On September 7th, Alberto defended his PhD thesis entitled “Applying Mobile and Geospatial Technologies to Ecological Momentary Interventions” under the supervision of Sven Casteleyn and Joaquín Huerta. This thesis is connected with the research activities under the SyMptOMS-related projects, a series of research projects that marry the technical expertise of the GeoSpatial Technologies Research Lab (GEOTEC) with the knowledge in experimental psychology of the Laboratory of Psychology and Technology (LABPSITEC) to develop innovative, mobile-based solutions for the diagnosis, treatment, and relapse prevention of mental health disorders.

Alberto’s research work provides a number of contributions in the field of geospatial techniques, mobile and sensing computing, and Ecological Momentary Interventions for anxiety-related disorders. Therefore, the main motivation behind Alberto’s doctoral thesis is the high prevalence of anxiety problems nowadays, which can appear in day-to-day situations. An effective therapy for these problems is exposure, which is a well-studied, theoretically founded psychological approach, where a patient is gradually exposed to what he fears. However, these therapy sessions are long and force the patient and therapist to travel to a specific place, which seriously limits personalised care and treatment. Alberto’s research over the past 4 years focused on designing, developing and evaluating the necessary software tools to facilitate the implementation of mobile applications that self-guide the patient during the exposure sessions.

Overall, Alberto’s work provides a relevant number of novel and efficient solutions well beyond the state-of-the-Art in the field of mobile-based tools for EMA/I treatments for mental health practice. You deserve it!