Overview
Background
Dr Chelsea Dobbins is an Associate Professor within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at The University of Queensland. She has a background in Software Engineering with expertise in Digital Signal Processing, Applied Machine Learning, and Human–Computer Interaction.
Her research focuses on the use of sensing technologies and intelligent data analysis to understand behaviour, emotion, and wellbeing, with applications spanning both human and animal contexts. In addition to her work on emotion detection using smartphones and wearable sensors within personal informatics and digital health, her research increasingly explores the use of computational technologies for animal conservation and welfare, including the application of machine learning, and mobile/embedded sensing to monitor behaviour and environmental interactions in animals.
Her work intersects areas such as affective computing, pervasive computing, digital health, conservation technology, bio‑inspired sensing, human–computer interaction, mobile and wearable sensors, and physiological computing.
Availability
- Associate Professor Chelsea Dobbins is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), Liverpool John Moores University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Liverpool John Moores University
Research interests
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Lifelogging and Affective Computing
My research interest lies at the intersection of lifelogging and affective computing, focusing on the use of mobile and wearable sensing technologies to capture continuous, real‑world data about behaviour, context, and experience. I investigate how multimodal lifelog data—such as physiological, behavioural, and contextual signals—can be analysed using signal processing and machine learning techniques to automatically detect and model emotion in naturalistic settings. This work aims to support a deeper understanding of affect, wellbeing, and long‑term patterns of experience within everyday life.
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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
My research interest in Human–Computer Interaction focuses on the design and evaluation of interactive systems that leverage mobile, wearable, and sensing technologies to support human understanding, reflection, and wellbeing. I am particularly interested in how users engage with data‑driven systems in everyday contexts, and how human‑centred design principles can be applied to make complex sensor‑based and intelligent technologies interpretable, usable, and meaningful.
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Technology for Wildlife Monitoring and Conservation
My research interest focuses on the use of computational and sensing technologies to support animal conservation and wildlife monitoring. I investigate how signal processing, machine learning, and mobile or embedded sensing systems can be applied to collect and analyse data on animal behaviour and environmental context in natural settings. This work emphasises non‑invasive, ethically informed, data‑driven approaches to understanding movement, behaviour, and wellbeing, with the aim of informing conservation and wildlife management practices.
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Digital Health
My research interest in digital health focuses on the design and application of mobile, wearable, and pervasive technologies to support the monitoring, understanding, and improvement of health and wellbeing in real‑world settings. I investigate how multimodal sensor data can be analysed using signal processing and machine learning techniques to model behavioural and physiological patterns, with the aim of enabling early detection, personalised insights, and human‑centred digital health interventions.
Research impacts
Featured in Magazines
New Scientist ("Lifelogging: Even your home appliances could do it," Issue 2951) and Times Higher Education (issue 2137).
Media Coverage of Research Outputs
Case study featured on Shimmer's website.
Works
Search Professor Chelsea Dobbins’s works on UQ eSpace
2020
Conference Publication
A neurophysiological approach for measuring presence in immersive virtual environments
Dey, Arindam, Phoon, Jane, Saha, Shuvodeep, Dobbins, Chelsea and Billinghurst, Mark (2020). A neurophysiological approach for measuring presence in immersive virtual environments. 19th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), Porto de Galinhas, Brazil, 9 - 13 November 2020. Washington, DC, United States: I E E E Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/ismar50242.2020.00072
2019
Journal Article
Indexing multivariate mobile data through spatio-temporal event detection and clustering
Rawassizadeh, Reza, Dobbins, Chelsea, Akbari, Mohammad and Pazzani, Michael (2019). Indexing multivariate mobile data through spatio-temporal event detection and clustering. Sensors, 19 (3) 448, 448. doi: 10.3390/s19030448
2019
Conference Publication
Detecting and visualizing context and stress via a fuzzy rule-based system during commuter driving
Dobbins, Chelsea and Fairclough, Stephen (2019). Detecting and visualizing context and stress via a fuzzy rule-based system during commuter driving. International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2019), Kyoto, Japan, 11-15 March 2019. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). doi: 10.1109/PERCOMW.2019.8730600
2018
Journal Article
Towards Clustering of Mobile and Smartwatch Accelerometer Data for Physical Activity Recognition
Dobbins, Chelsea and Rawassizadeh, Reza (2018). Towards Clustering of Mobile and Smartwatch Accelerometer Data for Physical Activity Recognition. Informatics, 5 (2) 29, 29. doi: 10.3390/informatics5020029
2018
Conference Publication
The Influence of Game Demand on Distraction from Experimental Pain: A fNIRS Study
Stamp, Kellyann, Dobbins, Chelsea, Fairclough, Stephen and Poole, Helen (2018). The Influence of Game Demand on Distraction from Experimental Pain: A fNIRS Study. 2nd International Neuroergonomics Conference, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 27-29 June 2018. Frontiers Media.
