Dr. Espy-Wilson's top priority, since arriving in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Boston University, has been to establish a laboratory where digital signal processing techniques and speech science are combined to conduct studies in speech communication. Her long term career goal is to have an active research laboratory within an academic setting. Boston University (BU) is an ideal setting for this establishment given its commitment to Signal Processing in general, and Speech Processing in particular, and given the many resources available at BU and at surrounding institutions. The teaching requirements in the department is 4 courses per academic year. During her first five years, Dr. Espy-Wilson was able to buy out of two courses a year with a Clare Boothe Luce Chair that she was awarded upon appointment. In addition, all faculty are expected to serve on academic and administrative committees. The RCA would allow Dr. Espy-Wilson to further the building of her research program by providing her with the time needed for more research and scholarship (preparation of manuscripts, graduate student, collaborations with colleagues). This extra research time will result in increased productivity from her lab. The research in Dr. Espy-Wilson's lab is focused on 1) the development of an event-oriented paradigm for speech recognition based on phonetic features, 2) using the development of the recognizer as a tool for studying speech variability and speech production and 3) using acoustic phonetic knowledge and signal processing (e.g., static and adaptive filters) to develop aids for people having difficulty in producing natural sounding speech (whether due to a with speech impairment, hearing loss or learning of a second language)...

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research (K02)
Project #
5K02DC000149-06
Application #
6516016
Study Section
Communication Disorders Review Committee (CDRC)
Program Officer
Sklare, Dan
Project Start
1998-06-01
Project End
2003-06-30
Budget Start
2002-06-01
Budget End
2003-06-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$66,636
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland College Park
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
City
College Park
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20742
Zhang, Zhaoyan; Espy-Wilson, Carol Y (2004) A vocal-tract model of American English /l/. J Acoust Soc Am 115:1274-80
Salomon, Ariel; Espy-Wilson, Carol Y; Deshmukh, Om (2004) Detection of speech landmarks: use of temporal information. J Acoust Soc Am 115:1296-305
Jackson, M T; Espy-Wilson, C; Boyce, S E (2001) Verifying a vocal tract model with a closed side-branch. J Acoust Soc Am 109:2983-7
Espy-Wilson, C Y; Boyce, S E; Jackson, M et al. (2000) Acoustic modeling of American English /r/. J Acoust Soc Am 108:343-56