May 2026
May closed one chapter of the project and opened our most ambitious one yet. Here is the short version.
📋 Phase V surveys are closed
Our Phase V online surveys for both patients and clinicians are now complete. They explored prototype features and helped us decide what to refine before building the final iteration of the prototype, complementing the earlier in-lab activities. Thank you to everyone who took part. If you haven’t received your £5 voucher yet, it’s on its way.
🔬 Phase VI is taking shape
We’ve drafted the ethics application for Phase VI, the project’s final stage. It moves emotion monitoring beyond the lab and into everyday life over a longer period. We’ll share the details once the ethics approval is secured.
🎤 Find us in June
- SDMH 2026 (Society for Digital Mental Health) — 15 June
- UWE Festival of Research — 16–18 June
- Reminder: our demo paper is accepted at ACM Interactive Health 2026, Porto — 5–8 July
📖 New publication
With Dr Zahraa Abdallah and MSc student Yingxue Guan at the University of Bristol, I co-authored a book chapter, “Identifying emotion patterns in speech for Alzheimer’s disease assessment: A novel perspective.” It explores how affective computing — the emotion-recognition technology behind MEMoPAD — could support assessment in neurodegenerative disorders. Read the chapter →
🌐 Opportunities worth sharing
- Wellcome Prize for Mental Health Science (with Nature): now open. $1M for the winning team, $250K for three finalists, for rigorous, lived-experience-informed science in anxiety, depression and psychosis. Deadline 18 September. Details
- New Directions in Social Media Research (Cambridge, 7–8 December 2026): call for posters and symposia. Proposals by 2 August. Submit
- Evaluation Online Network (Health Innovation West of England): a free virtual community for anyone interested in health and care evaluation. Join
Thank you, as always, for following the MEMoPAD journey.