Deepika Yadav leverages technology to improve women's health

What do you research and why?

I work in human-computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design for health and wellbeing. I design and develop user-centred technologies that help people gain a better understanding of their bodies and health. My work focuses on people’s lived experiences of health—how they understand their bodies as they move across life stages, and how they navigate the sociocultural contexts that shape their capacity to attend to their bodily well-being.

Innovations in digital health often emphasize on diseases and symptoms monitoring, which can overlook how individuals connect with their bodies and the unique challenges they face. What really intrigues me is how people use their tacit knowledge of their bodies, their strengths , and the resources in their local network to support their well-being. I integrate these insights into the design process to be able to create technologies that are not only functional but also meaningful and responsive to people’s constraints, needs, and everyday practices.

Much of my research has focused on women's health, a field traditionally plagued by issues of stigma, limited access to reliable health information, and agency in health decision-making. 

Can you tell us more about your research projects?

My current work is in the area of intimate health, where I am designing new intimate wearables and interaction methods to improve bodily expression, movement and awareness. It explores questions related to designing for bodily interactions and rhythms at the intersection of soft robotics, machine learning and soma design for health.

Another part of my research focuses on studying the use of intimate care technologies and role of technologies in shaping people’s capacity to attend to bodily needs in shared settings. This has included examining the use of breast pumps in the workplace and the tensions that arise in navigating, hiding and balancing bodily care with workplace norms. 

In the past, I have worked extensively on maternal and child health in resource-constrained settings through designing and field-deploying low-cost, mobile-based tools to support community-led knowledge building in India. In this area, my work with ASHAs (women community health workers) in India won the Grand Challenges Award (Round 20) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

How did you become a researcher?

After completing my bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science, I worked as a software developer in India. After 18 months, I realized that I wanted to work directly on research problems with societal relevance. This led me to pursue a PhD at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, in the field of Human-Computer Interaction.

During my PhD in HCI, I worked on projects related to community health workers and maternal and child health, aiming to innovate digital technologies for women who are digitally low-literate and have limited access to resources. This work involved extensive fieldwork in rural India in collaboration with non-profit and public health organizations, as well as social workers. 

What has been the highlight of your career?

Winning the Grand Challenges Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2019 significantly increased the the visibility of my work. This achievement helped me secure a Digital Futures fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research at KTH in Stockholm in 2021, further shaping my academic career and preparing me for international opportunities.

And how did you end up at Aalto University?

I wanted to start my academic career from a reputed international institute that values research in societally relevant problems. I had heard great things about Aalto University from my colleagues, which motivated me to apply when a position opened in the field of HCI at Aalto.

What do you think are the most important qualities for a researcher?

Creativity, the ability to inspire others, and a strong sense of collegiality.

What do you expect from the future?

I look forward to interdisciplinary work, exploring new interaction possibilities with emerging body-focused technologies both local and Europe wide collaborations.

This news item was originally published on the Aalto University website on 15.12.2025