Operationalizing Interpersonal Communication Insights for Real World Applications

This thesis proposal focuses on operationalizing interpersonal communication insights for real world applications and social value. The primary focus will go over the design of an end-of-life communication tool for training medical professionals as well as outline a plan for validating this tool. Additionally, this proposal will propose an analysis plan to explore the facial expressions and acoustic properties of communication skills vital to end of life communication; namely, empathy, empowering, and being explicit. Results will be compared to prior work in facial expression analysis of deceptive communication and competitive debate to encourage a larger discussion of subtle signals sent and received during interpersonal communication. The proposal ends with a promise to discuss how these findings may be applied to promote social value in safeguarding civil liberties, unveiling societal biases, and creating assistive technology.

Advisor: Prof. Ehsan Hoque (Computer Science)

Committee: Prof. Zhen Bai (Computer Science), Prof. Len Schubert (Computer Science),

Dr. Thomas Carroll (URMC), Prof. Taylan Sen (Niagara University)