Principal Investigator
Jun Wang, PhD
Dr. Jun Wang is the principal investigator of the UT Austin Speech Disorders & Technology Lab. Dr. Wang earned his PhD in Computer Science with a cross training in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Nebraska — Lincoln in December 2011. After a half-a-year postdoc training at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska - Lincoln, he joined UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders as a Research Scientist in 2012 and then became an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2014. He joined UT Austin in summer 2019.
Dr. Wang is currently an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and in the Department of Neurology. He is also a GSC member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Visiting Scholars
Anusha Thomas, PhD
Anusha Thomas is a visiting scholar at the lab. She earned her PhD in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2013, and has been involved in research projects with UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders. Her research background is in kinematic measures and speech movements in motor speech disorders. She is currently working with acoustic measures in motor speech disorder due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Wendy Liang, MS, CCC-SLP
Wendy is a visiting scientist in the lab. She holds a Masters of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from New York University, and completed a combined clinical research fellowship at University of Florida. She is currently a speech language pathologist practicing in the acute care and outpatient medical settings at several hospitals in Austin, TX. Wendy is also the founder and president of 501(C)3 nonprofit, Burgundy & White, an organization supporting the head and neck cancer community. Wendy currently involves in a number of projects including articulatory patterns of laryngectomees and dysarthric speech analysis.
Research Staff
Carl Sigmond
Carl Sigmond is a Research Engineer in the lab. He majored in Computer Science at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he researched alternative forms of text entry for people with physical disabilities. He is the inventor and principal developer of LeverBoard, an adaptive keyboard and mouse which he uses as his primary text input device. Carl focuses on automatic speech recognition (ASR) for people with dysarthria and the silent speech interface project. In addition to his role in the lab, Carl is the Operations Manager at FREED, a disability resource center in northern California, and is Host and Executive Producer of the Disability Rap radio show and podcast. He is based in New York State.
Graduate Students
Beiming Cao
Beiming Cao, PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a graduate research assistant in the lab. He obtained his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University (SMU). His research focuses on speech signal processing with a special interest in silent speech recognition, dysarthric speech recognition, and articulation-to-speech synthesis.
Kristin Teplansky
Kristin Teplansky, PhD candidate in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, is a graduate research assistant in the lab. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology and audiology from Callier Center for Communication Disorders at UT Dallas in 2014 and has worked as a speech therapist in the North Dallas area. Kristin’s current research focus is on motor speech disorders due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using kinematic and acoustic measures. Kristin is also part of the silent speech project with a focus on tongue and lip motion patterns of silent and normal speech.
Undergradaute Students
Riya Ghosal
Riya Ghosal is an undergraduate pursuing a Neuroscience degree on the pre-medical track at the University of Texas at Austin. She is interested in research regarding the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS on speech and communication, as well as learning more about the concept of speech kinematics and how it can be applied to biomedical technology. Riya began assisting in Dr. Wang’s Lab in Fall 2019 and is currently involved in data processing for the ALS project and the silent speech project. Aside from research, she volunteers for hospitals and shadows medical professionals. During her free time, she enjoys traveling and watching movies!
Avery Singson
Avery is in her final year as an undergraduate in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program at Boston University. She started at the lab in Spring 2021 and is helping with laryngectomee data processing for the Silent Speech Project. She is interested in learning more about speech disorders from an interdisciplinary perspective and the research behind developing technology. Avery is a member of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) and volunteers for the nonprofit Burgundy & White. In her spare time, she enjoys making art and exploring Austin.
Zoe Lalji
Zoe Lalji is a undergraduate at UT Austin studying Neuroscience. She wishes to make an impact in the world of ALS, which has a special place in her heart since her father was diagnosed in 2017. This has inspired her to dive into the intersection of technology and neurodegenerative diseases. She assists ALS data processing and management in the lab. She is also working on developing Virtual Reality for ALS patients.
Shravan Ravi
Shravan Ravi is an undergraduate studying Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He is interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their applications in speech and neurodegenerative diseases. He joined the lab in the Fall 2020 and has since worked on developing various machine learning models. In his spare time Shravan enjoys attending hackathons, working on start-ups, and playing basketball.
Sherina Ren
Sherina Ren is an undergraduate studying Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Texas at Austin. She is interested in how neurological disorders affect speech and machine learning involved in detecting speech disorders. She joined the lab in Spring 2022 and has since worked on data labeling and data processing of speech samples for the ALS project. Sherina is also an officer in both National Student Speech Language Hearing Association and Lang Stuttering Institute Student Leadership Organization. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, learning how to code, and playing tennis.
