Ella Peltonen

Dr. Ella Peltonen


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

12Years (2015-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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12 July 2021 in JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
KAKennedy Opoku Asare
Kennedy Opoku Asare
YTYannik Terhorst
Yannik Terhorst
JVJulio Vega
Julio Vega
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
ELEemil Lagerspetz
Eemil Lagerspetz
DFDenzil Ferreira
Denzil Ferreira
Background: Depression is a prevalent mental health challenge. Current depression assessment methods using self-reported and clinician-administered questionnaires have limitations. Instrumenting smartphones to passively and continuously collect moment-by-moment data sets to quantify human behaviors has the potential to augment current depression assessment methods for early diagnosis, scalable, and longitudinal monitoring of depression. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of predicting depression with human behaviors quantified from smartphone data sets, and to identify behaviors that can influence depression. Methods: Smartphone data sets and self-reported 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) depression assessments were collected from 629 participants in an exploratory longitudinal study over an average of 22.1 days (SD 17.90; range 8-86). We quantified 22 regularity, entropy, and SD behavioral markers from the smartphone data. We explored the relationship between the behavioral features and depression using correlation and bivariate linear mixed models (LMMs). We leveraged 5 supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms with hyperparameter optimization, nested cross-validation, and imbalanced data handling to predict depression. Finally, with the permutation importance method, we identified influential behavioral markers in predicting depression. Results: Of the 629 participants from at least 56 countries, 69 (10.97%) were females, 546 (86.8%) were males, and 14 (2.2%) were nonbinary. Participants’ age distribution is as follows: 73/629 (11.6%) were aged between 18 and 24, 204/629 (32.4%) were aged between 25 and 34, 156/629 (24.8%) were aged between 35 and 44, 166/629 (26.4%) were aged between 45 and 64, and 30/629 (4.8%) were aged 65 years and over. Of the 1374 PHQ-8 assessments, 1143 (83.19%) responses were nondepressed scores (PHQ-8 score <10), while 231 (16.81%) were depressed scores (PHQ-8 score ≥10), as identified based on PHQ-8 cut-off. A significant positive Pearson correlation was found between screen status–normalized entropy and depression (r=0.14, P<.001). LMM demonstrates an intraclass correlation of 0.7584 and a significant positive association between screen status–normalized entropy and depression (β=.48, P=.03). The best ML algorithms achieved the following metrics: precision, 85.55%-92.51%; recall, 92.19%-95.56%; F1, 88.73%-94.00%; area under the curve receiver operating characteristic, 94.69%-99.06%; Cohen κ, 86.61%-92.90%; and accuracy, 96.44%-98.14%. Including age group and gender as predictors improved the ML performances. Screen and internet connectivity features were the most influential in predicting depression. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that behavioral markers indicative of depression can be unobtrusively identified from smartphone sensors’ data. Traditional assessment of depression can be augmented with behavioral markers from smartphones for depression diagnosis and monitoring.

2 July 2020 in Sensors
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
EGEkaterina Gilman
Ekaterina Gilman
STSatu Tamminen
Satu Tamminen
RYRumana Yasmin
Rumana Yasmin
EREemeli Ristimella
Eemeli Ristimella
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
Susanna PirttikangasSusanna Pirttikangas
Susanna Pirttikangas
Advances in technology and data analysis provide rich opportunities for developing intelligent environments assisting their inhabitants, so-called smart environments or smart spaces. Enhanced with technology, sensors, user interfaces, and various applications, such smart spaces are capable of recognizing users and situations they are in, react accordingly, e.g., by providing certain services or changes to the environment itself. Therefore, smart space solutions are gradually coming to different application domains, each with corresponding specific characteristics. In this article, we discuss our experiences and explore the challenges of a long-term real-world Internet of Things (IoT) deployment at a University campus. We demonstrate the technical implementation and data quality issues. We conduct several studies, from data analysis to interaction with space, utilizing the developed infrastructure, and we also share our actions to open the data for education purposes and discuss their outcomes. With this article, we aim to share our experience and provide real-world lessons learned when building an open, multipurpose, publicly used smart space at a University campus.

