Alain Starke

Welcome to my page! My name is Alain, and I am an Assistant Professor in Persuasive Communication at the University of Amsterdam. Why do I have a page here? Because I am still affiliated to the Human-Technology Interaction Group, which is part of my domain expertise. In addition, I also work on Recommender Systems and Nudging.

I graduated as an engineer in Innovation Sciences and obtained a PhD in Human-Technology Interaction. I research how people can be presented effective personalized advice, through both algorithms and interfaces. I combine these two in what's called 'Recommender Systems': something you'll find all over the internet that presents new content based on your data. For example, Netflix uses one: "Because you've watched Frozen, here are a bunch of Disney Pixar movies I recommend you to watch!"

I focus on two domains that involve offline behavioral change: energy conservation and healthy eating habits. I'm currently part of the 'Me, My Diet, and I' project, in which we investigate to what extent 'Digital Twins' can be effective in generating personalized nutrition advice. I focus on consumer acceptance factors, with regard to the content ('what?') and the context ('how?')