Lee Kean Mun
PhD Candidate
EMPOWER Centre · School of Social Sciences
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
I study how young children learn from the people — and the screens — around them, and how brain rhythms that sync to speech can make digital learning work better.
About
I'm a PhD candidate at the EMPOWER Centre, Nanyang Technological University, supervised by Prof. Victoria Leong. My research looks at how infant-directed speech — the sing-song way adults naturally talk to babies — helps young brains lock on to speech through neural entrainment, and what that means for learning face to face versus on a screen.
I use EEG, audio-visual analysis and machine learning to measure these interactions, and I'm co-developing a neuropersonalised digital avatar that adapts to each child's brain rhythms to support early word learning. Before my PhD, I worked on cognitive flexibility, sleep and attention, and personality research at NTU, the National University of Singapore and the University of Nottingham, where I earned a BSc in Psychology with First Class Honours.
Research highlights
01
Neuropersonalised learning
A digital avatar that tunes its speech to a child's own brain rhythms. Co-inventor on a Singapore provisional patent.
02
Automated interaction analysis
An audio-visual pipeline that works out who is speaking in mother–infant interactions, so hours of video can be analysed automatically. Presented at BUCLD 51, Boston (2026).
03
Infant-directed speech and the brain
How the rhythm of parents' speech helps infants' brains track language, face to face and on screen.