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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Dear Colleagues,</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted0">Call for Papers: </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted0">1st
Workshop on Multimodal Virtual Agents for Mental Health and Wellbeing – A new world with foundation models</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted0"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"><span style="color: rgb(23, 78, 134);"> </span></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" class="ContentPasted0">We are pleased to announce the </span><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0">1</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0"><sup class="ContentPasted0">st</sup></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0"> IVA</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0">Workshop
on “Multimodal Virtual Agents for Mental Health and Wellbeing – A new world with foundation models”</span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" class="ContentPasted0">, which will be held in conjunction with the
23rd ACM International Conference on Virtual Agents taking place in Würzburg, Germany, from Sept 19<sup class="ContentPasted0">th</sup> -22<sup class="ContentPasted0">nd</sup>, 2023. The workshop will explore the applications of cutting-edge Multimodal Virtual
Agents to Digital Mental Health and Wellbeing solutions. </span><span class="ContentPasted0" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">This
would include interactive Multimodal Virtual Agents equipped with facial and voice affect sensing capabilities, extending this beyond the use of pre-scripted text-to-speech technologies, to the integration of revolutionary foundation language models, e.g.,
GPT, DALL.E, that could enable real-time natural language processing for a more engaging and empathic conversational experience. </span><b style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><span style="border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);" class="ContentPasted0">We
are inviting paper submissions exploring the applications of face, voice, and language Foundation Models in building mental health applications. </span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted1">Topics of interest include:</span></b><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" data-editing-info="{"orderedStyleType":1,"unorderedStyleType":1}">
<li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1">Recognition of mental health conditions from face and voice </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1">Improving delivery of mental health treatment using empathetic virtual agents </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1">Providing mental health advise using virtual agents </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1">Reports of real-world deployment of virtual agents </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted1">Ethical issues of virtual agents for mental health </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted1"> </o:p></span></li></ul>
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<b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted2">Important dates: </span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" data-editing-info="{"orderedStyleType":1,"unorderedStyleType":1}">
<li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted2">Wed 19 July 2023 - Submission deadline </span><span style="color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted2"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted2">Mon 31 July 2023 - Notification of acceptance </span><span style="color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted2"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted2">Tue 15 Aug 2023 - 'Camera ready' version deadline </span><span style="color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted2"> </o:p></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; color: black;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted2">Tue 19 Sept 2023 - Workshop day of Conference </span><span style="color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted2"> </o:p></span> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></span></li></ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; background: white;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted0">Organisers</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);" class="ContentPasted0">:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(0, 32, 96);" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">Prof
Michel Valstar (</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;"><i class="ContentPasted3">University of Nottingham/BlueSkeye
AI</i></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">),</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);"><o:p class="ContentPasted3"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></o:p></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">Dr
Mani Tellamekala (</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;"><i class="ContentPasted3">Blueskeye AI</i></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">)</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><font style="color: rgb(23, 78, 134);">, </font></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">Dr
Joy Egede (</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;"><i class="ContentPasted3">University of Nottingham</i></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 134);"><o:p class="ContentPasted3"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> and </span></o:p></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">Dr
Nicholas Cummins (</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;"><i class="ContentPasted3">King’s College
London</i></span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;">)</span><span class="ContentPasted3" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><font style="color: rgb(23, 78, 134);">.</font></span></p>
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<span style="color: black;" class="ContentPasted0">For inquiries about the workshop, please contact Mani Tellamekala (mani@blueskeye.com), or Joy Egede (<a href="mailto:joy.egede@nottingham.ac.uk" class="ContentPasted0" data-loopstyle="linkonly">joy.egede@nottingham.ac.uk</a>).</span></p>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; background: white; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" class="ContentPasted0">More information including submission instructions are available on the IVA Conference website:</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: black;" class="ContentPasted0"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"><a href="https://iva.acm.org/2023/1st-workshop-on-multimodal-virtual-agents-for-mental-healthand-wellbeing-a-new-world-with-foundation-models/" target="_blank" class="ContentPasted0"><span style="border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">https://iva.acm.org/2023/1st-workshop-on-multimodal-virtual-agents-for-mental-healthand-wellbeing-a-new-world-with-foundation-models/</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></span></p>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" class="ContentPasted0">Kind regards, </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: black;"><o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; background: white;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);" class="ContentPasted0">The Workshop Organisers</span></p>
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