Lab Director
Rajka Smiljanic (PI)
Email: rajka@austin.utexas.edu
Graduate Students
Sandie Keerstock, LIN
Sandie is a second year Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on intelligibility. She is looking at the strategies speakers employ to increase speech intelligibility and the effect these enhancements have on listeners’ memory. In her free time, she enjoys practicing Korean and singing in noraebang (karaoke).
Email: sandiekeerstock@gmail.com
Kirsten Meemann, LIN
Kirsten is a second year Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on speech perception and language processing. In particular, she is interested in the effect of clear speech and different types of noise on speech perception, and in the role of cognitive mechanisms to cope with such noise. In her spare time, she enjoys reading thrillers, listening to podcasts, and running (despite the Texas heat).
Email: kirsten.meemann@gmail.com
Steven Alcorn, SPN
Steven is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese studying second language acquisition and bilingualism. His current research examines vowel epenthesis in Brazilian Portuguese and how conflicting phonotactic constraints affect perception and production of consonant clusters Portuguese-English bilinguals. His hobbies include playing and watching sports, visiting museums and exploring Central Texas.
Email: steven.alcorn@utexas.edu
Undergraduate Students
Maria Gavino
Maria is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin pursing a double major in Linguistics and Spanish and a minor in English. After graduating, Maria plans to attend graduate school for a PhD in Linguistics. Maria is a member of the Undergraduate Linguistic Society and the Liberal Arts Honors program at UT. In her free time, she enjoys tending to her succulent terrarium, crafting, and spending time with family and friends. This is her second year as a research assistant at the lab.
Email: mariagavino@utexas.edu
Jai Lyn Pena
Jailyn is a Linguistics and Korean double major in her third year at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, she plans to teach English abroad in the Republic of Korea. Jailyn enjoys painting, creative writing and taking long walks in her spare time. This is her second semester as part of the Phonetics lab at UT.
Email: lynpena56@gmail.com
Irene Smith
Irene is in her second year in the UT SoundLab and her third year at UT, double-majoring in linguistics and electrical engineering. She is planning to write an undergraduate linguistics thesis that combines acoustic phonetics and signal processing by analyzing speech signals from the perspective of communications engineering. In her free time, Irene enjoys handweaving and backpacking. Email: irene.smith@utexas.edu
Liliana Terry
Liliana is a third year Computer Science student. She is interested in language acquisition and hopes to attend Stanford for graduate school to study computational linguistics and machine learning. In her free time she gets lost on hikes, makes short films, and loves going to Women in Computer Science events to celebrate women in technology.
Email: lilianaterry@utexas.edu
Hannah Ray
Hannah is a junior at UT, pursuing a degree in Linguistics and a certificate in Elements of Computing. She enjoys exploring different areas of interest, such as historical linguistics, computational linguistics, and cultural anthropology. She is a part of the UT Tennis Club, INSPIRE Women’s Leadership program, and plays guitar, violin, and cello. This is her first year working in the Sound Lab.
Email: cecilia7414@utexas.edu
Lab alumni
Niamh Kelly, LIN
niamhkelly632@gmail.com
Cindy Blanco, LIN
cynthiapblanco@gmail.com
Rachael Gilbert, LIN
rachaelgilbert@gmail.com
Kristin Van Engen, postdoc
kvanengen@wustl.edu
Elisa Ferracane, LIN
Hoyoung Yi, CSD
yulia523@gmail.com
Lauren Franklin, undergraduate
Maddie Oakley, undergraduate
Emily Tagtow, undergraduate
Gaby Cook, undergraduate
Cristabella Trimble-Quiz, undergraduate
Karen Johnson, undergraduate
Jose Martinez
Gayatri Rao, PSYCH
Matthias Sjerps, graduate, max Planck Institute
Matthias (dot) Sjerps (at) mpi (dot) nl
Lauren Ayres, graduate CSD
Natalia Czimskey, graduate CSD
Zach Childers, graduate LIN
Lauren Franklin, undergraduate LIN
Kiki Adams, LIN
Corina Trevino, undergraduate LIN, CSD; Intellectual Entrepreneurship internship program
Aidan Aannestad, undergraduate LIN
Nicholas Victor, undergraduate CSD
Samantha Sebastian, undergraduate LIN
Anais Callejon, undergraduate LIN
Randall Rouse, undergraduate LIN
Gabriela Saenz, undergraduate CSD
Rob Corona, undergraduate LIN
Lauren Burleson, undergraduate LIN
Johanna Emily Boardman, undergraduate LIN
Jasmine Beitz, undergraduate CSD
Samantha Gordon, CSD
UTsoundLab Fall 2010
