Timothy W. Bickmore
(he/him)
Professor
Research interests
- Human–computer interaction
- Dialogue systems
- Intelligent virtual agents
- Avatars
- Personal health informatics
- Human–robot interaction
Education
- PhD in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- MS in Computer Science, Arizona State University
- BSE in Computer Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
Biography
Timothy Bickmore is a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston. He served as the college's associate dean of research from 2017 to 2022.
With his interdisciplinary approach to research, Bickmore concentrates on the intersection of human–computer interaction, natural language processing (dialogue systems), animation, and health, medical, and behavioral informatics. In developing and evaluating computer agents that emulate face-to-face interactions between health providers and patients, he emphasizes the emotional and relational aspects of those interactions; this makes the research better suited for use in health education and long-term health behavior change interventions.
As the director of the Relational Agents Group, Bickmore works with his team to simulate face-to-face counseling with a focus on the relational aspects of those interactions. In addition, Bickmore has chaired or co-chaired several meetings, including Intelligent Virtual Agents, AAAI symposia, and CHI workshops on health informatics and virtual agents. He is an associate editor of the Interacting with Computers journal and has presented his research internationally. His work has received funding from NSF, NIH, AHRQ, HRSA, and PCORI.
Prior to joining Northeastern in 2005, Bickmore was an assistant professor in the Boston University School of Medicine.
Labs and groups
Recent publications
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‘Something I Can Lean On’: A Qualitative Evaluation of a Virtual Palliative Care Counselor for Patients with Life-Limiting Illnesses
Citation: Teresa K. O'Leary, Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, Timothy W. Bickmore. (2024). 'Something I Can Lean On': A Qualitative Evaluation of a Virtual Palliative Care Counselor for Patients with Life-Limiting Illnesses CHI Extended Abstracts, 380:1-380:7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3651106 -
Diversity Informatics: Reducing Racial and Gender Bias with Virtual Agents
Citation: Bickmore, T., Parmar, D., Kimani, E. and Olafsson, S. Diversity Informatics: Reducing Racial and Gender Bias with Virtual Agents. In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) (2021). -
A Friendly Face in the Crowd: Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety with an Emotional Support Agent in the Audience
Citation: Murali, P., Trinh, A. and Bickmore, T. A Friendly Face in the Crowd: Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety with an Emotional Support Agent in the Audience. In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) (2021). -
‘More like a person than reading text in a machine’: Characterizing User Choice of Embodied Agents vs. Conventional GUIs on Smartphones
Citation: S. Olafsson, D. Parmar, E. Kimani, T.K. O'Leary, T.W. Bickmore. "‘More like a person than reading text in a machine’: Characterizing User Choice of Embodied Agents vs. Conventional GUIs on Smartphones." CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2021. DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3451664 -
Examining the Intersections of Race, Religion & Community Technologies: A Photovoice Study
Citation: T.K. O’Leary, E. Stowell, J. Hoffman, M.K. Paasche-Orlow, T.W. Bickmore, A.G. Parker. “Examining the Intersections of Race, Religion & Community Technologies: A Photovoice Study.” ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI 2021), 2021. DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445418 -
Community-Based Cultural Tailoring of Virtual Agents
Citation: T.K. O’Leary, E. Stowell, E. Kimani, D. Parmar, S. Olafsson, J. Hoffman, A.G. Parker, M.K. Paasche-Orlow, T.W. Bickmore. “Community-Based Cultural Tailoring of Virtual Agents.” IVA ’20: Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 2020. DOI: 10.1145/3383652.3423875 -
Improving the health of young African American women in the preconception period using health information technology: a randomised controlled trial
Citation: Jack, B., Bickmore, T., Yinusa-Nyahkoon, L., Reichert, M., Julce, C., Sidduri, N., Martin-Howard, J., Zhang, Z., Woodhams, E., Fernandez, J., Loafman, M. and Cabral, H. Improving the health of young African American women in the preconception period using health information technology: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, Digital Health, 2, 9 (2020) -
Effects of Counseling by Peer Human Advisors vs Computers to Increase Walking in Underserved Populations: The COMPASS Randomized Clinical Trial
Citation: King, A. C., Campero, M. I., Sheats, J. L., Castro Sweet, C. M., Hauser, M. E., Garcia, D., Chazaro, A., Blanco, G., Banda, J., Ahn, D. K., Fernandez, J. and Bickmore, T. Effects of Counseling by Peer Human Advisors vs Computers to Increase Walking in Underserved Populations: The COMPASS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med (Sep 28 2020). -
Investigating Opportunities for Crowdsourcing in Church-Based Health Interventions: A Participatory Design Study
Citation: E. Stowell, T.K. O’Leary, E. Kimani, M.K. Paasche-Orlow, T.W. Bickmore, A.G. Parker. “Investigating Opportunities for Crowdsourcing in Church-Based Health Interventions: A Participatory Design Study.” ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2020. DOI: 10.1145/3313831.3376833 -
The Atrial Fibrillation Health Literacy Information Technology Trial: Pilot Trial of a Mobile Health App for Atrial Fibrillation
Citation: Guhl E, Althouse AD, Pusateri AM, Kimani E, Paasche-Orlow MK, Bickmore TW, Magnani JW. The Atrial Fibrillation Health Literacy Information Technology Trial: Pilot Trial of a Mobile Health App for Atrial Fibrillation JMIR Cardio 2020;4(1):e17162 DOI: 10.2196/17162 -
The Atrial Fibrillation Health Literacy Information Technology System: Pilot Assessment
Citation: Magnani JW, Schlusser CL, Kimani E, Rollman BL, Paasche-Orlow MK, Bickmore TW. The Atrial Fibrillation Health Literacy Information Technology System: Pilot Assessment. JMIR Cardio. 2017 Jul-Dec;1(2):e7. DOI: 10.2196/cardio.8543. -
Engaging and Entertaining Adolescents in Health Education Using LLM-Generated Fantasy Narrative Games and Virtual Agents
Citation: Ian Steenstra, Prasanth Murali, Rebecca B. Perkins, Natalie Joseph, Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, Timothy W. Bickmore. (2024). Engaging and Entertaining Adolescents in Health Education Using LLM-Generated Fantasy Narrative Games and Virtual Agents CHI Extended Abstracts, 126:1-126:8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650983
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Ameneh Shamekhi
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Everlyne Kimani
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Dina Utami
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Shuo Zhou
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Stefan Olafsson