Acadia ALERT - Full Campus Closure Due to Weather

Today, February 16, 2024 at 2pm, Acadia University will close the entire campus, with the exception of residences and Wheelock Dining Hall, due to the forecasted weather. Wheelock Dining Hall may adjust their hours due to the weather and any change in hours will be communicated through Residence Life. The Acadia Athletic Complex, Vaughan Memorial Library, KC Irving Environmental Science Centre and the Manning Memorial Chapel will be closed in addition to the rest of the campus. Any events scheduled for today will be postponed or canceled.

The campus will remain closed until 12pm on Monday February 17, 2025. An update on campus conditions will be provided no later that 11am on Monday. Should conditions allow campus will reopen at 12pm.

Updates will be posted on www.acadiau.ca and pre-recorded on Acadia’s Information Line: 902-585-4636 (585-INFO) and on 585 phone system voicemail. If you need emergency-related information, please contact the Department of Safety and Security by dialing 88 on all 585-phone systems, or by calling 902-585-1103.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Acadia University

Department of Safety & Security

902-585-1103

security@acadiau.ca

(Sunday February 16, 2025 @ 12:59 pm)

Acadia's Dr. Daniel Lametti taps into emotions with AI journal bot

Professors and researchers at Acadia are continually finding ways to better understand real life issues and to find solutions that people in our communities can access. Dr. Daniel Lametti, Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Acadia University, is one of those seekers. 

Throughout the day, we all have different thoughts running through our minds – much of which can reflect and influence our mental health. Dr. Lametti is working on a way to better capture, understand, and guide inner dialogue to help people improve their mental health – and he’s using the latest AI technologies to do it. 

Dr. Lametti has teamed up with University College London PhD candidate, Joanna Kuc, and the AI company, OneReach, to create a helpful “journaling bot”. The conversational AI tool prompts people to share their thoughts and feelings and later provides insightful weekly summaries of these entries back to the users. 

Fascinatingly, those who use voice recognition software to make their journal entries will also have their manner of speaking analysed by the bot. This aspect, along with the content of the entries, and an analysis of when and how often people think and feel certain things, can help to tell a fuller story of how a person is doing. 

Beyond making these observations known to users, the AI tool can be used to provide alerts or suggestions to help modify a person’s behaviour or mood, potentially preventing greater lapses in mental health. The pair hope to soon make the bot publicly available through Telegram.

Dr. Lametti and Joanna Kuc recently walked through their bot in the Invisible Machines podcast. Learn more about it and the findings they’ve gathered so far:

Get the Acadia experience with Dr. Lametti

Dr. Lametti is on sabbatical in 2024, but he typically teaches Introduction to Cognition, Psycholinguistics, and Writing About Psychological Science within the Department of Psychology.

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