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 and a member of the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences.

Anusha Thomas is a visiting scholar in 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. She is currently an Adjunct faculty at Calvin University. Her research background is in kinematic measures and speech movements in motor speech disorders. She is currently working with acoustic measures in speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or after laryngectomy.

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.

Kristin Teplansky, PhD, is a visiting scientist in the lab. She earned a PhD in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from UT Austin in 2023 and her bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology and audiology from Callier Center for Communication Disorders at UT Dallas in 2014. She 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.

Jinuk Kwon is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab. He earned his Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering at Hanyang University, South Korea, in 2023 and joined the lab that Fall. Given his research background in deep learning-based biomedical signal processing, his research is currently focusing on algorithm development for biosignal-based speech interfaces. His ongoing projects include silent speech interfaces that utilize articulatory signals and neural speech decoding using brain waves.

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.

Garvit Mohata is a visiting researcher in the lab. He graduated with a Master's degree in Computer Science from UT in August 2024. He is interested in general-purpose learning and reasoning using machine learning for text, video and speech modalities. He has been focused on neural speech decoding using brain wave (OPM-MEG) signals as well as on the silent speech interface project. His hobbies include singing, playing sports and learning new things.