Let's Work Together

I am recruiting PhD students to work with me at the University of Michigan and start the REsponsible Advances for Computing in Healthcare (REACH) Lab. You can even help me pick a better lab name!

Information on applying to the CSE PhD program can be found on the CSE website. Please include my name in your application (on the application website, or on your statement of purpose) so that I receive it for review.

Why work together?


My role as an advisor is to support your goals. For a PhD student, that usually involves conducting high quality, high impact research; growing as an independent researcher; and obtaining a job after completing your PhD that you’re excited about. I’m looking forward to supporting my students, and will do whatever I can to help you reach your goals in graduate school.

Do our research interests align?


I expect my PhD students to bring their own research ideas to the table. However, if we’re working together, our interests should broadly align. Here’s what I’m currently interested in:

[1] Responsible AI for healthcare. People are increasingly using AI to support their healthcare needs – both within and outside of the clinic. How do we develop safe and effective healthcare AI technologies? We know that many of these tools are not fit for purpose, and can cause harm. I’m interested in developing AI that supports, and doesn’t harm users. I recently wrote a piece in Stat News about this. I’ve also published some papers on this topic: npj MHR 2024, BJPsych 2022, PLOS 2022.

[2] Multimodal computing for healthcare. I’m interested in developing novel computing systems that use real-world, multimodal data to support patients and their clinicians. My past work has specifically focused on developing novel AI/ML systems with multimodal passive sensing data: the behavioral and physiological data passively generated and gathered by our smartphones and wearables (eg, sleep, heart rate, physical activity), though I’m interested in exploring more diverse (eg, clinical, natural language) data types. Some example papers with passive data: UbiComp 2024, IMWUT 2024, IMWUT 2021, JMIR mHealth 2020.

[3] Design for computing in healthcare. Healthcare is complex, and there are many stakeholders – including patients, clinicians, health insurers – that influence the effectiveness of technologies in real-world care. I’m interested in understanding how we can develop novel computing systems that satisfy the design requirement of these diverse stakeholders. Here’s what I’ve written about this: CHI 2025, CHI Workshop 2025, CHI 2024, JMIR Formative 2023, CSCW 2022.

What am I looking for in a PhD application?


In my perspective, a PhD is about learning how to conduct research independently. Conducting resarch involves both understanding the existing literature as well as paying attention to world events that inspire research, using this knowledge to motivate interesting research ideas, creating projects to explore these ideas, and writing papers based upon your findings.

Given this, I’m looking for applications that:

  1. First and foremost, I’m interested in understanding the specific research topics that excite you. I hope they don’t echo my own interests word-for-word. Your application should describe what you are interested in.
  2. I’d also love to learn why you’re excited to conduct this research. What inspires this work – prior research, current events? What impact could it have?
  3. Finally, I’d love to learn about how you plan to explore these ideas in your PhD. What types of studies could you run?

I’m not looking for detailed research proposals, but your application should briefly cover these three points. Prior research experience and published papers are nice to have, but are not required. You may have conducted interesting projects in industry that also showcase your potential to conduct independent research – focus on your strengths. I’m also not looking for any specific methods experience: my work is both quantitative and qualitative, and I believe you’ll get to explore and learn a range of methods during your PhD.

All-in-all, I’m really excited to read your applications and learn more about you and your reserach interests.

What’s my advising style?


I do not have a specific style – my goal is to adapt to the unique needs of my students. I’m happy to meet frequently and regularly, whatever you need. However:

  • I will offer guidance and feedback, but I am not your manager and do not wish to be. I want you to decide on what research to pursue, learn to write your own papers, and conduct research independently.
  • Since the goal of the PhD is to conduct independent research, as time moves on, I will push you to be more independent. For example, I may help you start your own collaborations, gain grant writing experience, find opportunities to give talks internally and externally, etc.

Can we talk?


If you are interested in working together, you can email me at adlerdan [at] umich [dot] edu. I cannot promise I will respond, and the best way to express your interest is to apply to the PhD program. If you do email me, please make sure your email includes:

  1. What research topics excite you
  2. Why you’re excited to conduct this work - what impact could it have?
  3. Why it makes sense to conduct this research together

In your email, do not echo my own research interests word-for-word. Focus on your unique interests.

I have an unanswered question


This page is a work in progress and will evolve over time. If there is a topic that you believe I should cover, send me an email: adlerdan [at] umich [dot] edu.