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Professor Gavin Doherty

Professor In (Computer Science)
OREILLY INSTITUTE
      
Profile Photo

Professor Gavin Doherty

Professor In (Computer Science)
OREILLY INSTITUTE

 Gavin.Doherty@tcd.ie

 3531896 3858


I am a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics, at Trinity College, Dublin, and a Fellow of the College. I have led a number of research projects in the area of Human Computer Interaction, with a focus in recent years on the design of healthcare technologies. This work has involved collaboration with researchers in Intel, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, University of Newcastle, University of Cambridge, Cornell University, University of Minho (Portugal), Lancaster, KTH University College London, University of California Irvine, University of California Berkeley, and Imperial College London, among others. Our work has been funded by the European Union, the European Agency, Intel, Microsoft Research, Science Foundation Ireland (through Lero and CNGL/Adapt), the HEA, Enterprise Ireland, and the Irish Research Council. A major focus of my work over the last decade has been on the design of technologies for mental health. The aim has been to develop systems which can increase access to, increase engagement with, and assist in improving the outcomes of mental health interventions. As P.I. of the Technology Enhanced Therapy project I led the creation of the SilverCloud platform for e-health interventions, and am co-founder of SilverCloud Health, established in 2012 and now a leading worldwide provider of online mental and behavioural health interventions.
  Computer Interface   Decision support tools   Human Computer Interaction   Human computer interactions   Information Representations   Information systems development   MENTAL-HEALTH   Mobile Computing   Pervasive Computing   Software Engineering
Project Title
 Technology Enhanced Therapy
From
March 2009
To
February 2011
Summary
Technology Enhanced Therapy is a partnership between Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie), Parents Plus (www.parentsplus.ie/) and the National Digital Research Centre (www.ndrc.ie). The project will develop an integrated software system to provide support for stepped-care interventions in mental healthcare settings.
Funding Agency
NDRC
Programme
Commercialisation
Project Title
 Visual decision support systems
From
Sep 2004
To
Sep 2008
Summary
The aim of the project is to produce a methodology that guides designers of decision support applications in the process of creating visual information displays.
Funding Agency
Intel Corporation
Project Title
 Virtually Healthy
From
To
Summary
The aim of the project is to use computer technology (including games) to support psychiatric therapy for adolescents. Current research includes content creation by therapists, and mobile applications to engage adolescents in therapy.
Funding Agency
HEA
Project Title
 Mobile Decision Support for the Healthcare Environment
From
Oct 2006
To
Sep 2009
Summary
Funding Agency
IRCSET
Programme
Enterprise Partnership
Project Title
 An Integrated Framework to Support Mental Health Care Services
From
1/10/2007
To
30/9/2008
Summary
Funding Agency
Enterprise Ireland
Programme
Proof of Concept

Page 1 of 2
Details Date
Chair, ACM Distinguished Speaker Committee 2021
Health Subcommittee Chair, ACM CHI 2022 2021
Proposal Reviewer, Swiss National Science Foundation
Proposal Reviewer/Panelist, Research Council of Finland. 2025
Health Subcommittee Chair, ACM CHI 2021 2020
Associate Editor, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 2019
Associate Editor, International Journal of MobileHCI 2009
Proposal reviewer, Research and Innovation Foundation, Cyprus.
External Course Examiner, University College Cork 2019
Proposal reviewer, UKRI
Proposal Reviewer, EPSRC (UK)
Proposal reviewer, Agency for Science Technology and Research, Singapore.
Proposal Reviewer, Health Research Council (NZ)
Proposal reviewer, EPSRC GetAMoveOn network.
Proposal reviewer, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Proposal reviewer, Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Enterprise Ireland Proof of Concept panel 2007 2007
ACM Council of European Chapter Leaders 2014
ACM Student Chapter Excellence Awards judge 2018
ACM SIGCHI Conferences Working Group 2019
ACM Distinguished Speaker Committee Member 2017
Co-organiser, ACII 2019 Workshop on Machine Learning in Mental Health. 2019
Tutorials Chair, ACM EICS 2012 2012
Late breaking results chair, ACM EICS 2010. 2010
Chair CHI 2008 Workshop on Technology in Mental Health 2018
Video co-chair Pervasive 2006 2006
Co-chair DSV-IS 2006 2006
External advisor, NIHR project. 2016
Steering Commitee, Workgroup on Interactive Systems in Healthcare 2017
Details Date From Date To
Member of the ACM (Distinguished Member 2019) 2001 2020
Full Member of IFIP WG 2.7/13.4 2006 2018
Chair of SIGCHI Ireland 2022 2010
Hiba Arnaout, Anmol Goel, H. Andrew Schwartz, Steffen T. Eberhardt, Dana Atzil-Slonim, Gavin Doherty, Brian Schwartz, Wolfgang Lutz, Tim Althoff, Munmun De Choudhury, Hamidreza Jamalabadi, Raj Sanjay Shah, Flor Miriam Plaza-del-Arco, Dirk Hovy, Maria Liakata, Iryna Gurevych, Responsible Evaluation of AI for Mental Health, The 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics,, ACL, 2026, pppp. 7625-7660 , Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  DOI
Wanling Cai, Liliana Pasquale, Kushal Ramkumar, John F. McCarthy, Bashar Nuseibeh, Gavin Doherty, Human-centric security for smart homes: A scoping review, Computers & Security, 162, 2026, p104762 - 104762, p104762-104762 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
K. Ramkumar, W. Cai, J. McCarthy, G. Doherty, B. Nuseibeh and L. Pasquale, Towards Using Inductive Learning to Adapt Security Controls in Smart Homes, 2025 IEEE/ACM 20th Symposium on Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS), Ottawa, ON, Canada, 2025, pp140-146 , Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  DOI
Karina Cortiñas-Lorenzo, Wanling Cai and Gavin Doherty, Designing, Implementing and Evaluating AI Explanations: a Scoping Review of Explainable AI Frameworks, ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 32, (6), 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
S. Ryan, W. Cai, R. Bowman and G. Doherty, Fairness Challenges in the Design of Machine Learning Applications for Healthcare, ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
R.Bowman, A. Thieme, B.Cowan and G. Doherty, Mental Health Management as a Social Endeavour: Challenges and Opportunities for Conversational Agent Design, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 205, 2025, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
K. Ramkumar, W. Cai, J. McCarthy, G. Doherty, B. Nuseibeh, L. Pasquale, Diagnosing Unknown Attacks in Smart Homes Using Abductive Reasoning, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 51, (11), 2025, p3117 - 3137, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Y. Jin, W. Cai, L. Chen, Y. Zhang, G. Doherty and T. Jiang, Exploring the Design of Generative AI in Supporting Music-based Reminiscence for Older Adults, Proceedings of CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24), ACM, 2024, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  DOI
O. Cooney, K. Doherty, M.Barry,D. Coyle, G. Doherty and B. Cowan, Using Speech Agents for Mood Logging within Blended Mental Healthcare: Mental Healthcare Practitioners' Perspectives, ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, Luxembourg, 2024, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  DOI
Jacinta Jardine, Camille Nadal, Sarah Robinson, Angel Enrique, Marcus Hanratty, and Gavin Doherty, Between Rhetoric and Reality: Real-world Barriers to Uptake and Early Engagement in Digital Mental Health Interventions, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 31, (2), 2024, p1-59 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