20 August 2025 in Artificial Intelligence Review
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
PBPrasasthy Balasubramanian
Prasasthy Balasubramanian
SLSonali Liyana
Sonali Liyana
HSHamsini Sankaran
Hamsini Sankaran
SSShambavi Sivaramakrishnan
Shambavi Sivaramakrishnan
SPSruthi Pusuluri
Sruthi Pusuluri
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the applications, challenges, and limitations of Generative AI (GenAI) in enhancing threat intelligence within cybersecurity, supported by real-world case studies. We examine a wide range of data sources in Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), including security reports, blogs, social media, network traffic, malware samples, dark web data, and threat intelligence platforms (TIPs). This survey provides a full reference for integrating GenAI into CTI. We discuss various GenAI models such as Large Language Models (LLMs) and Deep Generative Models (DGMs) like Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and Diffusion Models, explaining their roles in detecting and addressing complex cyber threats. The survey highlights key applications in areas such as malware detection, network traffic analysis, phishing detection, threat actor attribution, and social engineering defense. We also explore critical challenges in deploying GenAI, including data privacy, security concerns, and the need for interpretable and transparent models. As regulations like the European Commission’s AI Act emerge, ensuring trustworthy AI solutions is becoming more crucial. Real-world case studies, such as the impact of the WannaCry ransomware, the rise of deepfakes, and AI-driven social engineering, demonstrate both the potential and current limitations of GenAI in CTI. Our goal is to provide foundational insights and strategic direction for advancing GenAI’s role in future cybersecurity frameworks, emphasizing the importance of innovation, adaptability, and ongoing learning to enhance resilience against evolving cyber threats. Ultimately, this survey offers critical insights into how GenAI can shape the future of cybersecurity by addressing key challenges and providing actionable guidance for effective implementation.

28 September 2022 in IEEE Access
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
IAIjaz Ahmad
Ijaz Ahmad
AAAtakan Aral
Atakan Aral
MCMichele Capobianco
Michele Capobianco
ADAaron Yi Ding
Aaron Yi Ding
TYTingting Yang
Tingting Yang
Edge Intelligence (EI) is an emerging computing and communication paradigm that enables Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality at the network edge. In this article, we highlight EI as an emerging and important field of research, discuss the state of research, analyze research gaps and highlight important research challenges with the objective of serving as a catalyst for research and innovation in this emerging area. We take a multidisciplinary view to reflect on the current research in AI, edge computing, and communication technologies, and we analyze how EI reflects on existing research in these fields. We also introduce representative examples of application areas that benefit from, or even demand the use of EI.

3 September 2018
Verified
Conference Paper
Open access
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
ELEemil Lagerspetz
Eemil Lagerspetz
JHJonatan Hamberg
Jonatan Hamberg
AMAbhinav Mehrotra
Abhinav Mehrotra
MMMirco Musolesi
Mirco Musolesi
STSasu Tarkoma
Sasu Tarkoma

26 October 2023 in IEEE Access
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
AMAlireza Bakhshi Zadi Mahmoodi
Alireza Bakhshi Zadi Mahmoodi
SSSaeid Sheikhi
Saeid Sheikhi
EPElla Peltonen
Ella Peltonen
PKPanos Kostakos
Panos Kostakos
The rapid integration of IoT, cloud, and edge computing has resulted in highly interconnected networks, emphasizing the need for advanced Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) to maintain security. Successful AI-based IDS relies on high-quality data for model training. Even though a vast array of datasets from controlled settings are accessible, many fall short as they are outdated and lack the representative data of network traffic dynamics typically seen in public networks. This paper aims to advance understanding in designing testbed architectures for defense mechanisms within public networks. At its core, this research introduces a unique testbed utilizing the connectivity of panOULU Municipal public network in the city of Oulu, Finland. This experimental setup examines AI-driven security across the public network. It utilizes edge-to-cloud infrastructures, incorporating Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) via the VMware vSphere platform. During the training phase, a script distinguishes incoming packets as either benign or malicious based on well-defined local parameters and simulated attack scenarios. This labeled data is then utilized for training machine learning models within the Federated Learning framework, FED-ML. Subsequently, these models are evaluated on previously unseen data. The entire procedure, from traffic gathering to model training, operates without human involvement. The evaluation dataset and testbed configuration we have made publicly available through this research can deepen our understanding of the challenges in safeguarding public networks, especially those that blend various technologies in diverse environments.