Stefan Olafsson

• MA in Language Technologies, University of Iceland and Reykjavik University - Iceland
• BA in English Studies, University of Iceland - Iceland
• BA in Chinese Studies, University of Iceland - Iceland

• Hometown: Watertown, Massachusetts
• Field of Study: Personal Health Informatics
• PhD Advisor: Timothy Bickmore

Stefan Olafsson is a PhD student in the Personal Health Informatics program at Northeastern University's Khoury College of Computer Sciences, advised by Professor Timothy Bickmore. Stefan is a member of the Relational Agents Group, and his research is primarily focused on using virtual agents to improve healthcare as well as human-computer interaction. Before coming to Northeastern, Stefan earned a double bachelor's degree in English and Chinese studies at the University of Iceland, as well as his master's degree in language technologies from the University of Iceland and Reykjavik University.

I am currently in my fourth year as a PhD student, and so far I have completed the core courses of the program and passed the qualifying exam. I am currently focusing on developing my dissertation proposal.

Generally, I am interested in working on developing and evaluating the use of virtual agents in healthcare. I aim to develop research based health interventions using this technology and improve the state-of-the-art in human-agent interaction.

I’m interested in automating aspects of face-to-face counseling sessions that involve techniques such as Motivational Interviewing.

What I find most interesting is working on the problems which no one has the answers to.

My career goals are to become a successful researcher and a professor.