BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:AI Center Seminar - Prof. Li CHEN - "Designing Conversational Musi
 c Agents for Self-Awareness and Psychological Well-being"
DTSTART:20260602T103000
DTEND:20260602T113000
DTSTAMP:20260526T170134Z
UID:ceb8dcc82ac7a09d652029062c41107e4527c94662f4a8aee947f740
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Professor Li Chen\nThe talk is jointly organized by the EPFL
  AI Center and the EPFL Human-Computer Interaction Group as part of the 
 AI for Health seminar series.\n\nHosting professor: Prof. Pearl Pu (GR-PU)
 \n\nTitle\nBeyond Recommendations: Designing Conversational Music Agents f
 or Self-Awareness and Psychological Well-being\n\nAbstract\nAs the demand 
 for scalable mental health tools grows\, the potential of Large Language M
 odels (LLMs) lies in their ability to move beyond generic retrieval toward
  deeply adaptive\, trustworthy support. This talk explores how music-drive
 n conversational systems can bridge the gap between algorithmic recommenda
 tion and psychological intervention. The journey begins with establishing 
 a foundation of trust through user-centric exploration. Using conversation
 al music recommenders as a case study\, I will discuss how critiquing stra
 tegies—such as progressive and cascading suggestions—shape user percep
 tions of helpfulness and serendipity. However\, because trust is personal\
 , I demonstrate how individual traits\, including personality and trust pr
 opensity\, dictate whether a user thrives under system-led or user-led ini
 tiatives.\nBuilding on this rapport\, the talk examines how these interfac
 es transition from suggesting songs to fostering psychological well-being.
  I will illustrate how music acts as a catalyst for self-awareness\, using
  agents to guide users through emotional resonance and self-reflection. Fu
 rthermore\, I will share findings on the role of generative AI in music-ba
 sed reminiscence for older adults\, where adaptive dialogue helps overcome
  cognitive barriers to memory recall. Collectively\, these studies provide
  a roadmap for designing AI that moves beyond the playlist\, transforming 
 music-based chatbots into sustained partners for emotional and psychologic
 al health.\n\nBio\nProfessor Li Chen is currently a Full Professor and Ass
 ociate Head (Research) in the Department of Computer Science at Hong Kong 
 Baptist University (HKBU). She obtained her PhD degree in Computer Science
  from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)\, Switz
 erland\, and her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Peking University\, 
 China. Her recent research focus has mainly been on conversational AI\, ex
 plainable AI\, recommender systems\, and human-computer interaction. She h
 as authored and co-authored over 160 publications\, with over 13\,000 cita
 tions (H-index 53). Her co-authored papers have received several awards\, 
 such as the RecSys’24 Best Student Paper Award\, CHI’22 Honourable Men
 tion Award\, UMAP’20 Best Student Paper Award\, UMUAI 2018 Best Paper Aw
 ard\, and UMAP’15 Best Student Paper Award. She received the President
 ’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching (Individual) 2024/25 an
 d the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research Supervis
 ion 2022/23. She has been included in the list of the world’s top 2% mos
 t-cited scientists by Stanford University since 2021\, and the list of the
  Best Computer Science Scientists 2025/2026 by Research.com.\n\nShe is now
  an ACM senior member\, founding co-editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on
  Recommender Systems (TORS)\, steering committee member of ACM Conference 
 on Recommender Systems (RecSys)\, associate editor of International Journa
 l of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS)\, editorial board member of User Model
 ing and User-Adapted Interaction Journal (UMUAI)\, and associate editor of
  ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS). She has also 
 served as program co-chair of IUI’26\, general co-chair of ACM RecSys’
 23\, program co-chair of ACM RecSys’20\, and program co-chair of ACM UMA
 P’18.\n 
LOCATION:ELE 117 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==ELE%20117 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/67788354916?pwd=ToPdGZ0KqvykXwRRh4kf2HUJIBz1Pz.1
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR