In my dissertation, I showed that, contrary to many textbook descriptions, breathing is actively used in speech to convey prosodic information.
My primary areas of research are: quantifying the role of the respiratory system during speech, developing models of lexical access, and acoustic modeling for speech analysis and synthesis. Along the way, I enjoy such diverse activities as collaborating on research with linguists, teaching speech science to speech pathology students, and running acoustics problem solving sessions in the lab.
I came into the program from a pure speech technology point of view. The strong cross-disciplinary focus in the SHBT program greatly expanded my view of the speech production and perception process. I think that I am one of the few SHBT alumni who regularly interacts with the students currently in the program. Sometimes I am viewed as a unique resource (or maybe a curiosity) – one who might know every little detail of the SHBT program and what it is like to be an alumnus. For example, I have been asked to remember course codes and thesis requirements from memory (much of which has changed since I went through the program), to summarize the entire range of career possibilities, and to answer technical questions from all of the courses. As you can imagine, I frequently do not have every answer. However, I very much enjoy the conversations and I definitely feel a bond with the students since I used to be in their shoes myself.
