Having begun her education in computer communication engineering at the Lebanese University of Engineering, Salam began a Master's degree in signal and image processing at Grenoble INP—Phelma. She then met CEA-Leti ambassadors, who offered her a position as a doctoral student, to work on mental health and artificial intelligence.

“It's quite unique to be able to work in such a culturally rich environment, and I'm convinced that this is one of CEA-Leti's strengths."

Her interest in the workings of the human psyche led to three years researching and developing an embedded tool to understand and predict potential relapses in people who suffer from mental disorders and illnesses. Salam Hamieh only heard quite late that her supervisors had registered her for the challenge. Yet far from discouraging her, she obtained second place, with the aim of developing a tool:

A smartwatch that continuously analyzes a quantity of data that a doctor would be unable to analyze alone, and then interprets and accordingly informs the patient's specialists. The device presents a potentially viable and safe algorithm that may allow for a better understanding and prediction of relapse cases in patients suffering from bipolar disorders or schizophrenia, among other conditions.

“I really didn't think I could do it. I was in Lebanon when I heard the news three weeks late. However, with the dynamic environment and the exceptional support of my supervisors, I was able to finish and even got the second place, so I am very proud of myself."​

What's the next step?

Salam would like to successfully implement her algorithm in a connected watch, thus offering a non-invasive daily diagnosis to patients. In addition, the results show unique patterns for each profile, so it will also be a matter of refining the algorithm's analysis capacity and offering individual support to patients.