General Education Requirements
Not currently certified for a requirement. Courses are typically considered for Ways certification a quarter in advance.
Course Description
Over 900 million individuals worldwide suffer from a mental health disorder. Human and financial costs associated with the management of individuals with mental health disorder are substantial and constitute a growing public health challenge. Yet there are presently no objective markers used to determine which individuals have a mental health disorder and predict the progression of the disorder. Furthermore, there are presently no effective treatments for mental health disorders. The lack of access to mental health care is yet another challenge in developed as well as developing countries. Newly available technologies such as Artificial Intelligence offer an unprecedented opportunity for developing solutions that address the aforementioned challenges and problems.
In this interdisciplinary seminar, students will learn about (i) psychopathology and the state-of-the-art in diagnosis and treatments of mental health disorders, (ii) unaddressed challenges and problems related to mental health, (iii) artificial intelligence and its potential through real-world examples, (iv) recent real-world applications of artificial intelligence that address the challenges and problems related to mental health, and (v) ethical issues associated with the application of artificial intelligence to mental health. Diverse viewpoints and a deeper understanding of these topics will be offered by a mix of hands-on interactive sessions and panel discussions with Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Computer Scientists, Ethicists, and Entrepreneurs. Students will also spend guided time working in small teams to develop innovative (artificial intelligence based) solutions to challenges/problems related to mental health.
Meet the Instructor: Kaustubh Supekar
"I am a Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford as part of the new Clinical and Translational Neurosciences Initiative. I hold a Ph.D. from Stanford School of Medicine. I also received a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. I oversee an interdisciplinary neuroscience-informed mental health research program focused on finding the brain mechanisms underlying atypical behavior and cognitive function in mental illness, using advanced human brain imaging techniques, systems-neuroscience based approaches and novel artificial intelligence-based methods. The ultimate goal of my research is to develop better diagnosis and more effective treatments for mental illness, and more broadly, advance precision mental health.
"My work has been published in over seventy widely cited research articles, and highlighted in national as well as international media including JAMA, CNN, Time and Le Monde. Discover magazine named one of my works among the top 100 discoveries of the year. I love teaching and have taught several courses for high-school students as well as undergraduate and graduate students. I have also mentored more than 25 high-school students and undergraduates, many of whom have gone on to have highly successful academic and professional careers."
