MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation to Support a Multi-disciplinary Acoustic Laboratory for Faculty and Student Research at Union College

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。该项目的目标是建立一个多学科声学实验室，使语音和音乐声学研究以及新的可视化技术的开发成为可能。在第一个项目中，测量了乐器的信号，并将其用于开发复杂数据可视化的图形技术。在第二个项目中，制作和分析声学录音，以确定儿童如何以及何时形成定义语音片段声音的个人声学对比。该系统支持研究对象所需的声学敏感记录。智能优点：数据可视化系统很重要，因为它将分散的数据模式转换为更易于人眼检测和处理的移动模式。在宏观、微观和纳米级别的其他系统中存在潜在的应用。第二个项目将有助于建立一个儿童语言纵向数据库。儿童说话的音量和清晰度有很大的变化，这些变化会对分析产生不利影响。在这个实验室获得的敏感记录抵消了这一逆境。这些录音和它们的分析对语言学、心理学和电子工程学的研究人员有意义，并可能导致改善沟通障碍的诊断和治疗，等等。更广泛的影响：该实验室增加了联合学院工科本科生的教学和研究培训机会。儿童语音数据库将提供给其他研究人员。此外，该实验室正在被纳入联合大学的学术和暑期项目，目标是来自弱势和代表性不足背景的学生。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The objective of this project is to set up a multi-disciplinary acoustics laboratory that enables research in speech and musical acoustics, as well as the development of new visualization techniques. In the first project the signals from musical instruments are measured and used to develop graphical techniques for the visualization of complex data. In the second project acoustic recordings are made and analyzed to determine how and when children develop individual acoustic contrasts that define a speech segment sound. The system supports acoustically sensitive recordings necessary for the research objectives.Intellectual Merit: The data visualization system is important because it transforms dispersed data patterns into moving patterns that are significantly easier for the human eye to detect and process. Potential applications exist in other systems at the macro, micro, and nanometer levels. The second project will contribute to a longitudinal database of children's speech. Volume and clarity are quite variable in child speech, and these variations adversely affect analysis. The sensitive recordings obtained in this laboratory offset the adversity. The recordings and their analysis have implications for researchers in linguistics, psychology, and electrical engineering, and may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders, among other things. Broader Impacts: The laboratory increases teaching and research training opportunities for engineering undergraduates at Union College. The database of child speech will be made available to other researchers. In addition, the laboratory is being incorporated into Union's academic and summer programs aimed at students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.