UROP Openings

Video Game development for Mental Health Assessment

Project Description

Mental health is an important concern which touches most of our lives, yet this aspect of our health is often neglected. While there are many specific mental health disorders, our group has been developing a mobile-phone based video game as a tool to help people monitor and assess their mental health. We are designing games that test specific neurocognitive measures such as fatigue, working memory, stress level, cognition, and impulsivity. Our goal is to create mobile tools that are fun to use and can function as screening tools as well as biofeedback to help increase our self-awareness. Since very few commercially available mental health apps are actually clinically validated, Our research plan includes rigorous clinical testing of the tools we develop. Our lab has a strong connection to the psychology and behavioral medicine community as well as affiliation with UMass Medical School department of Psychiatry.

Pre-requisites

We are seeking students with software and mobile programming skills, who may also have an interest in psychology or mental health, and who are motivated to create new ways to revolutionize mental health assessment and treatment. Our current game prototypes have been developed using the Unity platform. At least some experience with Unity and/or game development is desired. Background in mobile app development is would also be helpful. At this time, we are interviewing students for IAP and/or Spring semester, with the option of continuing into summer if you are interested. We seek someone who is self-motivated and able to work independently, and attend weekly group meetings to check on progress. Pay or credit is available. ELO eligible.