Nabil Alshurafa, PhD
Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine
Research Program
Cancer-Focused Research
Nabil Alshurafa is an associate professor of Preventive Medicine and of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his PhD in computer science at the University of California Los Angeles. He currently directs the NIH- and NSF-funded HABits Lab, which aims to bridge computer science and behavioral science research. His current research seeks to enable passive assessment of lifestyle habits such as UV sun exposure, smoking, eating, and physical activity with the goal of designing technology-supported lifestyle treatments for cancer. His team recently designed a thermal sensing wearable necklace, SmokeMon, which has obtained worldwide recognition for its ability to accurately measure smoking topography, and is currently being tested in clinical trials. Given the promise of technology, he is also working on refining and testing mobile health intervention systems that capture real-time sun exposure adjusted for self-reported sun protection use during outdoor activities. The goal is to determine what intervention components are feasible, acceptable, and demonstrate efficacy in decreasing unprotected sun exposure. His long-term goal is to design mobile health systems that combine machine learning and wearable sensors to understand human behaviors in their natural setting, as well as psychological state and environmental context, with the ultimate goal of designing interventions that help manage symptoms, prevent illness, and improve health and well-being.