Current Projects
AI Chatbot for Performance Anxiety (Therabot-PA)
Led by student-athlete Julia Pye in the Jacobson Lab, this study adapts Therabot, a chatbot originally built and clinically tested for depression and anxiety, for a sport-specific use: helping competitive rock climbers manage performance anxiety. Climbers face a unique version of this challenge, balancing real physical risk with the mental demands of performing under pressure, and up to half report anxiety symptoms that can affect both their performance and their safety. The study recruits climbers with lived experience of performance anxiety to help shape the chatbot's content, then tracks how participants respond to and engage with it over four weeks.
Athletic Performance Nutrition & Fueling Survey
Led by Dr. Susan Roberts (Geisel School of Medicine), with Duncan Simpson (Teevens Center), Liz Fusco (Dartmouth Athletics) and Punam Keller (Tuck) as collaborators, this survey asks Division I student-athletes how they fuel, hydrate, and recover before, during, and after training. Responses are anonymous, take about 15-20 minutes, and directly shape the Center's thinking on future nutrition programming and food offerings for athletes.
“As an undergraduate, I've had the chance to work in the Jacobson Lab, which built Therabot to treat depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Coming to that work as a track and field athlete at Dartmouth, I was interested in whether the same approach could help with performance anxiety. The Teevens Center's support has been instrumental in getting my study up and running, and I'm so grateful the Center was able to fund student research at this stage. I hope that what we learn will be useful to a wide range of performers who deal with anxiety, in athletics and beyond”
Julia Pye ’27, Dartmouth Track & Field