Carnegie Mellon University founder Andrew Carnegie said: "My heart is in the work."

No statement better captures the passion and drive of our people to make a real difference. 

At Carnegie Mellon, we're not afraid of the work.

Our educational environment creates problem solvers, drivers of innovation and pioneers in technology and the arts.  

Employers in every field say our graduates are ready to hit the ground running the day they graduate. 

So, join us. Whether you're looking for a career or an education. Or both.

Carnegie Mellon University

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal

David T. Blackstock Mentorship Award

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers : Fellow

National Research Council : Associate Member

American Statistical Association : Fellow

Induced alpha and beta electroencephalographic rhythms covary with single-trial speech intelligibility in competition

Statistical learning across passive listening adjusts perceptual weights of speech input dimensions

Diffuse Optical Tomography Spatial Prior for EEG Source Localization in Human Visual Cortex

Evaluating feasibility of functional near-infrared spectroscopy in dolphins

Modeling and interpreting the head-related transfer function to understand directional hearing in bottlenose dolphins

Barbara Shinn-Cunningham is the Glen de Vries Dean of Mellon College of Science. She joined Carnegie Mellon University in 2018 as the founding director of the Neuroscience Institute. Her research explores such issues as how do we make sense of speech and other sounds, how our brain networks allow us to focus attention and suppress uninteresting sound and whether we can develop new assistive communication devices and technologies that leverage knowledge from auditory neuroscience to aid listeners with hearing impairment or other communication disorders. Her work uses behavioral, neuroimaging and computational methods to understand auditory processing, from how sound is encoded in the inner ear to how cognitive networks modulate the representation of auditory information in the brain.

Non-Invasive Brain Monitoring

Mathematical & Statistical Methods

Computational

Cognitive Neuroscience

Characterization of Neural Circuits

Auditory Research

Behavioral Methods

Computational Neuroscience

Executive Control & Memory

Spatial Cognition & Attention

Sensation & Perception

Carnegie Mellon Biomedical Engineering Profile 

Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute Profile

Google Scholar Citations

Wikipedia Page

New dean joins Carnegie Mellon science college

Neuroscientists and Game Designers Play Well Together

Pittsburgh’s ‘neighborly playground’ for neuroscience has new leadership

Otonomy Reports Positive Top-Line Results from Phase 2a Clinical Trial of OTO-413 in Patients with Hearing Loss

Otonomy Reports Positive Top-Line Results from Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of OTO-413 in Patients with Hearing Loss

When Your Eyes Move, So Do Your Eardrums

Dean, Mellon College of Science

Carnegie Mellon University’s Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science Barbara Shinn-Cunningham discusses her work as an auditory neuroscientist and how it can help those with hearing impairments.

CMU Experts: Barbara Shinn-Cunningham

Abstract
In most social settings, competing speech sounds mask one another, causing us to hear only portions of the signal we are trying to understand. Moreover, multiple signals vie for our attention, causing central interference that can also limit what we perceive. Despite such interruptions and interference, we are incredibly adept at communicating in everyday settings. This talk will review recent studies of how we it is that we manage to selectively attend to and understand speech despite interruptions and perceptual competition from other sources. Evidence supports the idea that selective attention depends on the formation of auditory objects, and that the processes of forming and attending to objects evolve over time. In addition, top-down knowledge is critical for enabling us to fill in missing information in what we are successful at attending in everyday settings. These results have important implications for listeners with hearing impairment or who are aging, who are likely to experience difficulties with selectively attending in complex settings.
Biography
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham received her training in electrical engineering at Brown University (Sc.B., 1986) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., 1989; Ph.D., 1994). She joined the faculty of Boston University (BU) in 1996, where she is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems. She also holds faculty appointments in BU Biomedical Engineering, the BU Program in Neuroscience, the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, the Harvard/MIT Speech and Hearing Program, and the Naval Post-Graduate School. She serves on the Governing Board of the Boston University Center for Neuroscience and the Board of Directors for the CELEST NSF Science of Learning Center, as well as various committees of professional organizations such as the Acoustical Society of America, and the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. She has received research fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation, and the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows program. Her research includes studies of auditory attention, sound source separation, spatial hearing, and perceptual plasticity.

Understanding Speech in the Face of Competition – Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Boston University) -2008

Media Inquiry