AI for understanding human behavior and psychiatric symptoms
Thematic Area: Health Care and Wellness
Mentors: Christopher Gregg, Aik Choon Tan
Maldonado will build AI models to diagnose depression and anxiety from smartphones and predict treatment outcomes. Mental health is a priority for Utah, which ranks 11th in the country for adults with mental illness and 4th for adults with serious suicidal ideation, yet faces a shortage of providers. “My project has the potential to transform the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders across different fields of medical care, offering scalable, equitable, and impactful solutions for diverse populations,” Maldonado said. He’ll work with experts from psychiatry, oncology, and more to develop models using already-acquired data—including patient assessment videos from Storyline Health Behavioral AI, an app co-created by his advisor, Christopher Gregg. Maldonado’s user-facing tool will be available via Storyline Health and the models will be open source, encouraging accessibility and further collaboration at the U and beyond.
Maldonado holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and a master’s in biomedical informatics, both from the University of Utah. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Gregg’s lab since 2023 and also served as a postdoc under Julio Facelli from 2023 to 2024. His long-term goal is to lead his own lab focused on applying AI to solve critical challenges in health care and precision medicine. “I am particularly passionate about developing scalable, ethical, and innovative AI solutions that bridge the gap between computational biology and clinical applications,” he said, “ultimately improving patient outcomes.”
