Saba Kheirinejad

Saba Kheirinejad

Postdoctoral Fellow and UX Researcher at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)

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Publications

Conference papers

  • Rashid, Rezaur, Saba Kheirinejad, Brianna M. White, Soheil Hashtarkhani, Parnian Kheirkhah Rahimabad, Fekede A. Kumsa, Lokesh Chinthala et al. "Simulating Empathic Interactions with Synthetic LLM-Generated Cancer Patient Personas." In Good Evaluation-Better Digital Health, pp. 72-76. IOS Press, 2025.
  • Lei Kehua, Kathleen Lum, Namrata Keskar, Saba Kheirinejad, Shivani Potnuru, Amy Xing, Reina Itakura, Simo Hosio, and David T. Lee. “Exploring Communal Gratitude in Online Communities.” CSCW’2024.
  • M. Torres-Mendoza David, Saba Kheirinejad, Mustafa Ajmal, Ashwin Chembu, Dustin Palea, Jim Whitehead, and David T. Lee. "Evaluating Exploratory Reading Groups for Supporting Undergraduate Research Pipelines in Computing." ICER 2024.
  • Haliburton Luke, Saba Kheirinejad, Albrecht Schmidt, and Sven Mayer. "Exploring Smart Standing Desks to Foster a Healthier Workplace." IMWUT'23.
  • Kiarostami Sina, Ville Paananen, Lik Hang Lee, Aku Visuri, Saba Kheirinejad, and Simo Hosio. "Exploring Situated Empathy through a Metaverse Campus." Academic MT23.
  • Alorwu, Andy, Saba Kheirinejad, Niels Van Berkel, Marianne Kinnula, Denzil Ferreira, Aku Visuri, and Simo Hosio. "Assessing MyData Scenarios: Ethics, Concerns, and the Promise." In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-11. 2021.
  • Kuosmanen Elina, Aku Visuri, Saba Kheirinejad, Niles v. Berkel, Heli Koskimäki, Denzil Ferreira, Simo Hosio. "How Does Sleep Tracking Influence Your Life? Experiences from a Longitudinal Field Study with a Wearable Ring'', MobileHCI ’22, Sep 28–Oct 1, 2022, Vancouver, Canada. "Best Paper Honorable Mention Award".
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Noushin Riaihi, and Reza Azmi. "Persian Text Based Traffic Sign Detection with Convolutional Neural Network: A New Dataset." In 2020 10th International Conference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE), pp. 060-064. IEEE, 2020.
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Seyed Mohammad Hossein Hasheminejad, and Nooshin Riahi. "Max-min ant colony optimization method for edge detection exploiting a new heuristic information function." In 2018 8th International Conference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE), pp. 12-15. IEEE, 2018.

Journal papers

  • Kheirinejad Saba, Aku Visuri, Sharadhi Alape Suryanarayana, and Simo Hosio. "Exploring mHealth Applications for Self-Management of Chronic Low Back Pain: A Survey of Features and Benefits." Heliyon journal, 2023.
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Aku Visuri, Denzil Ferreira, and Simo Hosio. "Leave Your Smartphone Out of Bed”: Quantitative Analysis of Smartphone Use on Sleep Quality." Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal, 2023.
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Andy Alorwu, Aku Visuri, and Simo Hosio. "Contrasting the Expectations and Experiences Related to Mobile Health Use for Chronic Pain: Questionnaire Study." JMIR Human Factors 9, no. 3 (2022): e38265.
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Noushin Riahi, and Reza Azmi. "Text-Based Traffic Panels Detection using the Tiny YOLOv3 Algorithm." Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 68-80 (2022).

Preprints and under review papers

  • Kheirinejad Saba, Christopher L. Brett, Robert L. Davis, David L. Schwartz, Arash Shaban-Nejad. "Toward a Feature-Based Regulatory Benchmark for User-Centered SaMD Design in Cancer Care." Submitted to BMJ Health & Care Informatics.
  • Tyra Girdwood, Kheirinejad Saba, Parnian Kheirkhah Rahimabad, Brianna White, Robert Davis, David Schwartz, Arash Shaban-Nejad. "Empathic and Agentic Artificial Intelligence in Nursing: A Human-Centered Framework for Cancer Care Navigation." Submitted to Sage Open Nursing.
  • Kehua Lei, Namrata Keskar, Audrey Ostrom, Caeley Moushegian, Kheirinejad Saba, Yash Raj Singh, Isha Dushyant Chury, Jasmin M Chan, Simo Hosio, David T Lee. "Reflection to Connection: Encouraging Sharing of Authentic Gratitude Reflections with LLM-based Latent Connection Surfacing." Submitted to CHI 2026.
  • Kheirinejad Saba, Junhao Lee, Aku Visuri, David Lee, Steven Dow, Shixian Geng, Koji Yatani, and Simo Hosio. "Understanding Perspectives on the Potential Roles of Chatbots in Online Peer Health Group Discussions." Under preparation.
  • Kiarostami Sina, Ville Paananen, Lik Hang Lee, Aku Visuri, Saba Kheirinejad, and Simo Hosio. "We are Oulu: Communicating Hardship Stories of Immigrants and Promoting Situated Empathy in a Virtual Reality Campus." Submitted to Virtual Reality Journal.
  • Kheirinejad Saba and Simo Hosio. "The Impact of Emotional Awareness in AI-Driven Chatbots on Human Interaction." Under preparation.