Vahid Farrahi, PhD

About

I completed my PhD from 2017 to 2021 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu with a Marie Curie grant, which is one of Europe's most competitive and prestigious grants. My PhD thesis received the grade of 'passed with distinction' and was honored with the 'Best PhD Thesis Award 2021' from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, as well as the 'Exemplary PhD Thesis Award' from the University of Oulu Graduate School (UniOGS). From 2021 to 2023, I held a postdoctoral researcher position at the Center for Machine Vision and Signal Analysis and the Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, both at the University of Oulu. My primary focus at the University of Oulu was studying the health impact of device-measured human movement and non-movement behaviors. Among other responsibilities and supervision activities, I was actively involved in teaching a couple of master's courses, including 'Biomechanics of Human Movement' and 'Biomedical Research Seminar and Methods.

Since late 2023, I have held the position of Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at TU Dortmund University. Collaborating with fellow professors at the university, we are currently in the process of designing a new master's program in sports data science, with plans for its launch in Winter 2024. Overall, I have a deep interest in behavioral and health data science, machine learning and data mining, and wearable devices and technologies. More specifically, my research is focused on the relationships between 24-hour movement and non-movement behaviors measured with wearable accelerometer-based activity monitors.

Precision Activity Lab

Our lab, named "Precision Activity", is focused on measurement of physical behaviors from health wearables, particularly using wearable activity monitors. Our group is dedicated to exploring innovative methodologies for investigating the interrelationships among wearable-measured 24-hour physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, and health.

Our goal is to understand how the use of time and patterns of movement and non-movement behaviors are related to several health outcomes. The research group utilizes data from large population-based cohort studies, integrating data from wearables, health records, and behavioral factors. Machine learning, deep learning, and other statistical approaches are utilized to make sense of these data, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of health and diseases at population level.

Joining my team

I am actively seeking talented researchers and students to join my team. If you are interested in our research and possess a relevant background, I encourage you to reach out to me. In your message, please be specific about how you can contribute to our research and development. You would be an ideal candidate if you are enthusiastic, eager to learn, and, most importantly, passionate about executing tasks with precision and accuracy. 

If there are open positions available, I aim to post them on my webpages, although it is likely that I fail to do so sometimes :). Additionally, we provide internship placements, and the specifics of expectations vary on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in an internship, feel free to inquire about the details with a detailed message about your expectations from your internship. 

Team & thesis supervision

Supervision of doctoral student (supervision period started - ended):

• Alireza Sameh, University of Oulu (Feb 2023-ongoing)

• Mulusew Yaltaye, University of Oulu (Co-supervisor, April 2023-ongoing)

• Maija Korpisaari, University of Oulu (Co-supervisor, May 2022-ongoing)

• Laura Nauha, University of Oulu (Co-supervisor, May 2022-ongoing)

Supervision of master students (supervision period started - ended):

• Clarence Tan, University of Oulu (Primary supervisor, Dec 2023 - ongoing)

• Henri Lamberg, University of Oulu (Primary supervisor, September 2023 - ongoing)

• Aleksi Leviäkangas, University of Oulu (Primary supervisor, December 2021-July 2023)

• Joana Chong, visiting student from the University of Lisbon (March 2020-November 2020, thesis graded as outstanding at the University of Lisbon)

• Awais Kolachi, University of Oulu (October 2020, July 2021)

Awards

• Best PhD Thesis Award 2021, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu

• Exemplary PhD Thesis Award, University of Oulu Graduate School (UniOGS)

• Receiving the grade of ‘passed with distinction’ for doctoral thesis, which is only awarded to exceptionally high-quality theses representing the top-15% in their field

• Nomination for Best Paper Award 2021 in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, and receiving commendation for the best article in Health, Disease & Physical Activity (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/16000838/homepage/sjmss-awards)

• Best Dissemination Award 2020 (Vahid Farrahi), awarded in BioMEP doctoral program for outreaching the general population via more than 30 national and international news outlets

• Best Presentation Award (Emilia Pesonen), Science Day of the Kontinkangas Campus (8.11.2023), University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland 

• Second-best poster presentation (Aleksi Leviäkangas) in LFT Day (09.02.2023, Oulu) organized annually by the Finnish Society for Medical Physics and Medical Engineering

• Nomination for Best Poster Award (Laura Nauha) at 26th Congress of European Sleep Research Society, September 2022, Athens, Greece

• Best grade (19.6 out of 20 = outstanding) for master thesis at Dept of Computer Engineering & Information Technology, Shiraz University of Technology, Fall 2016

Key scientific and academic merits

• Associate Editor and Editorial Board member for the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour

• Editorial Board member for the Journal of Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Behaviors (https://jassb.biomedcentral.com/about/editorial-board)

• Editorial Board member for the Journal of Physical Activity and Health (https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jpah/jpah-overview.xml?tab_body=editorial-board)

• Invited speaker and oral presentations: ISBNPA 2023 (to be delivered in June 2023); University of Oulu’s Science Day 2023; Researcher’s Night 2022, University of Oulu; Liikuntalääketieteen päivät 2021, Helsinki, Finland, December 2021; Physical Activity Research Summit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, November 2019; ICAMPAM 2019, Maastricht, Netherlands, June 2019; BiB (Born in Bradford) seminar series, Bradford Research Institute for Health, Bradford, UK, December 2019; Finnish Sports Medicine Days 2020, organized by Finnish Society of Sport Sciences

• Reviewer for 20+ scientific journals such as PLOS Digital Health; BMC Public Health; Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, Preventive Medicine, Gait & Posture, Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, Scientific Reports, BMC Systematic Reviews

Publications (selected)

• Farrahi Vahid, Niemelä Maisa, Kangas Maarit, Korpelainen Raija, Jämsä Timo. Calibration and validation of accelerometer-based activity monitors: a systematic review of machine-learning approaches. Gait Posture. 2019;68:285–99. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.12.003

• Niemelä Maisa, Kiviniemi Antti, Ikäheimo Tiina M, Tulppo Mikko, Korpelainen Raija, Jämsä Timo, Farrahi Vahid. Compositional association of 24-hour movement behavior with incident major adverse cardiac events and all-cause mortality. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14315 

• Chong Joana, Tjurin Petra, Niemelä Maisa, Jämsä Timo, Farrahi Vahid. Machine-learning models for activity class prediction: A comparative study of feature selection and classification algorithms. Gait Posture. 2021;89:45–53. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2021.06.017

• Farrahi Vahid, Rostami Mehrdad, Dumuid Dot, Chastin Sebastien FM, Niemelä Maisa, Korpelainen Raija, Jämsä Timo, Oussalah Mourad. Joint Profiles of Sedentary Time and Physical Activity in Adults and their Associations with Cardiometabolic Health. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2022;54(12):2118–28. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003008.