Vass Verkhodanova

I did my Bachelor's and Master's in St. Petersburg State University in Russia, where I spent many white nights learning staff about experimental and computational linguistics and phonetics. After the university I worked for four years in the field of speech technologies, feeling the vibe of applied science. These four years finally shaped my understanding that opportunity to apply your knowledge to a real world means a lot to me, bridging the gap between pure theoretical questions and real life and its problems. And I decided to start my PhD.

My project faces the challenge of recognising pathology from speech and voice. It takes into account production and perception sides of the speech analysis, looking not only into the speech signal itself, but also at the way medical experts recognise pathological speech. We endeavour to determine the cues to which they are sensitive when they recognise Parkinson's disease, and the extent to which those cues are dialect- or language-dependent. In addressing this issue, we will also identify which factors (including severity, gender, age, and language) influence the production and perception of such cues.

With the opportunities of making my research inter- and transdisciplinary, I couldn't be more happy with Campus Fryslân that allowed me to shape my research the way I wanted. Campus Fryslân is a Faculty in formation, it might be small now, but it grows into a unique academic environment right before our eyes. It is situated in Leeuwarden, a small and truly historical city, where many interesting places, events, cosy "nook-ish" cafes and bars are hiding in the peaceful streets of the city.