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PERSONAL DATA PROJECTS

Advancing Human-Centred Intelligence through Community-Driven Data Collection

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Vision and Objectives

DataScientia envisions a future where individuals can actively collect, understand, and benefit from their own data. By providing transparent, ethical, and user-driven personal data collection infrastructure, we empower people to reclaim agency over the information they generate. This foundation enables communities, researchers, and individuals to co-create Person-Centric AI (PCAI) that reflects real human diversity. Through tools like iLog, personal data becomes a resource for learning, insight, and inclusive AI innovation.

Personal Data Collection for Research

iLog enables individuals and researchers to collect personal data in ethical, transparent, and self-directed ways—laying the foundation for Person-Centric AI. By empowering people to understand, manage, and generate their own data, iLog shifts AI development from institution-driven to human-driven, ensuring future AI systems reflect real human diversity, lived experiences, and meaningful consent.

iLog and its accompanying platforms create an ethical, transparent, and empowering foundation for personal data collection—allowing individuals to capture the digital footprints of their lives, building a meaningful long-term memory of their daily experiences. Built with an ethical-by-design framework, iLog provides clear data-use policies, consent flows, and privacy-preserving practices that respect participant rights and autonomy. By enabling people to understand, manage, and reuse their own data, iLog helps them move from passive data generators to active data owners. This integration of ethical data collection, personal memory-building, and community-driven research empowers individuals, researchers, and institutions to co-create AI systems grounded in real human contexts—making iLog a cornerstone of the transition toward Person-Centric AI.

Our personal data collection infrastructure

1. Personal Data Collection App

A secure, user-friendly app that allows individuals to collect a wide range of data about themselves, including:

  • Sensor data (e.g. movement, location)

  • Self-reported data via customizable questionnaires

Designed for both research use and personal exploration.

more about iLog App

2. Experiment Configuration Dashboard

A dedicated space where users or researchers can:

  • Configure custom data-collection experiments

  • Select which sensors to use and set sampling frequency

  • Build questionnaires and daily prompts

This ensures each data-collection activity is intentional, transparent, and easy to manage.

 

3. Monitoring & Reporting Dashboard (in development)

A companion interface enabling experiment owners to:

  • Monitor participant activity and experiment progression

  • Receive alerts on data-collection issues

  • Review anonymized aggregated insights

  • Validate the quality and completeness of collected data

This dashboard supports both scientific rigor and user autonomy.

How to get involved?

Partner universities can play a key role by acting as local hubs for responsible personal data collection and research experimentation.

Through DataScientia and iLog, partner universities may:

- host pilot studies with students, researchers, and local communities;
- support the execution of approved data collection projects;
- integrate personal data collection activities into research courses, seminars, or labs;
- help recruit participants in a locally appropriate and ethical way;
- support privacy, ethical review, and institutional approval processes;
- coordinate local research activities linked to DataScientia projects;
- contribute to the creation of reusable research datasets and AI resources.

Partner universities can therefore become local centers for person-centric AI research, education, and innovation.

Data collection activities require an appropriate institutional agreement or MoU with DataScientia. This ensures that research services such as participant recruitment, data collection support, use of iLog, and access to community infrastructure are governed by clear privacy, ethical, and operational rules.

Individual researchers are invited to submit proposals for projects that require personal or person-centric data collection.

A proposal should describe the research question, the type of data needed, the target participants, the expected scientific value, and any ethical or privacy considerations. Depending on the project, DataScientia may help identify a suitable partner university or local institution that can support the execution of the study.

This is especially relevant when a project requires:

- access to a local community of participants;
- supervised data collection;
- institutional ethical review;
- privacy assessment;
- local coordination;
- multilingual or culturally specific data collection;
- repeated data collection over time.

Individual researchers cannot directly launch community-based personal data collection without the appropriate governance framework. When required, the project must be connected to a partner institution and covered by a suitable agreement or MoU that enables access to DataScientia research services.

Past Projects

How it Works?

Submitted proposals are reviewed to assess their scientific relevance, feasibility, privacy implications, and alignment with DataScientia principles. Projects involving personal data must receive the appropriate ethical, privacy, and institutional approvals before any data collection begins.

Approved projects may then be developed into a structured DataScientia research activity, supported by iLog and, where needed, implemented with the help of a local partner university.

This approach allows DataScientia to support meaningful personal data collection while ensuring that research is conducted responsibly, transparently, and for the benefit of the wider research community.

Get in touch with us to discuss your research idea and possible collaboration.