Sidh Pandit
Sidh Pandit is an undergraduate studying Management Information Systems at UT Austin. He is interested in using data science to build products that help individuals with conditions that affect speech. He joined the lab in Fall 2022 and primarily works on speech kinematic data processing and analysis using machine learning for the ALS and the silent speech interface projects. Sidh is also a caregiver and works at Camp CAMP, a summer camp for people with disabilities.
Collaborators
Sara G. Austin, MD, FAAN
Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
Abbas Babajani-Feremi, PhD
Department of Neurology, University of Florida
Amir Borna, PhD
AO Sensing & EC Engineering, Sandia National Laboratories
Clifford S. Calley, MD
Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
MEG Lab, Dell Children’s Hospital
Paul Ferrari, PhD
Jack H. Miller MEG Center, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital
College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University
Lisa Goffman, PhD, CCC-SLP
Callier Center for Communication Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas
Jordan R. Green, PhD, CCC-SLP
Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, MGH Institute of Health of Professions
Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University
David Harwath, PhD
Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin
Daragh Heitzman, MD, FAAN
MDA/ALS Center, Texas Neurology
Omer T. Inan, PhD
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Rosemary A. Lester-Smith, PhD, CCC-SLP
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
Ted Mau, MD, PhD
Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Robin Samlan, PhD, CCC-SLP
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona
Alumni
Natalie Young, undergraduate research assistant in the lab, now a graduate (MS) student in the UT Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program
Brian Tsang, graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, now a Software Development Engineer in Amazon
Chloe G. Proshuto, undergraduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders, UT Austin
Regina Treviño, undergraduate research assistant in the lab, now a graduate student at Texas Christian University in the Bilingual Emphasis Program
Elizabeth "Mackenzie" Finch, undergraduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders, UT Austin
Hailey Shuman, undergraduate research assistant in the lab, now a graduate student at Northwestern University
Megan Welsh, undergraduate student in Speech-Language Pathology, UT Austin
Evelyn Trejo, undergraduate student in Neuroscience and on a pre-medical track, UT Austin
Dr. Debadatta Dash, PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, now a postdoc research fellow at NINDS, NIH.
Dr. Alan Wisler, postdoc fellow, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Avi Patel, undergraduate student in Finance on pre-dental track, UT Austin
Amulya Makonahalli, undergraduate in Biology, UT Austin
Ryan Larson, undergraduate student in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, UT Austin
Taylor Garcia, undergraduate student in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, UT Austin
Anurag Patil, Master student in Computational Science and Mathematics at the Oden Institute of Computational Engineering and Sciences, UT Austin
Satwik Dutta, Master studnet in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UT Dallas, now a PhD student
Siva Saket Sripada, Master student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Dallas, now a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Austin
Thouseef Syed, Master student in Applied Cognition & Neuroscience, UT Dallas, now a Bot Developer at Verizon.
Mufang Sang, PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UT Dallas
Danny Chen, summer intern 2019, Plano West Senior High School, Plano, TX, now an undergrdaute student in Computer Science at Texas A&M University
Tim Chen, summer intern 2019, Lebanon Trail High School, Frisco, TX
Shruthi B. Dubagunta, undergradaute student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Dallas
Richard (Jun) Wang, Master's student in Computer Science at UT Dallas, now an Applied Scientist at Amazon, Boston, MA
KwangHoon An, Master’s student in Computer Science at UT Dallas, now a System Integration Engineer at the Machine Learning Team, Qualcomm Inc. San Diego, CA
Dr. Myungjong Kim, Postdoctoral Research Associate, now a Staff Machine Learning Researcher at Samsung Research America, Mountain View, CA.
Kevin D. Tran, undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Dallas, then a graduate student at Johns Hopkins Univeristy.
Meagan E. Furth, undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Dallas
Jihye Moon, undergraduate summer intern in 2017, now a Master's student in Biomedical Engineering, Jungwon University, South Korea
Heather Xiao, undergraduate student in biology and the UT-PACT program, UT Dallas
Prasanna Kothalkar, PhD student in Computer Engineering, UT Dallas
Katie Purdum, Master’s student in Biomedical Engineering, UT Dallas
Saara Raja, Master’s student in Cognitive Neuroscience, UT Dallas, now a Risk Management Analytic Consultant at Wells Fargo Bank, NC.
Dr. Seongjun Hahm, Postdoctoral Research Associate, now a Principal Research Scientist at Marchex, Seattle, WA
Braden Herndon, Master’s student in Computer Science, now a software developer at Match Dot Com, Dallas, TX
Kumail Haider, undergraduate assistant, Biochemistry, UT Dallas
Soujanya Koduri, undergraduate assistant, Psychology, UT Dallas
Denisse Amaranta Soler Morales, undergraduate summer intern in 2015, Biomedical Engineering, Monterrey Institute of Technology, Guadalajara, Mexico
Victoria Juarez, Master’s student in Communication Sciences and Disorders, UT Dallas