Workshop Program
Workshop 1
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN ASSESSING AND PROMOTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH
Zan Gao 1, Jessh Mavoungou 1, Zarmina Amin 1, John Oginni 1
1 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Regular physical activity participation is essential for preventing chronic disease and enhancing health and wellness, yet inactivity remains widespread. Advances in emerging technologies now offer powerful tools to help individuals adopt and maintain active lifestyles. This workshop explores how wearable sensors, mobile health apps, virtual reality fitness, GPS-enabled tracking, gamified systems, and AI-supported coaching can enhance physical activity assessment and promotion. Participants will learn evidence-based strategies to integrate technology into research and practice, apply behavioral theories to design effective interventions, and evaluate strengths and limitations of these tools in real-world settings. Through guided discussion and a hands-on group design lab, attendees will create a concise, scalable intervention concept tailored to a specific population, gaining practical experience in linking technology use with physical activity assessment and promotion.
Workshop 2
OPEN AND REPRODUCIBLE WEARABLE DATA ANALYTICS: THE WEALTH PLATFORM FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND ENERGY EXPENDITURE RESEARCH
Luis Sigcha Guachamin 1, Alan Donnelly 2, Grainne Hayes 2, Antje Hebestreit 3, Annika Swenne 3, Christoph Buck 3, Pepijn Van De Ven 2, Jean-Michel Oppert 4, Greet Cardon 5, Tomas Vetrovsky 6, Steriani Elavsky 7, Richard Cimler 7, Janas Harrington 8
1 University of Minho, 2 University of Limerick, 3 Leibniz Institute, 4 Sorbonne Paris North University, 5 Ghent University, 6 Charles University, 7 University of Hradec Králové, 8 University College Cork
The workshop introduces the WEALTH project, which provides standardised and reproducible methods for analysing physical activity and energy expenditure using wearable sensors and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). It presents one of Europe’s largest labelled datasets and the machine learning models developed for activPAL, ActiGraph, and smartwatch data. Participants will be guided through the WEALTH study (Shiny-based) online platform and the Python/Colab workflow, working with sample data and their own accelerometer data to apply the tools directly to their research. The session combines conceptual overviews with live demonstrations, offering practical insight into model development, data processing, and visualisation. Attendees are encouraged to bring laptops and data for hands-on exploration, and all participants will receive access to pre-trained models, code, and documentation via the WEALTH GitHub repository to support reproducible research.
Workshop 3
MAXIMISING ENGAGEMENT WITH A NEW REPORTING GUIDELINE FOR ACCELEROMETRY RESEARCH
Grace Dibben-Santillan 1, Joss Langford 2, Marco Giurgiu 3, Jorunn Helbostad 4
1 University of Glasgow, 2 Activinsights Ltd, 3 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 4 Norwegian University of Science and Technology
This interactive workshop introduces a new reporting guideline and engages participants in co-designing strategies to maximise its use. Short presentations from a researcher, industry/device manufacturer, and society representative will highlight why transparent reporting matters across the research ecosystem. Participants will then work in small groups to identify barriers, explore opportunities, and develop practical approaches to support adoption of the checklist in research, peer review, and publication. Attendees will gain insights into reporting challenges, become familiar with the guideline, and contribute to a community-driven dissemination strategy.
Workshop 5
TRANSFORMING REAL-WORLD FUNCTIONAL MEASUREMENT BY DEVELOPING NEXT GENERATION TOOLS FOR REMOTE MONITORING: INSIGHTS FROM THE TORUS PROJECT
Silvia Del Din 1, Claire Wilkinson 1, Qianhui Men 2, Paul Watson 1, Abi Durrant 1
1 Newcastle University, 2 University of Bristol
This workshop will present insights from the TORUS project for transforming real-world monitoring of Parkinson’s symptoms and mobility using digital tools. It will introduce how wearable sensing, video analysis, machine learning, and co-designed translational pathways can be integrated to ensure that digital measures are valid, meaningful, and acceptable to users. A series of talks and interactive discussions will cover real-world wearable data collection, video sensing for multimodal data fusion, federated and distributed learning approaches, and the role of PPIE, ethics, and co-design in digital health research. The workshop will encourage participation and interdisciplinary exchange across engineering, data science and patient-centred research communities.
Workshop 6
ANALYTICAL VALIDATION OF WRIST-WORN DIGITAL MEASURES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL FUNCTION
Matthew Patterson1, Rakesh Pilkar 2
1 ActiGraph, 2 Ametris
This workshop presents two analytical validation studies for wrist-worn digital health technologies (DHTs) measuring physiological and physical function in clinical research. The first presentation will show wrist-worn DHT-derived heart rate validation in healthy adults using PPG versus 4-lead ECG, demonstrating high agreement across demographic subgroups. The second study will show step count validation in chronic heart failure during simulated daily activities, showing strong performance during walking (MAPE ~9%) but activity-dependent error during non-ambulatory tasks. The workshop will emphasize on study design, data synchronization, epoch selection, and appropriate performance metrics (MAE, MAPE, Bland–Altman). Attendees will gain practical guidance on designing validation studies and defining robust, interpretable digital endpoints for clinical trials.