Assistant Professor



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

Certification
·American Speech-Language Hearing Association, CCC-SLP

Office: 102 Forsyth
Voice: 617-373-5842
Fax: 617-373-2239
E-mail: r.patel@neu.edu
Web: http://www.cadlab.neu.edu

Scholarly Interests
· Neuromotor speech disorders
· Acoustics of prosody
· Assistive Communication Technology
· Human Computer Interaction
· Speech production in noise

Bio

Professor Patel 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 analysis of healthy and impaired speech, studying the effects of background noise on speech production to improve speech synthesis, and designing and implementing context-sensitive language prediction within a novel assistive communication aid called iconCHAT.

The laboratory is funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (DOE), and the Charles H. Hood Foundation.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Patel, R. & Grigos, M. "Acquisition of Interrogatives: An Acoustic Analysis" (In review).

Patel, R. & Radhakrishnan, R. "Towards Leveraging Geographic Context to Predict Vocabulary on an Assistive Communication Aid." (In review).

Patel, R. & Watkins, C. "Perception of Contrastive Stress in Dysarthria due to Cerebral Palsy." (In review).

Patel, R. & Khamis-Dakwar, R. (2005). "An AAC Training Model for Special Education Teachers: A Case Study of Arab Teachers in Israel." Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Sept. issue.

Patel, R. (2004). "Contrastive Prosody in Adults with Cerebral Palsy". Journal of Medical Speech Pathology, 12(4), 189-193.

Patel, R., Pilato, S., & Roy, D. (2004). Beyond Linear Syntax: An Image-Orientation Communication Aid. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits, 1(1), 57-67.

Patel, R. (2003). "Acoustic Differences in the Yes-No Question-Statement Contrast Between Speakers with and without Dysarthria." JSLHR, 46, 6, 1401-1415.

Patel, R. (2002). "Prosodic control in severe dysarthria: Preserved ability to mark the question-statement contrast." JSLHR, 45, 5, 858-870.

Patel, R. (2002). "Phonatory control in adults with cerebral palsy and severe dysarthria." AAC, 2, p. 2-10.

Patel, R. (2002). "How Speakers with and without Speech Impairment mark the Question-Statement Contrast," Proc. International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Denver, CO, 570-574.

Basu, A., Sarkar, S., Chakraborty, K., Bhattacharya, S., Choudhury, M., & Patel, R. (2002). Vernacular Education and Communication Tool for the People with Multiple Disabilities, In Proc. Int. Conference on Open Collaborative Design for Sustainable Development, Bangalore, India.