PeDEL

The Personal Data and Empowerment Lab is a Human-Centered Computing research lab in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah. When designing technologies, many developers fail to fully represent their users, creating technology that is not equally accessible for all members of society. Our research focuses on addressing this issue by analyzing ways to ensure that technology is more inclusive and equally accessible for all. The majority of our research explores the topics of healthcare, accessibility, and personal informatics with the end goal of empowering users.

Jason, Josh, Sinthia, John, Jens, Ashlyn, and Tamanna posing for a group picture on the University of Utah campus

End of semester lab froyo!

Isha, Tamanna, Jason, Josh, and Sinthia posing in front of the projector screen in the convention center at CHI 2022 in New Orleans

Lab photo at CHI 2022 in New Orleans!

Recent Publications

Opportunities for Technology to Facilitate Treatment for People with Disorders of Consciousness

Thomas Kauffman, Rebecca Moore, Jason Wiese

CHI '26: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 13--17, 2026, Barcelona, ESP, CHI

Meetup: Mentorship in HCI x Health Research

Ignacio Avellino, James R. Wallace, Francisco Nunes, Jason Wiese, Helena M. Mentis, Sean A. Munson, Aneesha Singh, Chia-Fang Chung, Pin Sym Foong

CHI EA '26, Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2026

An Exploratory Study of Sociotechnical Issues for Anti-Money Laundering Workers

Jordan D Pyper, Jason Wiese

CHI '26, Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2026

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News

Jul 2, 2026

🏅 Our paper "Hospital Administrator Perspectives on Integrating Novel Interactive Technology in the Hospital" received a special recognition award for clinical impact from ACM Interactive Health 2026!

Projects

Making Smart Hospitals Useful

Smart hospitals are arriving, driven by the vision to enhance the patient experience, reduce operational burden, and improve hospital workflow. We explore how the technology employed in patient rooms better supports patients' and employees' needs.

Designing Technology for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury to Facilitate Self-care Adherence

Individuals with spinal cord injuries often have to perform numerous self-care activities. Performing pressure reliefs is one such behavior to prevent pressure ulcers. We investigate technological solutions to increase pressure relief adherence.

Advancing the Path for a More Human-centered Design of Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs)

This project focuses on advancing the path for designing more user-centered JITAIs. Specifically, this work will provide guidelines for designing JITAIs that account for the diverse ways users interact with technology for supporting health and well-being.

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Contact

Personal Data and Empowerment Lab

pedel@cs.utah.edu

Kahlert School of Computing

University of Utah

50 Central Campus Drive Rm. 3190
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Curriculum vitae