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Dear all,
Our lab (Speech, Lexicon and Modeling lab (SLaM lab)) at the University of Florida has an NSF funded
PhD position available (fully funded for three years). The project has a focus on lenition in typical and atypical populations, the development of a new pseudopalate system and computational modelling of speech as a biomarker.
About the project: The lab has recently received $750,000 of NSF funding to develop a novel pseudo-palate for linguistic and medical purposes over three years. Speech as a non-invasive biomarker could provide researchers and clinicians with new means to capture fine changes in speech articulation patterns associated with linguistic phenomena in the normal population or functional changes in articulation in individuals with disorders. The overarching goal of this project is to establish an evidence-based, quantified, data driven, non-invasive method for using speech as a biomarker for facile detection of cross-linguistic variation and patterns of articulatory change in various neuromotor disorders within the linguistics and biomedical realms. This interdisciplinary project has three interactive arms: the development of a smart, wireless, electropalatography (EPG) system, behavioral speech data collection for comparison with existing EPG systems, and machine learning for identifying patterns of tongue-palate contact that signify abnormal patterns of articulation.
About the position: A PhD student position is available for a highly motivated individual with an interest in studying acoustic and articulatory variations in speech in speakers with typical and atypical speech, such as disordered speech. The long-term goal of this project is to harness the fine articulatory and acoustic detail in speech as a biomarker for neurological disorders. The student will conduct behavioral speech data collection with participants, computational modeling of acoustic and articulatory data (EPG), and we will work alongside the engineering team to facilitate with the testing of a novel EPG system. The funding is renewable annually (up to three years) upon satisfactory performance.
How to apply: Please note that this application is for funding only. Applicants must also apply to the Linguistics PhD program (how to apply) and to be considered for admission by the department’s admission committee. Please send a single PDF file. The PDF should contain (1) a cover letter describing your previous research experience, career goals, and motivation for working on this project, (2) your CV, (3) the contact information of two references, (4) relevant transcripts, and (5) scientific publications, as applicable. Please send your application and/or questions to Dr. Kevin Tang (tang.kevin@xxxxxxx) and Dr. Ratree Wayland (ratree@xxxxxxx) with the subject line “PhD Student Position: SELMA” before November 15. We will start and continue to evaluate the applications as we receive them. Note that there is a separate deadline for the departmental admission on December 1.
More for info, please see:
Many thanks,
Kevin
Kevin Tang, Ph.D., M.Eng., M.A.
Assistant Professor
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Computational Language Science
Department of Linguistics
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University of Florida
Office: 4017 Turlington Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611-5454
Tel: 352-294-7457 | www.kevintang.org | tang.kevin@xxxxxxx
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