Advanced Research Training in Communication Sciences and Disorders

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PROJECT SUMMARY This proposed renewal of Boston University's Training Program in Advanced Research Training in Communication Disorders and Sciences builds on the successful implementation of a multi- disciplinary, multi-institutional training effort. The current five-year cycle infuses a broad clinical perspective in trainees, incorporating didactic and research experiences across the full continuum of effective training in human health (i.e., from investigations of basic and disrupted mechanisms or communication processes, to treatment research, translation to the clinic, and broad implementation across health systems). Participating pre- and postdoctoral trainees have come from programs in Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences. The program is highly competitive at both the pre- and postdoctoral levels. The impact of this T32 is doubled at the predoctoral level by the commitment of each participating department to provide identical resources and opportunities for a “match” Communication Sciences & Disorders trainee for each T32-supported trainee. The next five-year cycle continues all of these successful components, and adds formal development for each trainee of a data sciences toolkit. New Key Personnel from Boston University's recently established Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences (see Biosketches for Azer Bestavros, Associate Provost for Computing and Data Sciences, and Director of the BU Data Science Initiative, as well as Eric Kolaczyk, Director of the Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering) will provide curricular and research guidance for this aspect of the program. Required training in data sciences includes demonstrated facility by each trainee in math, statistics, data wrangling, data mechanics, and machine learning. Coursework may include data manipulation using Python, data science using R, and image analysis. The success of our trainees reflects the deep research and training resources of the inter- disciplinary and cross-institution partnerships comprising this program. Well-established laboratories guided by experienced and well-funded preceptors, with access to large, diverse patient populations are supported by experienced leaders and institutional commitment. This preparation and acculturation of talented trainees contributes substantially to our scientific and clinical capacity to understand, prevent, and remediate communication disorders.