Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology

The Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology PhD program in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

Founded in 1970, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, or HST, is one of the oldest and largest biomedical engineering and physician-scientist training programs in the United States and the longest-standing functional collaboration between Harvard University and the...

is an interdisciplinary training program designed to produce the next generation of pioneers in basic and clinical speech and hearing research. The program was established in 1992 by Nelson Kiang

Nelson Yuan-Sheng Kiang

Nelson Y.S. Kiang is founder and former director of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory of Auditory Physiology and professor emeritus of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1955, and an honorary medical degree from the University of...

, and is currently co-directed by Drs. Louis Braida and Bertrand Delgutte.

As of 2006, the program has graduated about 60 PhD students in nearly all areas of speech and hearing research: auditory mechanics

Mechanics

Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....

, peripheral and central auditory neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

, auditory psychophysics

Psychophysics

Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, more completely, as "the analysis of perceptual...

, hearing aid

Hearing aid

A hearing aid is an electroacoustic device which typically fits in or behind the wearer's ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sound for the wearer. Earlier devices, known as "ear trumpets" or "ear horns", were passive funnel-like amplification cones designed to gather sound energy and...

s/cochlear implant

Cochlear implant

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing...

s, speech perception

Speech perception

Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted and understood. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonetics and phonology in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology...

and production

Source-filter model of speech production

The source–filter model of speech production models speech as a combination of a sound source, such as the vocal cords, and a linear acoustic filter, the vocal tract . An important assumption that is often made in the use of the source-filter model is the independence of source and filter...

, machine processing of speech

Speech processing

Speech processing is the study of speech signals and the processing methods of these signals.The signals are usually processed in a digital representation, so speech processing can be regarded as a special case of digital signal processing, applied to speech signal.It is also closely tied to...

, language processing

Language processing

Language processing refers to the way human beings process speech or writing and understand it as language. Most recent theories back the idea that this process is made completely by and inside the brain.- Spoken language :...

, voice disorders/laryngeal physiology

Larynx

The larynx , commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the neck of amphibians, reptiles and mammals involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. It manipulates pitch and volume...

, and vestibular physiology

Vestibular system

The vestibular system, which contributes to balance in most mammals and to the sense of spatial orientation, is the sensory system that provides the leading contribution about movement and sense of balance. Together with the cochlea, a part of the auditory system, it constitutes the labyrinth of...

.

There are about 50 faculty members in the SHBT program, most of which hold appointments at MIT or Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

. The main laboratories are at MIT, Harvard, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, known locally as Mass. Eye and Ear, is a specialty hospital providing patient care for disorders of the eye, ear, nose, throat, head and neck. Founded in 1824, MEEI is an international leader in Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology research and a teaching partner of...

, Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...

, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts. It is directly adjacent to Harvard Medical School of which it is the second largest teaching affiliate with 793 beds...

, Children's Hospital

Children's Hospital Boston

Children's Hospital Boston is a 396-licensed bed children's hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts.At 300 Longwood Avenue, Children's is adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical School, and to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...

, Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, and Northeastern University

Northeastern University, Boston

Northeastern University , is a private, secular, coeducational research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeastern has eight colleges and offers undergraduate majors in 65 departments...

External links

http://hst.mit.edu/shbt/ Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology (official program website)
http://hst.mit.edu/ Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
http://www.mit.edu/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://www.harvard.edu/ Harvard University

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See also

External links