Physiological Stress Triggers for Adaptive Interventions in Daily Life

This PhD position at the University of Twente focuses on transforming the Stress in Action toolkit into an active system that detects stress responses via physiological signals (e.g., heart rate variability) and triggers adaptive interventions or experience-sampling questions. The project combines ambulatory (psycho)physiological research, wearable technology, and human-computer interaction to design context-sensitive stress interventions. You will review existing literature, implement real-time signal processing, conduct user studies, and pilot interventions using large-scale daily-life datasets. The goal is to create an evidence-based triggering pipeline for just-in-time adaptive stress management, contributing to both technological innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Review existing literature on physiological triggers for experience-sampling and just-in-time interventions in stress research.
• Develop and implement real-time algorithms to detect stress responses from wearable biometric data (e.g., heart rate variability).
• Contribute to the Stress in Action wearables database and validate trigger systems on wearable and app platforms.
• Conduct a two-week intensive measurement study to test the validity of physiological triggers in real-world settings.
• Study user experience and acceptance of stress-triggered interventions through interviews and co-design sessions.
• Analyze large-scale daily-life datasets to optimize signal thresholds and intervention timing.
• Design and pilot a context-sensitive stress intervention delivered at detected moments of stress.
• Deliver a practical, evidence-based triggering pipeline for the Stress in Action toolkit as part of your PhD thesis.