementia

The ethics of socially disruptive technologies 

(2020-2030)

This Project is Chaired by the University of Twente and includes Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Leiden University, Utrecht University, UMC Utrecht, Wageningen University & Research. Project website: https://www.esdt.nl/

This research programme in ethics and practical philosophy of technology seeks to realize that reflective turn. Our aim is to reorient the field of ethics of technology by taking up the challenge that SDTs pose to our core concepts. In particular, to the concepts that underlie our moral self-understanding, such as (moral) agency, autonomy, human interdependence, and responsibility; to the concepts that form the basis of our political, social and legal institutions, such as democracy, justice, and equality; and to the basic ontological categories that we use to order our world, such as the distinctions between natural and artificial, humans and machines, public and private, and agents and physical systems. 

I am working with dr. Andreas Spahn and post-doc dr. Matthew Dennis on a project on technologies that influence moral behaviour. 

TOMORROW’S VALUE CONFLICTS (2022-2024)

The 21st century will require applying ethical insights to highly complex environmental and technological challenges. On the one hand, the decisions we make today about CO2 emissions, the use of scarce natural resources, and non-renewable energy will define the ethical dilemmas of the future. On the other hand, enhancement technologies offer human beings the chance to upgrade their bodies, eliminate common illnesses, and prolong their lifespans. While ecological changes constitute existential threats to life itself, enhancement technologies stand to transform the very meaning of human flourishing. Both challenges complicate the ethical conflicts that future generations will be forced to resolve and situate today’s ethicists onto unfamiliar terrain. Tackling these problems requires us to grapple with sets of questions: Which value frameworks should we apply to impending ecological and technological challenges? How can ethicists and engineers evaluate new technologies before future generations directly experience their consequences? How can ethicists and engineers understand future value conflicts? Can empirical data better equip them to deal with emerging ethical challenges? Can this improve how we teach ethics at the institutions of the alliance?

I am working with: Matthew Dennis (TU/e), Lily Frank (TU/e), Minha Lee (TU/e), Vincent Blok (WUR), Steven Kraaijeveld (WUR), Sven Nyholm (UU), Chao Zhang (UU)

https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/news-overview/04-02-2022-research-project-tomorrows-value-conflicts-awarded-50000-euro-research-grant/

Circular Safe Hospitals: 

Seed Fund Alliance Eindhoven-Wageningen-Utrecht 

(2022-2023)

Interdisciplinary collaboration in Teaching on Global Health, Environmental Health and Climate Change

The course ‘Global Health, Environmental Health and Climate Change’ (GHEHCC) is an interdisciplinary course selected as one of the first courses that will be offered within the student mobility pilot of the strategic alliance of TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht. This second-year bachelor course was developed by the UMCU, UU Faculty of Medicine and the UU Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) as an elective for medical students. This course has an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates medicine, epidemiology, environmental sciences, development studies, gender studies, anthropology, and ethics.

https://ewuu.nl/en/education/challenges/sustainability-and-healthcare/

Mobile Support Systems for Behavior Change 

A NWO/MVI interdisciplinary research program. It is a joint program of the Philosophy and Ethics group at TU/e, the Human Technology Interaction group at TU/e, and Philips Research. 

Follow us on Twitter @mHealthBC

Project website: https://behaviour-change.eu/

The rapid development of mobile devices and social media opens up tremendous opportunities for support systems that promote a healthier lifestyle by helping to change the user's behavior. These systems have an enormous potential for preventing chronic illnesses and reducing healthcare costs. They are also becoming increasingly personalized. As data gathered on individual behavior patterns increase in depth and breadth, opportunities arise for more personally tailored solutions for behavior change-including solutions tailored to personal habits, social and physical contexts, time variant events, and physiological patterns. However, widespread adoption of apps for health self-management remains low. In this research program, we address three key issues crucial for the success of mobile support systems for health behavior: trust, consent, and intrinsic motivation. Mobile technologies are "nebulous" in the sense that they involve both a "cloud" of data and a set of physical devices; their effects are often unpredictable; and, the underlying decision mechanisms by which they achieve their effects are opaque to users. This makes it difficult to trust them and to consent to their use. We aim to develop new ways in which users can trust nebulous mobile systems and a new model to consent to their use. We also address an important concern with these systems: that they may change the intrinsic motivation for healthy behavior to a less powerful extrinsic motivation based on external rewards. These topics are studied in an interdisciplinary way using expertise from ethics, psychology, and artificial intelligence/cognitive science.