Petar Jerčić, PhD

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Personal profile of Petar Jerčić

Research Scientist and Deep-learning Specialist in Healthcare

As a head of Research and Innovation specializing in healthcare and life sciences, I have gained valuable experience in entrepreneurship, academia, and industry. My primary focus is on developing innovative e-Health applications that leverage human physiology, emotions, and health behaviors. To achieve this, I use Data Science methods to analyze temporal user data, after which I use Computational Modeling to identify interesting patterns and events in this data regarding physiology and emotions. Finally, I use methods from Computational Social Science to support health behaviors in users and regulate their emotions. My particular interest lies in real-time systems that can make a positive impact on people's lives.

What I am looking for in my work are Opportunities to grow, Flexibility in work-life balance, and Collegial teamwork. My most significant competencies are highly Self-motivated, Curiosity about new challenges, and sensitivity/receptiveness in Social communication. My biggest weakness is that I need to be more willing to take risks, a challenge I work on with myself. My most important values are Independence, Meaningful work, and time for Contemplation.

Positions and Professional Affiliations

  • Postdoc in the field of Computational social science (CSS) at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) Austria
  • Research scientist in healthcare at Kana Netherlands

Research Focus

The research is mainly focused on measuremens and interpretation of emotional states in users with the use of psychophysiological methods and equipment. These have been integrated in serious games for the biofeedback training in emotion-regulation, with the goal to improve human decision-making on the task. In order to achieve this, knowledge and understanding of fundamental theories of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Neuroengineering and Affective Computing has been employed. Mentioned theories also explain the cognitive and emotional aspects of the players interacting with serious games.

Research Interests

  • Deep Learning on ECG Time-Series
  • Medical Sensor Data Analysis & Digital Biomarkers
  • Affective Computing & Emotion Regulation
  • Serious Games & Biofeedback
  • Computational Social Science

Key Skills

My technical stack is tailored for robust, scalable model development and deployment in the healthcare sector:

  • Deep Learning Frameworks: PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Keras for building and training complex neural networks (e.g., CNNs and RNNs optimized for time-series analysis).
  • Machine Learning & MLOps: sklearn for classical Machine Learning baselines and predictive modeling, and MLFlow for experiment tracking and model lifecycle management.
  • Data Science: Python (Pandas, NumPy tooling), Data Visualization, Computational Modeling.
  • Other Languages: Matlab, R, C++/C#.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)
  • M.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Split (Croatia)
  • Mindfulness MBSR Teacher, Mindful Academy (Spain)

Service

  • Keynote speaker at the International Week Health & Social Studies 2023 at HAN University of Applied Sciences (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
  • Invited speaker at Human Factors NL Congress 2019 (Sosteberg, Netherlands)
  • Organizational board member for Games for Health Journal
  • Technical Program Committee for IEEE Global Conference on Computing, Power and Communication Technologies (GlobConPT), Joint Conference on Serious Games (JCSG)
  • Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, Games for Health Journal, Games for Health Journal, Robotics, New Ideas in Psychology
  • Reviewer for International Conference on Entertainment Computing (IFIP), International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC 2019), International Conference on Entertainment Computing (IFIP)
  • Reviewer for Springer Workshop on Digital Transformation for an Inclusive Society

Awards and Honors

  • The Honorary Mention Best Paper Award, IFIP-ICEC ‘Entertainment Computing’ 2019 and 2018

Languages

  • English (C2)
  • German (B2)
  • Croatian (native)