Subigya Nepal

Name:

Subigya Nepal

Department:

Computer Science

Hometown:

Kathmandu, Nepal

Connected to TYDE:

I’m a TYDE Faculty Affiliate and sit on the Interdisciplinary Training Committee.

Research:

• Using smartphone and wearable data to capture how people behave in real life
• Building AI systems that can make sense of the data
• Running a five-year study with 200+ college students tracking them through finals week to COVID
• Using Generative AI to build tools that help people learn about themselves and perform at their best

What excites me most:

Using Generative AI to build tools that help people learn about themselves and perform at their best.

About youth mental health and digital technology:

The goal shouldn’t just be harm reduction. There’s a tendency to frame this whole conversation around what technology is doing to young people, but I think the more interesting question is what technology could do for them. Done well, these tools can help young people understand their own patterns, build better habits and thrive in ways that weren’t possible before.

Policies as U.S. digital technology czar:

• Require platforms to give users, especially young people, meaningful control over their own data and how algorithms are shaping what they see
• Push digital literacy into school curricula the same way we treat math or science
• Create real incentives for platforms to optimize for user growth and wellbeing rather than just engagement