Two EECS Students Win Collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduates Award

Computer science major Rebekah Manweiler and computer engineering major Erick Oduniyi  received a year-long Collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduates award through Computing Research Association. Their project is titled "Modeling Language Learning Using Child Directed Speech." This award helps promote undergraduate women and minority students in computer science by offering support for these students to work as researchers. Their project mentors are Nicole Beckage, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Jon Brumberg, assistant professor of speech-language-hearing. The team will develop an integrated top-down and bottom-up approach for modeling early language learning in children. Using network analysis techniques, machine learning and speech recognition systems, the students will investigate how parents adapt their speech to make language more easily learnable by young children. The students will analyze speech data for semantic meaning and phonological intelligibility of parent directed speech from birth until three years. This work will provide insight into how the relationship between phonological and semantic knowledge bolster future language knowledge in young children.