Program

Chris is a system designer, technologist and expert in the field of digital implementation in mental health.  In a career spanning over 20 years he has lead a number of ground-breaking, award winning service transformation programmes that have changed fundamentally how mental health treatments and support is delivered across the population of Scotland.

Chris is passionate about delivering innovative, high quality, sustainable digital services at large scale within mental health speaking regularly at public forums about his experiences and approaches. His work currently is focused on the development of strategy, policy, service and innovative technologies and is working to change the culture across Health and Cares services to maximise the impact and the adoption of digital in mental health.

Anna Esposito is Full Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, where she leads the Behaving Cognitive Systems (BeCogSys) Lab. She is leading an internationally research in human-centered and socially aware artificial intelligence, with expertise in multimodal communication, neural networks, and computational modeling of cognitive and socio-emotional behavior, aimed at delivering measurable impact in healthcare, society, and digital services.

Her work strategically integrates artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, and applied mathematics to design interpretable, trustworthy, and deployable AI systems for complex human-centered environments. She is currently involved in the Italian PRIN project IRRESPECTIVE (A Pilot Analysis of Behavioral and Operational Data for Detecting Socio-Emotional Precursors of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia) and in the H2020 MSCA project CRYSTAL (Conversational Systems for Emotional Support and Customer Assistance), contributing to advanced methodologies for emotional intelligence, conversational AI, and decision support.

Anna Esposito has been an active member of the Italian Society of Neural Networks (SIREN) for over 20 years and currently serves as its President, after previously holding the role of Treasurer. Through this leadership, Anna is playing a role in shaping national research priorities, by strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, and positioning the Italian neural networks community within the European AI ecosystem.

She has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is editor or co-editor of over 35 international volumes published by Springer, including the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) and the Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies (SIST) series. “Her research supports the development of new directions in AI and cognitive systems, fostering innovation and evidence-based policy.

My research is embedded in the focus on clinical psychology and eMental-Health from the Section of Clinical Psychology (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), as well as Amsterdam University Medical Centre and Amsterdam Public Health Institute from Vrije Universiteit/Universiteit of Amsterdam (VUA and UvA). Over the past 25 years, my research has focused on developing, evaluating, and implementing innovative eMental-Health interventions for common mental disorders including depression and alcohol use disorders, spanning from prevention to treatment. My current research activities include using mobile health and combined online, face-to-face, and web-based video conferencing (‘blended’) treatments for depression, anxiety, and substance use-related disorders. New methodological challenges include developing and evaluating mobile ecological momentary assessments and interventions (EMA/EMI), patient-centred design, and AI in Mental Health.

I have embraced an international perspective and collaboration throughout my academic career, serving as Principal Investigator for more than 15 large-scale European Union projects and acting as a reviewer for Research Funding Organisations worldwide. I served as the Principal Investigator and coordinator of the European Comparative Effectiveness study on Internet Interventions for Depression (E-COMPARED, www.e-compared.eu). I have published over 375 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the eMental health field (H-index 70 as of 2026). In 2020, I was ranked among the top 1% most-cited researchers in my field by the Web of Science™. In 2013, I co-founded the Journal of Internet Interventions. Currently, I am the chief editor of Frontiers/ Digital Mental Health. From 2014 to 2016, I served as President of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII). In 2021, I was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Bern, Switzerland. In 2024, I received the Global Leadership Award from the International Society of Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) and was named a “Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion” for my academic achievements.

Professor Michel Valstar is a co-founder, Chief Evangelist and Chief Scientific Officer of BLUESKEYE AI and an Honorary Professor in Automatic Human Behaviour Understanding in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. He is an expert in machine learning, computer vision and facial expression analysis and a thought leader in affective computing and social signal processing. Over 22 years in this field his work has been published in over 200 peer-reviewed publications, which have been cited over 21,000 times with an h-index of 58, making him the second most cited person in the field of SSP. He is the organiser of 9 international conferences on the subject.

His work has received extensive media coverage including in; Science Magazine, The Guardian, New Scientist and on BBC TV and Radio. Most recently it featured in the BBC Panorama programme Beyond Human Artificial Intelligence and Us alongside Bengio Yoshi, Yann LeCunn, and others. In 2014 he coined the term Behaviomedics to describe the application of automatic analysis and synthesis of affective and social signals to aid objective diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of medical conditions that alter an individual’s affective and socially expressive behaviour.

In 2019 Professor Valstar founded BLUESKEYE AI to commercialise the work of himself and his team.The company aims to create the most-used technology for ethical machine understanding of face and voice behaviour trusted to measure the mind through the use of ubiquitously available, affordable technology.