Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory

Smartphone-Based Open Research Platform for Hearing Improvement Studies

DISCLAIMER STATEMENTS

This research is supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Institute on Deafness and Other communication Disorders (NIDCD) under award number R01DC015430.The content of this website is solely the responsibility of the contributors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Research Team

  1. Dr. Issa Panahi  (PI)
  2. Dr. Linda Thibodeau (Co-PI)
  3. Abdullah Küçük, Ph.D. Student
  4. Nikhil Shankar, Ph.D. Student
  5. Gautam Shreedhar Bhat, Ph.D. Student
  6. Serkan Tokgoz, Ph.D. Student
  7. Kashyap Patel, Ph.D. Student
  8. Anton Kovalyov, Ph.D. Student
  9. Stephanie Tittle, Doctor of Audiology Student
  10. Audrey Nicole Harris, Doctor of Audiology Student
  11. Alyssa Shrode, Doctor of Audiology Student

Our Alumni

  1. Anshuman Ganguly, PhD Graduated 2018 (Currently @Amazon)
  2. Chandan K.A. Reddy, PhD Graduated 2018 (Currently @Microsoft)
  3. Parth Mishra, MS Graduated 2018 (Currently @Bose)
  4. Yiya Hao, PhD Graduated 2019 (Currently @Zoom Video Communications)
  5. Abhishek Sehgal, PhD Graduated 2019 (Currently @Samsung)
  6. Tyler Caldwell, Doctor of Audiology
  7. Audrey Taylor, Doctor of Audiology

Dr. Issa Panahi is currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering and also a research professor in the department of Bioengineering at UTD. He is founding director of the Statistical Signal Processing and Acoustic Research laboratories in the Erik Jonsson school of Engineering and Computer Science at UTD. His research areas include signal processing, audio/acoustic/speech signal processing for biomedical and commercial applications with emphasis on statistical and adaptive signal processing; active noise control, speech enhancement, psychoacoustics, signal detection & estimation, source separation, remote sensing, microphone, loudspeaker arrays, and beamforming. Dr. Panahi was founder and vice-chair of the IEEE-Dallas Chapter of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) for 6 years. He has been vice-chair and chair of the IEEE-Dallas Chapter of Signal Processing Society since 2004. He received the 2005 and 2011 “Outstanding Service Award” from the IEEE-Section.  Research projects of Dr. Panahi have been supported by funding from NIH, DoD, Dept. of VA, UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TxMRC, Texas Health Systems, and commercial and biomedical industry to the total amount exceeding $3.53M.

Dr. Linda Thibodeau is known for her work on assistive technology for persons with hearing loss. Her recent research has focused on the evaluation of wireless technology for those with hearing loss where it was shown that the latest digital technology resulted in significantly better speech recognition in noisy situations than previous non-digital technology. Her work in this area is closely related to her teaching, for which she has developed specialized training opportunities in pediatric aural habilitation and adult rehabilitation. Dr. Thibodeau has received the Frederick S. Berg Award in Educational Audiology and the Cheryl DeConde Johnson Award recognizing outstanding achievement in educational audiology. She also has been a delegate to the National Summit on Disabilities. Dr. Thibodeau received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Nikhil Shankar is currently pursuing his Master’s (Thesis) program in Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication at Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institue of Technology, Bengaluru, India, in 2016. He started working in Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory (SSPRL) from Sept 2016. His research includes single and dual microphone speech enhancement techniques, Real-time DSP, iOS. He has been a student worker in SSPRL from Jan 2017.

Gautam Shreedhar Bhat completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of technology Bangalore in June 2016. He is currently pursuing his Master’s (Thesis) degree at UTD and is a Ph.D. aspirant. He started working in Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory (SSPRL) from October 2016 and has been a student worker from January 2017. His current research interests include single and dual microphone Speech Enhancement, Audio Compression and Microphone Array.

Abdullah Kucuk received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics Engineering from Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is pursuing his Ph.D. Degree in Statistical Signal Processing Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research area includes Voice Activity Detection, Microphone Arrays, Direction of Arrival and real-time implementation of DSP algorithms on Android. 

Serkan Tokgoz is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory(SSPRL) at The University of Texas at Dallas(UTD). He received his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in Computer Engineering at Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey. He received his M.S. (Thesis) in Electrical Engineering at UTD in 2018.  His current research interests are in Audio DSP including microphone arrays, direction of arrival, speaker identification, and real-time implementation of DSP algorithms. He has started working at the Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory(SSPRL) from Spring 2017.

Kashyap Patel earned his B.Tech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar in 2017. After graduation, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Nithin V. George, studying adaptive signal processing algorithms for hearing aid devices. In 2018, he started his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). At UTD, he worked in the Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory (SSPRL) under the supervision of Dr. Issa Panahi. At the SSPRL, he worked on acoustic feedback cancellation, dynamic range compression, and smartphone-based audiometry. His further research work and interests focus on distributed microphone arrays, acoustic source tracking, and distributed beam-forming.

Anton Kovalyov is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the Statistical Signal Processing Research Laboratory (SSPRL) at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). He received his M.S. in Computer Science at UTD in 2019. His research interests include Acoustic Sensor Arrays, Sound Source Localization, and real-time implementation of DSP algorithms on mobile devices.