Program Overview
A six-month collaborative research program with University of Washington Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) students as part of their Capstone project. Each phase focuses on a distinct dimension of responsible AI deployment in mental health contexts — building toward a comprehensive evaluation of He@lio's effectiveness, safety, and ethical posture.
6
Research Phases
6
Months Duration
UW
MSIM Capstone 2026
MSIM Capstone Researchers
University of Washington
Amber Lee · Casey Frizzell · Jaspreet Bhamipuri · Ko-Ching Lu · Rebecca Ko · Saba Ziadlou · Tim Joo · Trudy Xia · Veronica Lee · Yeneneh Wakjira
Project Sponsors
Compassion8Innovation
Joydeep Hazra · Brian Ho
Supported by: Amazon · Bellevue School District
Phase Tracker
Program Phases
January – June 2026 · 6 Phases
Study of Mental Health Topics
Teams received AI fundamentals training from Google experts and conducted in-depth research into mental health topics affecting teens. The goal was to ground the research in real-world youth mental health challenges before engaging with He@lio's AI system.
Do No Harm
Establishing safety guardrails to ensure He@lio does not suggest, imply, or reinforce harmful behaviours. This phase evaluates the chatbot's responses across high-risk mental health scenarios including crisis situations, self-harm language, and harmful coping suggestions.
Topic to be announced
Topic to be announced
Topic to be announced
Final Outcomes & Recommendations
Phase 1 — Study of Mental Health Topics
Teams received AI fundamentals training from Google experts and conducted in-depth research into mental health topics affecting teens. The goal was to ground the research in real-world youth mental health challenges before engaging with He@lio's AI system.
- Received hands-on AI fundamentals training from Google experts, including prompt engineering best practices for large language models (LLMs).
- Conducted extensive research into teen mental health topics including depression, anxiety, bullying, eating disorders, and substance use.
- Studied how to craft effective prompts to generate reliable, safe, and useful AI responses in a mental health context.
- Combined AI training with mental health research to begin preparing He@lio to recommend content that is safe, evidence-informed, and appropriate for students.
Phase 2 — Do No Harm
Establishing safety guardrails to ensure He@lio does not suggest, imply, or reinforce harmful behaviours. This phase evaluates the chatbot's responses across high-risk mental health scenarios including crisis situations, self-harm language, and harmful coping suggestions.
- Reviewed He@lio's response corpus against established mental health safety frameworks including Safe Messaging Guidelines (AFSP) and Crisis Text Line protocols.
- Identified and flagged response patterns that could inadvertently minimise distress signals or provide ambiguous guidance in crisis contexts.
- Began iterative prompt and guardrail refinement in collaboration with the Compassion8Innovation team to harden response safety.
This is a living document — updated as each phase of the pilot program progresses.
A final outcomes report with recommendations will be published upon program completion in June 2026.
More Research
Airlume: Improving School Air Quality Through Service and Data Analysis
September 30, 2024
A white paper that examines how school air quality can be improved through integrated sensing, filtration, and dashboard analytics. The project frames indoor air health as an operational education issue, linking environmental monitoring to student well-being, attendance, and learning outcomes.
Read Full PaperProject Sentinel: A Modular, Offline-First Edge AI Framework for Community Infrastructure Security and Environmental Monitoring
September 3, 2025
A multi-year open research initiative designing, building, and validating a privacy-first, fully offline edge AI platform for under-resourced environments. Project Sentinel investigates whether modular, self-healing AI infrastructure can provide meaningful network security, environmental monitoring, and community resilience — running on low-cost hardware with no cloud dependency.
Read Full PaperDesigning 5G-As-A-Service for Human Exploration and Settlement on Mars
August 31, 2023
A comprehensive wireless network design for a hypothetical Mars research base. The project evaluates low-band 5G architecture for indoor and outdoor habitat coverage, integrating relay satellites, access point deployment, real-time monitoring, and network management tooling for mission-critical operations.
Read Full Paper