2018
Conference Publication
A Lifelogging Platform Towards Detecting Negative Emotions in Everyday Life using Wearable Devices
Dobbins, Chelsea, Fairclough, Stephen, Lisboa, Paulo and Navarro, Felix Fernando Gonzalez (2018). A Lifelogging Platform Towards Detecting Negative Emotions in Everyday Life using Wearable Devices. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops, Athens, Greece, 19-23 March 2018. Piscataway, NJ United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/percomw.2018.8480180
2018
Journal Article
The influence of game demand on distraction from experimental pain: A fNIRS study
Stamp, Kellyann, Dobbins, Chelsea, Fairclough, Stephen and Poole, Helen (2018). The influence of game demand on distraction from experimental pain: A fNIRS study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.227.00020
2017
Journal Article
MyWallMate: An Investigation into the use of Mobile Technology in Enhancing Student Engagement
Dobbins, Chelsea and Denton, Philip (2017). MyWallMate: An Investigation into the use of Mobile Technology in Enhancing Student Engagement. Techtrends, 61 (6), 541-549. doi: 10.1007/s11528-017-0188-y
2017
Journal Article
Detecting physical activity within lifelogs towards preventing obesity and aiding ambient assisted living
Dobbins, Chelsea, Rawassizadeh, Reza and Momeni, Elaheh (2017). Detecting physical activity within lifelogs towards preventing obesity and aiding ambient assisted living. Neurocomputing, 230, 110-132. doi: 10.1016/j.neucom.2016.02.088
2017
Conference Publication
Development of a neuroadaptive gaming technology to distract from painful procedures
Stamp, Kellyann, Dobbins, Chelsea, Fairclough, Stephen and Poole, Helen (2017). Development of a neuroadaptive gaming technology to distract from painful procedures. The First Neuroadaptive Technology Conference 2017 (NAT’17), Berlin, Germany, 19-21 July 2017.
2017
Conference Publication
Wearable Sensors, Driving and the Visualization of Cardiovascular Stress During Everyday Life
Dobbins, Chelsea and Fairclough, Stephen (2017). Wearable Sensors, Driving and the Visualization of Cardiovascular Stress During Everyday Life. 1st Neuroadaptive Technology Conference 2017 (NAT’17), Berlin, Germany, 19-21 July 2017.
2017
Conference Publication
A natural language query interface for searching personal information on smartwatches
Rawassizadeh, Reza, Dobbins, Chelsea, Nourizadeh, Manouchehr, Ghamchili, Zahra and Pazzani, Michael (2017). A natural language query interface for searching personal information on smartwatches. 2017 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops, Big Island, HI, USA, 13-17 March 2017. Piscataway, NJ, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/percomw.2017.7917645
2017
Conference Publication
Measuring academic stress ‘in the wild’ with wearable sensors: removal of noise from wearable sensor data using FIR filters
Harris, Benjamin, Dobbins, Chelsea, Fairclough, Stephen and Lisboa, Paulo (2017). Measuring academic stress ‘in the wild’ with wearable sensors: removal of noise from wearable sensor data using FIR filters. The First Neuroadaptive Technology Conference 2017 (NAT’17), Berlin, Germany, 19 – 21 July 2017.
