When does tech make us healthier?

Technology has made health seemingly quantifiable and trackable, but does it actually improve our well-being? Co-presented with UC Davis Grand Challenges, this Open Question session invites you to explore the intersection of technology, fitness, and happiness.

Our Panelists

Gözde Göncü-Berk, PhD is a researcher, designer, and educator leading WearLab at UC Davis, where she pioneers wearable technology design and smart textiles research. Her work focuses on developing textile-based sensors and actuators for physiological monitoring, creating responsive wearables for health, extreme environments, and human performance such as anxiety-responsive clothing, therapeutic smart gloves for pain management, textile stretch/strain sensors to track body positions, and many others.

Jonathon Schofield, PhD researches human integration with assistive devices. Collaborating with clinicians and engineers at Shriners Children’s and UC Davis Health, he combines clinical insights with engineering to address unmet needs in rehabilitation medicine, biorobotic control, and neural interfaces, advancing intelligent technologies ranging from prosthetics limbs to cooperative robots.

Katia Vega, PhD is an associate professor at the department of design at UC Davis, leading the Interactive Organisms Lab. She pioneers the integration of cosmetics with electronics, makeup with biosensors, and sustainable interfaces. Katia holds a PhD and master's degrees in computer science from PUC-Rio (Brazil) and a bachelor's degree from UNMSM (Peru). She was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Media Lab and a researcher at HKBU (Hong Kong).

Alyssa Weakley, PhD is a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor in the department of neurology at UC Davis School of Medicine. Alyssa’s research focuses on dementia, cognitive rehabilitation, and technology development and assessment. She has received funding from multiple sources including the National Institutes of Health for her remote caregiving technology supporting at-home independence of older adults living alone with dementia.

Moderator

Kevin Boyd leads the Exploratorium’s science writing team in developing exhibitions here at Pier 15 and for our partners worldwide. Since 2007, he has worked on numerous biology exhibits, including ¡Plantásticas! and Cells to Self. He studied microbiology at UC Santa Barbara, and science writing at UC Santa Cruz.