Joe Breda

About Me

I am a Fourth year PhD student advised by Shwetak Patel in the Ubiquitous Computing Lab at the University of Washington Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineer.

My work focuses on leveraging ubiqutious technology and artificial intelligence for social good, sustainability, and urbanism.

While at UW I have worked with deep learning for safer navigation at Google, taught Embedded Systems, and helped lead the cross-departmental CS4Environment Initiative

I got my B.S. in Computer Engineering with a Minor in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where I worked with Jay Taneja, Prashant Shenoy, and David Irwin.

CV / Google Scholar

Research Interests

I'm broadly interested in using sensing, ubiqutious technology, and artificial intelligence for social good. I am passionate about my work having a positive impact on environmental sustainability, health, and the equity and efficiency of the built environment.

To do this, I like to build and deploy AI powered sensing on smartphones, wearables, and embedded systems.

I am most excited about computing problems that are grounded in physics, signal processing, or behavior science.

I also have experience in visualization, interactions, and qualitative science.

Personal Interests

I like to make digital art through a number of mediums including computer graphics, illustration software, and electronic music production.

Some things I am particilarly fascinated by are ambient music, harsh noise, procedural graphics, and the design of everyday objects.

I also like bouldering, biking, and walking around the city with my friends.

Publications

FeverPhone: Accessible Core-Body Temperature Sensing for Fever Monitoring Using Commodity Smartphones

Joseph Breda, Mastafa M. Springston, Alex Mariakakis, Shwetak Patel

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), 2023 [PDF]

Understanding People's Concerns and Attitudes Towards Smart Cities

Pardis Emami-Naeini, Joseph Breda, Wei Dai, Tadayoshi Kohno, Kim Laine, Shwetak Patel, Franziska Rosener

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023 [PDF]

Passively Sensing SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Public Transit Buses

Jason Hoffman, Matthew Hirano, Nuttada Panpradist, Joseph Breda, Parker Ruth, Yuanyi Xu, Jonathan Lester, Bichlien H. Nguyen, Luis Ceze, Shwetak Patel

Science of the Total Environment, 2022 [PDF]

Phone-based ambient temperature sensing using opportunistic crowdsensing and machine learning

Amee Trivedi, Phuthipong Bovornkeeratiroj, Joseph Breda, Prashant Shenoy, Jay Taneja, David E Irwin

Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, 2021 [PDF]

Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Reframing Urban Agriculture as an Opportunity for Social Engagement

Joseph Breda, Esther Jang, Kurtis Heimerl, Shwetak Patel

Self-Sustainable CHI'20 [PDF]

Hot or Not: Leveraging Mobile Devices for Ubiquitous Temperature Sensing

Joseph Breda, Amee Trivedi, Chulabhaya Wijesundara, Phuthipong Bovornkeeratiroj, David E Irwin, Prashant Shenoy, Jay Taneja

BuildSys'19 [PDF]

Staring at the Sun: A Physical Black-box Solar Performance Model

Dong Chen, Joseph Breda, David Irwin