2016
Journal Article
Scalable Daily Human Behavioral Pattern Mining from Multivariate Temporal Data
Rawassizadeh, Reza, Momeni, Elaheh, Dobbins, Chelsea, Gharibshah, Joobin and Pazzani, Michael (2016). Scalable Daily Human Behavioral Pattern Mining from Multivariate Temporal Data. IEEE Transactions On Knowledge and Data Engineering, 28 (11) 7523395, 3098-3112. doi: 10.1109/TKDE.2016.2592527
2016
Journal Article
Advanced artificial neural network classification for detecting preterm births using EHG records
Fergus, Paul, Idowu, Ibrahim, Hussain, Abir and Dobbins, Chelsea (2016). Advanced artificial neural network classification for detecting preterm births using EHG records. Neurocomputing, 188, 42-49. doi: 10.1016/j.neucom.2015.01.107
2016
Book Chapter
Lifelogging technologies to detect negative emotions associated with cardiovascular disease
Dobbins, Chelsea and Fairclough, Stephen (2016). Lifelogging technologies to detect negative emotions associated with cardiovascular disease. Applied computing in medicine and health. (pp. 27-44) edited by Dhiya Al-Jumeily, Abir Hussain, Conor Mallucci and Carol Oliver. Waltham, MA United States: Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-803468-2.00002-3
2015
Journal Article
Educational crowdsourcing to support the learning of computer programming
Al-Jumeily, Dhiya, Hussain, Abir, Alghamdi, Mohammed, Dobbins, Chelsea and Lunn, Jan (2015). Educational crowdsourcing to support the learning of computer programming. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 10 (13) 13. doi: 10.1186/s41039-015-0011-3
2015
Journal Article
Lesson Learned from Collecting Quantified Self Information via Mobile and Wearable Devices
Rawassizadeh, Reza, Momeni, Elaheh, Dobbins, Chelsea, Mirza-Babaei, Pejman and Rahnamoun, Ramin (2015). Lesson Learned from Collecting Quantified Self Information via Mobile and Wearable Devices. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 4 (4), 315-335. doi: 10.3390/jsan4040315
2015
Journal Article
The utilization of data analysis techniques in predicting student performance in massive open online courses (MOOCs)
Hughes, Glyn and Dobbins, Chelsea (2015). The utilization of data analysis techniques in predicting student performance in massive open online courses (MOOCs). Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 10 (1) 10. doi: 10.1186/s41039-015-0007-z
2015
Journal Article
Guest Editorial Special Issue on: Big Data Analytics in Intelligent Systems
Hurst, William and Dobbins, Chelsea (2015). Guest Editorial Special Issue on: Big Data Analytics in Intelligent Systems. Journal of Computer Sciences and Applications, 3 3A, 1-9. doi: 10.12691/jcsa-3-3A-1
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Chelsea Dobbins is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Detection of negative emotions using wearable sensors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Catherine Haslam
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Doctor Philosophy
Volume and Flow assessment of fluids through micro-vibration characterisation: application towards Cardiovascular Health
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Antonio Padilha Lanari Bo
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Doctor Philosophy
Improved Safety and Optimize Productivity with AI in a Manufacturing Environment
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Mehmet Kizil
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Doctor Philosophy
A mobile health intervention for promoting light and moderate intensity physical activity among young cancer survivors
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Stephen Viller
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Doctor Philosophy
Augmented Human Operations: Using XR and AI in Remote Challenging Environments
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Jarrod Knibbe, Associate Professor Maxime Cordeil
Completed supervision
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2026
Doctor Philosophy
Development of Cognitively Adaptive Training Systems in Virtual Reality
Principal Advisor
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Integrating Wearable Devices into the Patient-Centred Digital Healthcare Environment
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Juha Toyras
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Development of a Wearable Sensor-based Ergonomic Monitoring System for Aviation Manufacturing Workers
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Matthew D'Souza
Media
Enquiries
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