Page 1 of 16
Gavin Doherty, Keynote: Machine Learning in Mental Health, DIS 2020 Workshop on Mental Wellbeing: Future Agenda Drawing from Design, HCI and Big Data, 2020, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Keynote at SICSA all-hands meeting, Dundee, Scotland., 9/1/2020, 2020, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Keynote: Technology in mental health: ethics and design issues, Law, Ethics and Mental Health Conference, Dublin, 16/1/2020, 2020, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
G. Doherty, Keynote, CHI 2020 Workshop on Technology Ecosystems in Mental Health, 2020, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Anja Thieme, Danielle Belgrave, Akane Sano, Gavin Doherty, Machine learning applications: reflections on mental health assessment and ethics , ACM interactions, 27, (2), 2020, p6 - 7, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Designing technology for mental heath interventions., Talk at University of Lancaster, 2019, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Designing better e-Health interventions, ActiveMinds Workshop, Glasgow, 2018, ESRC Get a Move On Network, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Technology and mental health, First Fortnight Mental Health Arts Festival, Dublin, 2017, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Design and e-Health, ERIN E-Health Research and Innovation Network Launch, NUI Galway, 2017, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Gavin Doherty, Engagement at scale in online mental heatlh programmes, Creative Technologies Network, UCD Dublin, 2017, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

  


Page 1 of 3
Award Date
ACM Distinguished Member for Outstanding Scientific Contributions to Computing 2019
ACM CHI 2022 Best Paper award (top 1% of 2579 submissions) 2022
ACM Europe Overall Best Paper Award - CHI 2019 (1 of 2960 submissions) 2019
ACM CHI 2019 Best Paper Award (top 1% of 2960 submissions) 2019
ACM CHI 2019 Honorable Mention Award (top 5% of 2960 submissions) 2019
Adapt Research Excellence Award 2019
ACM CHI 2017 Best paper award (top 1% of 2400 submissions) 2017
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin 2014
ACM CHI 2014 Honorable Mention Award - Matthews, Gay and Doherty (top 5% of 2043 submissions) 2014
ACM CHI 2014 Honorable Mention Award - Atachiants, Gregg and Doherty (top 5% of 2043 submissions) 2014
IMCL 2014 Best Special Session Paper Award 2014
ACM Senior Member 2011
Data connection postgraduate award 1997
Foundation Scholar, TCD 1994
My research in the area of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is focussed on improving healthcare technologies and designing effective digital health systems. By improving our understanding of human interactions with technology, my work enables the design of more effective digital health systems which support human engagement, and which extend the reach of clinicians. To achieve this, my team has produced a series of innovative technology interventions which have had a profound impact on the delivery of digital mental health services worldwide. I was sole P.I. for the project which produced the SilverCloud platform for human-supported online mental health interventions, used in hundreds of health services worldwide, including over 75% of NHS IAPT services. Evidence based interventions have been delivered to over 1 million patients worldwide. I have played a leading role in establishing the human-centred design of technology to support mental health care as a research area. My Healthcare Technology Design group has conducted genuinely ground-breaking research on the use of technology in child and adolescent mental health services, mobile health applications, online interventions, and machine learning in mental health. This work has been published in the leading venues in the discipline of HCI (one of the largest disciplines in Computer Science), including 16 full papers at the ACM CHI Conference, and over 55 journal articles, including high impact HCI, health informatics, and clinical journals relevant to the interdisciplinary research of my team. This is complemented by my international leadership roles in supporting development of this research area through editorial and organisational roles (including Chair of the ACM Distinguished Speakers Committee), and by my collaborations with researchers in leading universities and industrial research laboratories worldwide. The contributions of our empirical and exploratory research in real-world contexts are complemented with foundational work on engagement, technology acceptance, design methods, and ethics.