Chicago Debate Showcase
Maia Jacobs
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Preventive Medicine
Northwestern University
Director, NUPath Lab
Human-centered AI researcher studying how technology can support decision-making, communication, and collaboration in healthcare.
Biography
Maia
- Human-centered AI
- Healthcare technology
- Human-AI collaboration
- Clinical decision-making
- HCI
- Digital health
Maia Jacobs is an assistant professor of Computer Science and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University. She directs the Northwestern Personalized Adaptive Technologies for Health (NUPath) Lab, designing technologies for healthcare and community settings.
Her work combines human-computer interaction and participatory design to make predictive and data-driven tools useful in real care. She studies shared decision-making among clinicians, patients, caregivers and frontline workers, with projects in oncology, pediatrics, conversational systems and adaptive health interventions.
Jacobs earned her PhD in Human Centered Computing at Georgia Tech and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Center for Research on Computation and Society. Her honors include Northwestern’s Searle Fellowship and the iSchools and Georgia Tech College of Computing dissertation awards.
At the Chicago Debate Showcase
Why this question
In this debate, Jacobs brings the healthcare and human-centered perspective: when AI can affect treatment, access or patient autonomy, which decisions can be delegated and which require meaningful participation by clinicians and patients?
Upcoming appearance
Chicago Debate Showcase
WhenWednesday, October 21, 2026
WhereThe Ferris, 1 W. Monroe Street, Chicago, IL
Doors5:30 p.m. Chicago time
Confirmed debate. AI agents, healthcare, and human oversight
Resolved: Human approval should be the default for consequential actions taken by AI agents in healthcare.
Until doors open.
See the ideas meet the room.
Join Maia Jacobs at the Chicago Debate Showcase for live debate, audience questions, and conversation at The Ferris.
Tickets from $30.
Northwestern faculty profile (opens in a new tab)NUPath Lab (opens in a new tab)Feinberg faculty profile (opens in a new tab)