Sonia Baee

Research Interests

Data, Synthetic Data Generation

Understanding data and developing methodologies for generating diverse, realistic training, and evaluation data.

Evaluation Metrics and Data Analytics

Developing insightful quantitative metrics for interaction quality.

MLLM-Ops

Try to answer:
How can we unleach capabilities of MLLM in data enrichment, evaluation, and annotation.

User behavior

Try to answer:
Can we utilize user meta data to improve the functionalities of the model.

Reinforcement Learning - Reward Hacking

Developing efficient algorithms for complex decision-making processes.

Machine Learning Theory

Keep learning of theoretical foundations and mathematical frameworks for ML algorithms.

News

[March 2024] Selected as a "Women Executive Shadow Program" at Adobe and start working with amazing mentor, Nathan Farner!

[Dec 2023] Our most comprehensvie work "Early Attrition Prediction for Web-Based Interpretation Bias Modification to Reduce Anxious Thinking: A Machine Learning Study" work has been accepted to JMIR Mental Health 2024.

[Dec 2023] Our "Behavioral Engagement and Psychosocial Outcomes in Web-Based Interpretation Bias Training for Anxiety" has been accepted to PLOS Digital Health 2024.

[Dec 2023] I am attending at NeurIPS let's connect.

[Jan 2023] Starting working on MLLM to build "agentic experience".

[June 2022] Passed my Ph.D thesis defense!!!! :)

[Jun 2022] My brilliant capstone's team successfully present "DARA: Development of a Chatbot Support System for an Anxiety Reduction Digital Intervetion" at SIEDS Conference 2022

[April 2022] Awarded 2022-2023 All-University Graduate Teaching Award!

[April 2022] Awarded Louic T. Rader Outstanding Graduate Student!

[March 2022] Awarded UVA Engineering Link Award in partnership with Leidos.

[March 2022] My reflection on Teaching Fellow Program at UVA can be found here.

[Oct 2021] Presenting our work at ICCV 2021.

[November 2021] Passed my PhD proposal presentation and exam!!! :)

[Oct 2021] Awarded Endowed Graduate Fellowship at UVA.

[July 2021] Our "Multi-session online interpretation bias training for anxiety in a community sample" has been accepted to Behaviour research and therapy 2021.

[June 2021] Our "DeepTake: Prediction of Driver Takeover Behavior using Multimodal Data" has been accepted to CHI 2021.

[June 2021] Awarded a GHC Student Scholarship to attend the 2021 Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration.

[May 2021] Starting my internship at Deliberate AI going to work on on multimodal algorithms to not only help the patients but also pychologiest.

[June 2021] Co-teaching SYS4021/6021:Linear Statistical Models in Fall 2021.

[May 2021] Awarded Teaching Fellow Fellowship for Fall 2021.

[Oct 2020] Our "A Framework for Addressing the Risks and Opportunities In Al-Supported Virtual Health Coaches" has been accepted to PervasiveHealth 2020.

[Oct 2020] Our "A Framework for Understanding the Relationship between Social Media Discourse and Mental Health" has been accepted to CSCW 2020.

[Jan 2020] Starting to mentored brilliant high-schoolers UVA UVA Engineers Collaborate With Charlottesville High School Students.

[Dec 2019] Our "Do I really feel better? Effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies depends on the measure and social anxiety" has been accepted to Depression and Anxiety 2019.

Selected Publications

Medirl: Predicting the visual attention of drivers via maximum entropy deep inverse reinforcement learning

Sonia Baee, E Pakdamanian, I Kim, L Feng, V Ordonez, L Barnes

ICCV 2021

Behavioral Modeling User Activity Deep Learning Inverse Reinforcement Learning

Deeptake: Prediction of driver takeover behavior using multimodal data

Erfan Pakdamanian, Sonia Baee, S Sheng, S Heo, S Kraus, L Feng

CHI 2021

Behavioral Modeling User Activity Deep Learning Multimodal analysis

Web-based interpretation bias training to reduce anxiety: A sequential multiple-assignment randomized trial

Jeremy W Eberle, Katharine E Daniel, Sonia Baee, Alexandra L Silverman, Elijah Lewis, Anna N Baglione, Alexandra Werntz, Noah J French, Julie L Ji, Nicola Hohensee, Xin Tong, Jacalyn M Huband, Mehdi Boukhechba, Daniel H Funk, Laura E Barnes, Bethany A Teachman

PLOS Digital Health 2024

Behavioral Modeling User Activity Digital Health Mental Health Engagement

Behavioral Engagement and Psychosocial Outcomes in Web-Based Interpretation Bias Training for Anxiety

AFV de la Garza Evia, JW Eberle, Sonia Baee, EC Wolfe, D Funk, B Teachman, L Barnes

PLOS Digital Health 2024

Behavioral Modeling User Activity Digital Health Mental Health Engagement

Use of a mobile health intervention by older versus younger people with HIV: analysis of usage, social support, and network interactions

abor E Flickinger, Breanna R Campbell, Allyson Timm, Sonia Baee, D Datta, S V Shenoi, J Rozanova, R Dillingham

Telemedicine 2022

Behavioral Modeling User Activity Mobile Health Network

A framework for understanding the relationship between social media discourse and mental health

Sanjana Mendu, Anna Baglione, Sonia Baee, C Wu, B Ng, A Shaked, G Clore, Laura Barnes

CSCW 2020

User Activity Network Digital Health Mental Health Social Media

A Framework for Addressing the Risks and Opportunities In AI-Supported Virtual Health Coaches

Sonia Baee, M Rucker, A Baglione, A Mawulolo K., L Barnes

PCT 2020

AI-Assistant Safety