Teaching
Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME120/220), "Quantitative Physiology: Sensory Motor Systems." Fall Quarter (With Professor David Reinkensmeyer).
Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME298), "Auditory Science and Engineering." All Quarters.
Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME170), "BME Lab." Winter Quarter.
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology (ANAT207), "Auditory
Information Processing and Neurobiology." Spring Quarter (with
Professor Len Kitzes).
Department of Neurobiology & Behavior (N147), "Auditory
Neuroscience" (4) Fall. Lecture, three hours. Multidisciplinary
introduction to brain mechanisms of hearing, taught by faculty from the
Center for Hearing Research. Emphasizes breadth of auditory function and
research: single neurons to psychoacoustics, the cochlea to the cortex, and
basic science to clinic issues. (With Professor Raju Metherate).
Undergraduate and graduate students may take independent study (199, 298 and
299 in School of Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering).
Department of
Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP722), "Experimental Audiology-Psychoacoustics."
2000, Spring Semester.
Since this is an “experimental” course, you can
expect extensive hands-on experience. The goal is to learn basic
psychoacoustic concepts and their underlying mechanisms through numerous
detailed and personalized projects. As a student, you are expected to learn
two popular and powerful computer software packages – Siggen and
PssychoSig – by Tucker-Davis-Technologies. While psychoacoustics by itself
is an interesting subject, the psychophysical methods including stimulus
control and various automatic procedures such as 2AFC, which have evolved
and optimized for almost 200 years, are definitely among the best in any
scientific fields. They can be readily applied to speech perception,
language modeling, and any other experiments measuring a subject’s
response to a physical stimulus.
Department of Hearing
and Speech Sciences (HESP407), "Bases of Hearing Science." 1998,
Fall Semester.
This course takes a system analysis approach to
studying how hearing happens at the following three levels: (1) description
and analysis of input stimuli to the ear, (2) processing and encoding of the
stimuli in the ear and the nervous system, and (3) interpretation and
perception of the nervous "spikes" by the brain. This course will
not only present a broad overview of the hearing system/process but also
provide an in-depth analysis of loudness perception as an example of this
system analysis approach. Demonstrations and listening tests will be
conducted to help students grasp important concepts. Completion of this
course should lead to an appreciation of research methodology, concepts, and
the state-of-the-art in hearing research.
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP700), "Hearing
Aids." 1999, Spring Semester.
Hearing aids have become a more important means of
auditory rehabilitation as our life span is further extended and children
with hearing loss can be diagnosed at birth or even before it. This course
covers fundamental and practical issues such as types of hearing aids,
amplifiers, controls, earmolds, electroacoustic measurements, psychophysical
measurements, fitting and selection methods, assessments of outcomes, and
rehabilitation strategies for special populations including middle-ear
implants, cochlear implants, and brainstem implants. Both classical
literature and state-of-the-art technology such as multi-band compression
and programmable digital hearing aids will be closely examined/discussed.
The course will be taught in a seminar style, in which both the instructor
and students are expected to present.
University
of Southern California (1996-1998)
Department of Electrical Engineering (EE513),
"Speech Processing for Multimedia." 1997, Fall Semester.
Speech processing is one of the most fast growing areas in multimedia.
Speech synthesis including text-to-speech conversion provides the computer a
mouth that can talk naturally; speech recognition provides the computer an
ear that can understand continuous speech independent of speakers and with a
large vocabulary; speech coding effectively compresses redundant information
to maximize use of computer storage and to save precious network bandwidth.
This course will examine basic principals in speech processing by man and
machine, detail techniques used in speech analysis, synthesis, coding, and
recognition, and provide hands-on experience in applying speech processing
techniques for multimedia. Integration of audio and video information will
also be discussed.
Department of Electrical Engineering (EE505), "Microelectronic Neural
Networks and Systems Applications," 1997, Spring Semester.