HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU)

Dr. Nabil Alshurafa directs Northwestern University's Health Aware Bits (HABits) Lab
Rewriting how we study human behavior through sensors!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

combining #wearables, #mobilehealth, #AI/#ML, and #HCI — let’s talk

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

I will be looking for 1-2 PhD students to start Fall 2026 to join me in the @northwesterncs @NorthwesternEng and @NorthwesternMed departments!

Deadline: Dec 1, 2025. Funding is available.

If you want to build technologies that actually improve people’s health reach out!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@jpeyton85 @NUPrevMed @Nature yes, we're hoping to have the app eventually out early next year!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@plopesresearch Thanks @plopesresearch !!

[NU Preventive Medicine @NUPrevMed]

📢 New research is revolutionizing fitness trackers for people with obesity! 🏋️⌚

Read our @nature scientific report + watch our media story on how an innovative algorithm is transforming the way we measure heart rate and energy expenditure: https://t.co/ofefhweMdK #PrevMed #NU

[NU Preventive Medicine @NUPrevMed]

Dive into the world of wearables with @ABC's latest article featuring Dr. Nabil Alshurafa's insights on the benefits & risks of this emerging technology. Stay informed about the future of health monitoring! #PrevMed #NUDPM🔗: https://t.co/dMy8XVsfug

[NU Preventive Medicine @NUPrevMed]

The future of health tech is here, and it's tailored for those with obesity! ⌚🏋️ Read on to discover how this groundbreaking algorithm from @HAbitsLab enhances fitness tracking and personalization: https://t.co/6XNwZbWXNO

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@KSamChi @CdotRomano @MahdiPedram91 #obesityresearch #wearables #mHealth #behaviorchange #NIH #K25 #dataset #COLLABORATION

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

NEW: "More accurate fitness tracking for people with obesity"

A fantastic piece by @KSamChi of Northwestern Now about our recent work on wearable fitness tracking algorithms!

S/O to Lab members Boyang Wei, @CdotRomano, Bonnie Nolan, @MahdiPedram91 !!

https://t.co/mV9IfStMt1

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@KSamChi @CdotRomano @MahdiPedram91 #CTA: If you care about better obesity treatments, please like/share — public science moves faster with public support.

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@KSamChi @CdotRomano @MahdiPedram91 Massive thanks to the @NIH (K25 / @NIDDKgov ) and all participants — this work took years and wouldn’t exist without public support.

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

@KSamChi @CdotRomano @MahdiPedram91 🔥 Big news: our HABits Lab just published in Nature — we discovered 5 distinct overeating patterns that could reshape how we treat obesity.
We followed people with obesity for two weeks using wearable cameras + sensors to see what, when, where, and how they eat.

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

"New Wearable Algorithm Improves Fitness Tracking in Obesity" - a new article by @Medscape on our recent research in wrist-based energy estimation!

S/O HABits Lab team who worked on this project: Boyang Wei, @CdotRomano, Bonnie Nolan, @MahdiPedram91!

https://t.co/IgwgZwqxmk

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

"RFK Jr. wants everyone to use wearables. What are the benefits, risks?" by @ABC

A timely piece about @SecKennedy's recent endorsement of wearable health technologies—including an interview with yours truly!

Are wearables for everybody? Read more here!
https://t.co/8japOXIDzZ

[Dr. Linda E. Carlson 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 @Linda_E_Carlson]

Happy to see @BehavioralMed doing some good things for the environment at #SBM2025 with a plant-based food day and eco-friendly activities!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

I'm at San Francisco attending #sbm2025 @BehavioralMed. Come check out our panel discussion at titled: Everybody Eats: Selecting from the buffet of technology-enhanced dietary assessment options! Posters, Live Research Spotlight, and more today and tomorrow! Come say hi!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

It also shows results using part of our National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) R21 data (441.9 hours)!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

So proud of HabitsLab student Meixi and Glenn(PhD candidate) for their abstract "Multimodal Hand-to-Mouth Gesture Recognition," which was accepted at @RealAAAI -2025 as a poster session, they were selected an an oral presentation (13%), and received an Outstanding Paper award!

[HABits Lab (Prof. Nabil Alshurafa's Lab at NU) @HAbitsLab]

And how fun, they got to meet and chat with @AndrewYNg! This work aims to improve our ability to detect activity using multiple sensors (RGB and thermal). The paper presents a novel mid-fusion architecture, RTFVNet, for multi-class hand-to-mouth gesture recognition.

[Glenn Fernandes @GlennFernandes_]

Excited to share our latest paper on HabitSense: a privacy-aware, AI-enhanced multi-modal wearable platform that detects health-risk behaviors 📷🌿
Read on for key insights! 👇
#mHealth #WearableTech #AI #DigitalHealth
https://t.co/BTWs4xoHbs
https://t.co/1kQyVGx6OM