VCCA2023 - Scientific Committee - Computational Audiology

Scientific Committee		Bio
Dennis Barbour MD, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis.		Dennis’ research interests include auditory processing, cognitive neuroscience, machine learning and medical diagnostics. Most recently he has developed new machine learning methods for rapidly and thoroughly evaluating perception and cognition. These new tests are not only useful for exploring normal nervous system function, but also for diagnosing disorders.
Deniz Başkent Prof dr ir, W.J. Kolff Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science, Dept. Otorhinolaryngology, UMCG, University of Groningen, The Netherlands		Deniz is interested in all aspects of hearing, hearing loss, hearing aids and cochlear implants, and speech perception. Deniz’s current projects focus on children with hearing loss, voice and emotion perception, speech-in-speech perception, listening effort, and audiological diagnostic tests and rehabilitation approaches, such as music training and use of humanoid robots.
Simon Carlile Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Sydney		As Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Sydney, Simon established the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory. He has published over 120 journal articles, led two audio technology spin-off companies, and developed a user-centered research strategy as VP for Research at Starkey Hearing Technology. He was the technical lead for a major moonshot project at Google [X] and, most recently, joined Google Research (Australia) as a Senior Staff Research Scientist.
Monita Chatterjee Senior Scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, USA		Monita Chatterjee leads NIH-funded research on basic and translational aspects of auditory and speech perception by patients with cochlear implants. Her laboratory is currently investigating emotional speech perception & production by children and adults with cochlear implants.
Brent Edwards Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL)		For over 22 years he headed research at major hearing companies (GN ReSound, Starkey) and at Silicon Valley startups that have developed innovative technologies and clinical tools used worldwide. Dr. Edwards founded and ran the Starkey Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, California that was a leading site for research in hearing impairment and cognition. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Fellow of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology and an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University.
Deborah Viviane Ferrari Associate Professor in the SLP-Audiology Department (University of Sao Paulo – Bauru Campus)		Deborah’s research interests focus on connected health, person-centred care, auditory rehabilitation, and new technologies for teaching and learning in higher education. She is a Teleaudiology pioneer and contributed to its regulation in Brazil.
Tobias Goehring (Chair of scientific committee) MRC Fellow and Senior Research Associate, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge		Tobias’ research is on improving speech-in-noise perception with hearing devices by using technology and engineering tools (eg machine learning, multi-sensory integration, EEG). He is interested in computational methods for on-device processing and patient-specific optimisation, data analysis for outcome assessment and prediction, and overcoming barriers to access hearing care globally.
Andrea Hildebrandt Professor for Psychological Methods and Statistics, University of Oldenburg, Germany		Her research focus is on the advancement of multivariate statistical modeling approaches, such as non-linear structural equations combined with big data analyses techniques for applications in psychometrics and neurometrics. Together with a team of scientists belonging to the Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4All”, she is currently working on the design of psychological profiling algorithms to be used in the context of a virtual hearing clinic.
David Moore Professor of Otolaryngology and Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, and Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at the University of Manchester, UK.		Dave is Director of the Communication Sciences Research Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, USA. Current research interests include development of listening skills in children, hearing health care delivery using self-administered precision solutions, and effect of enriched auditory experience on the developing brain.
Tilak Ratnanather Associate Research Professor, Center for Imaging Science and Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University.		Tilak’s research focuses on the analysis of brain structures which include hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, planum temporale, superior temporal gyrus, and the auditory and prefrontal cortexes. These structures are implicated in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, major depression, speech and language processing.
Zach Smith Director Algorithms & Applications, Cochlear Limited		Dr Zachary Smith is an innovation leader focused on bringing cutting-edge technologies to commercial applications in auditory implants. He leads a team of hearing scientists, data scientists, and engineers at Cochlear Limited in Sydney and Melbourne and runs global research programs in Algorithms for Sound Processing and Surgical Tools.
De Wet Swanepoel Professor of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology, University of Pretoria.		De Wet’s research interests span the field of early identification and diagnosis of hearing loss, objective measures of auditory functioning and ear and hearing telehealth. The improvement of ear and hearing health care through translational research is consistently emphasized, in particular the improvement of access to, and the quality of ear and hearing health care.
Sarah Verhulst Prof. Dr. Verhulst is a Full Professor in Hearing Technology and leads the Hearing Technology lab at Ghent University.		Sara’s interdisciplinary group works on auditory neuroscience, computational modeling, and hearing technologies. She has several EU and FWO research projects and is a member of the Belgian Young Academy of Sciences, the Belgian Academy of Sciences (Technical Sciences), and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.
Astrid van Wieringen Professor at Experimental ORL, Dept Neurosciences, University of Leuven		Astrid’s interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding the neural consequences of deprived auditory input, and optimizing hearing in adults and children with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants through evidence-based rehabilitation.
Fan-Gang Zeng Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, Cognitive Sciences, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Center for Hearing Research at University of California Irvine.		Fan-Gang is a leader in hearing science and technology, with 268 publications, 13071 citations and an h-index of 54 (Google Scholar, August 8, 2019). He led the development of the Nurotron 26-electrode cochlear implant (SFDA approval in 2011 and CE Mark in 2012) and SoundCure tinnitus suppressor (FDA clearance and CE Mark in 2011).