Sharath Chandra Guntuku is an Associate Professor in the research-track in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School of Communication. He directs the Computational Social Listening Lab. His research is at the intersection of artificial intelligence, public health informatics, and health data science, leveraging large-scale digital data such as social media, electronic health records, online reviews, and smartphone-based interactions to uncover insights that improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.
He develops natural language processing and machine learning methods to monitor and predict health-related behaviors, assess mental health at individual and population levels, stratify risk across diverse populations, and design scalable, culturally informed interventions, including conversational agents for health behavior change. This interdisciplinary research agenda is supported by over $5.1 million USD in external funding and has led to publications in PNAS, JAMA Network Open, and npj Digital Medicine, with applications ranging from clinical decision support to real-time public health surveillance, implemented with partners including state Departments of Health and the World Bank Group.
His work has been covered by the American Psychological Association, WIRED, Canadian Broadcasting Company, The Atlantic, US News, and other venues.
His group has been funded by the National Institutes of Health [details], World Bank Group, and Penn Global [details] for funding our work.