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School of Engineering

Faculty & Staff J. Robert Boston

Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor, Department of Bioengineering
Professor, Department of Communications Science and Disorders


412-624-3244
Fax: 412-624-8003
Office: BENDM 438

Education

Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering/Bioengineering), Northwestern University, 1971

Courses Taught

EE 0031 Linear Circuits and Systems 1
EE 1552 Signals and Systems Analysis
EE 1563 Digital Signal Processing
EE/BIOENG 1580/2580 Biomedical Applications of Signal Processing
EE 2636 Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Control

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Professional Interests

Dr. Boston's interests include signal processing, fuzzy signal detection, and intelligent control. He teaches courses in signals and systems and digital signal processing. His current research is concerned with techniques to modify a speech signal to increase its intelligibility in noise.

Selected Publications

Ferreira A, Boston JR, James F. Antaki, JF. A control system for rotary blood pumps based on suction detection. IEEE Transactions of Biomedical Engineering, Volume 56, Issue 3, March 2009, pages 656-665.

Rasetshwane DM, Boston JR, Li CC, Durrant JD. An Index to Measure "Transient-ness" of Speech, Proc. 13th IEEE Digital Signal Processing and 5th Signal Processing Education Workshop, pp. 54-59, January 4-7, 2009.

Jill C. Slaboda, J. Robert Boston, Thomas E. Rudy, Susan J. Lieber. Classifying sub-groups of chronic lower back pain groups based on lifting patterns. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Volume 89 (8): 1542-1549, August 2008.

Tantibundhit C, Boston JR, Li CC, Durrant JD, Shaiman S, Kovacyk K, El-Jaroudi A. New Signal Decomposition Method Based Speech Enhancement. Signal Processing, Signal Processing Journal, Volume 87, Number 11, pp. 2607-2628, November 2007.

Rasetshwane DM, Boston JR, Li CC, Durrant JD. Effects of pre-processing filters on a wavelet-packet-based algorithm to identify speech transients, Proc. 2007 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics, pp. 179 – 182, October 21-24, 2007.

Yoo SD, Boston JR, El-Jaroudi A, Li CC, Durrant JD, Kovacyk K, Shaiman S. Speech Signal Modification to Increase Intelligibility in Noisy Environments, J Acoust Soc Am., vol. 222 (2), pp. 1138-1149, August, 2007.

Research Interests

The role that outer hair cells in the cochlea play in speech processing is not known, but they have been suggested to be involved in auditory nerve tuning, two-tone suppression and the processing of noisy speech. We have proposed that outer hair cells may be involved in the detection of transient components in speech and that these transients are important for the understanding of speech in noisy conditions. We are using time-frequency analysis techniques to identify speech transients and are investigating whether amplification of these transients can improve the intelligibility of speech in noise.

Benedum Hall

Dedicated in 1971, Benedum Hall is home to exploration and discovery.

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