Ophelia McQueen started losing her hearing at age three because of a genetic condition called enlarged vestibular aqueduct (EVA) syndrome. McQueen has moderate hearing in her right ear and severe hearing loss in her left ear.
As she grew older, McQueen realized how important technology was in her life.
“My first pair of hearing aids weren’t very good. The technology wasn’t very strong. But by the time I was a freshman in high school, I got an upgraded pair of hearing aids, and I could hear so much clearer. Life was a lot easier for me. School was a lot easier for me,” McQueen said. “That’s when I realized that I wanted to use my like inclination towards STEM to help other people like me.”
McQueen decided to pursue a biomedical engineering degree at the University of Tennessee. This past summer, the sophomore took part in the STEMM-HEAR program and spent eight weeks at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), where she worked in the Bionic Ear Lab.
STEMM-HEAR is an internship program that provides college students doing STEM or pre-med studies with opportunities to conduct auditory science research at four affiliated universities across the country: USC, Rice University, Creighton University, and Oregon Health & Science University.
The program, which is funded through the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), gives stipends to eight college students to participate each summer.
McQueen took part in the “Bridging the Gaps” program at the Keck School of Medicine. She chose USC because the program was more engineering focused. Along with taking part in lectures in statistics and physiology, McQueen developed a study that examined how well people, especially cochlear implant users, can use voice pitch to understand noisy, real-world settings like restaurants or parties.
“The lab itself does a lot of different things with cochlear implant research that are signal processing and more technical stuff, but they also do remote testing of cochlear implant patients,” McQueen said. “They have a website called Team Hearing, and they have different tests on there to allow cochlear implant patients to test themselves at home, so we can collect that data. I focused on pursuing my own question and building my own study within that website.”
Performing Rigorous Research
STEMM-HEAR was developed by Tilak Ratnanather, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University who has profound hearing loss. His mission is to bring more deaf and hard-of-hearing students into STEM fields.
McQueen, a Maryville, Tennessee native, discovered the program through her mother, who frequently searches for opportunities for McQueen at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
“She’s been sending me articles about this professor for years, because he’s very well-known and connected in the deaf academia world,” McQueen said. “She just sent me this article one day about this summer research and encouraged me to apply.”
USC Associate Professor Raymond Goldsworthy, director of the Bionic Ear Lab and a cochlear implant user, was impressed with McQueen’s self-directed scientific curiosity and initiative. She learned the tools needed for her study quicky and made thoughtful design choices to keep her project moving at a consistent pace.
“Ophelia drove the project from concept to a research-ready method. She mapped the study design, implemented the analysis and signal-processing steps to modify and measure voice-pitch contours, and produced a clear outline for the methods section,” Goldsworthy said. “The summer is too short to complete full data collection and analysis, but she developed a rigorous, executable protocol and high-quality data modeling to move directly into testing.”
Making Tech Accessible
McQueen has stayed engaged with the Bionic Ear Lab since returning to UT. She is helping remotely as an onboarding research assistant, guiding new participants into the lab’s pitch and speech-perception studies.
McQueen hopes to get more involved with research at UT and find some auditory technology opportunities. Although she’s still determining what she may want to pursue as a career, McQueen’s overarching goal is to make high-quality technology that’s more accessible for lower-income families.
“I went into biomedical engineering to focus on improving the quality of life for hard of hearing and deaf people, especially those who don’t have access to some technology,” she said. “I think technology is something that should be available for everyone. I hope to do more with accessibility of hearing technology in the future and help on the advocacy side.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])