For Summer and Fall 2022, the Hamilton Lab at UT Austin is looking to work with a limited number of undergraduate volunteers who are interested in speech processing in the brain using electroencephalography (EEG). This is an in-person opportunity to help with data collection using scalp EEG at the UT Austin campus. This will involve working with young adults with and without different forms of hearing loss or hearing difficulties. Data collection will be performed during normal business hours (selected between 9-5pm M-F). Usually this would translate to 1-3 EEG sessions per week, where each session lasts 2-3 hours including setup and clean up. You will be trained by our team in best practices for EEG data collection. If you choose to participate in this opportunity, you should sign up for Independent Study through SLH378K, UGS 320K, or NEU377.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please fill out the Volunteering Questionnaire.
This study is led by Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences faculty member Dr. Liberty Hamilton and PhD student Maansi Desai, MA.
As a volunteer, you will be expected to:
(1) Spend ~9 hours a week in the lab working on data collection or other research support items. These hours will be scheduled so that research volunteers overlap and can support each other in teams of 2-3. You will also work together with other researchers in the lab, including graduate students and research assistants. We will train you on data collection procedures, with the aim to allow you to gain enough proficiency to run EEG studies with a small group.
(2) Faithfully attend a ~1 hour weekly lab meeting where we discuss relevant papers and give updates on lab projects
(3) Work collaboratively with others (either Dr. Hamilton directly, graduate students in the lab, research assistants, or other undergraduates)
(4) Be detail-oriented, professional, and tenacious! Research often involves troubleshooting why something went wrong -- don't be afraid to ask questions, but also show initiative and look for answers on your own wherever you can (google is your friend!)
(5) Communicate! Be communicative about your achievements and your failures! We are all here to help each other to do good work.
(6) Learn a lot and have fun :)