Title:  Associate Professor

Department:  Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology

School/Center:  School of Health Professions

Office Location:  102 FR

Phone:  617-373-5842

Fax:  617-373-2239

Email:  r.patel@neu.edu

Education:  BSc, University of Calgary; MHSc, PhD, University of Toronto; Post-Doctoral Research Affiliate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Certification:  CCC- ASHA,  SLP(C) – CASLPA
Specializations:  Motor speech disorders, acoustics of prosody, alternative and augmentative communication, development and usability testing of assistive technology
 
Research: 
Professor Patel founded and directs the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab). The mission of this interdisciplinary lab is to conduct research along two main themes: analysis of spoken communication, and the design, development and assessment of novel assistive human-machine interfaces. Current research projects include prosodic (melodic) analysis of impaired speech for developing voice-driven assistive communication aids, studying the effects of pitch and loudness perturbations on speech production, developing interactive software for teaching children how to read aloud with inflection, and designing and implementing novel brain-computer interfaces, Students from speech and hearing sciences, electrical engineering and computer science work collaboratively in the CadLab, a state-of-the-art facility for conducting psychoacoustic studies, software design and prototyping, and usability testing.

Research funding is provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (DOE), Charles H. Hood Foundation, & Northeastern University Provost's Grant.

Courses:  Professor Patel teaches graduate level courses in speech science, neurogenic motor speech disorders, human computer interaction and assistive technology.

Publications:
Patel, R., & Brayton, J. Identifying Prosodic Contrasts in Utterances Produced by 4, 7, and 11 Year Old Children, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research. (In press).

Patel, R., & Campellone, P. Production  and Identification of Contrastive Stress in Dysarthria. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research. (In press).

DiCicco, T. & Patel, R. (2008). Automatic Landmark Analysis of Dysarthric Speech. Journal of Medical Speech Language Pathology. (In press).

Patel, R. & Roden, A. (2008) Intelligibility and Attitudes toward a Speech Synthesizer Vocoded Using Dysarthric Vocalizations. Journal of Medical Speech Language Pathology.

Whitehill, T., Patel, R., Lai, J. (2008). The use of prosody by children with severe dysarthria: A Cantonese extension study. Journal of Medical Speech Language Pathology.

Patel, R., & Schell, K. (2008). The Influence of Linguistic Content on the Lombard Effect. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 51, 209-220.

Grigos, M. & Patel, R. (2007). Articulator movement associated with the development of prosodic control in children. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 50, 119-130.

Patel, R. & Schroeder, B. (2007). Influence of familiarity on identifying prosodic vocalizations produced by children with severe dysarthria. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 21(10), 833-848.

Patel, R., & Watkins, C. (2007). Stress identification in speakers with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy: An initial report. Journal of Medical Speech Language Pathology, 15(2), 149-160.

Patel, R. & Radhakrishnan, R. (2007). Enhancing Access to Situational Vocabulary by Leveraging Geographic Context. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits, 4(1), 99-114.

Web page:  http://www.cadlab.neu.edu/