Young children learn language through rich, responsive interaction with caregivers. As more early learning moves onto screens, a key question is what gets lost — and whether technology can be designed to put it back. My research tackles this from the brain upwards.
PhD project
From Infant-Directed Interaction to Neuropersonalised Digital Learning: Enhancing Learning via Neural Entrainment (tentative title).
Infant-directed speech and neural entrainment
I characterise the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech and how children's brain rhythms align (entrain) to it, comparing face-to-face and screen-mediated learning. The findings inform digital education policy.
Neuropersonalised digital avatar
With colleagues at EMPOWER, I'm co-developing a socially responsive digital avatar whose speech and song are tuned to each child's individual brain rhythm (alpha frequency), to test whether personalised timing improves word learning. The avatar paper is accepted at IEEE TALE 2026 and is the subject of a Singapore provisional patent. Related work on neuropersonalised acoustic signals for screen-based learning appeared at the AI for Children workshop, ICLR 2025.
Automated audio-visual speaker diarization
I built a pipeline that combines audio and video to identify who is speaking when in mother–infant interactions, replacing slow manual coding. Presented at the 51st Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 51), November 2026.
Methods: EEG (EEGLAB) · audio-visual signal processing · machine learning · Python, R, MATLAB · PsychoPy
Earlier research
- Cognitive flexibility — Cambridge-NTU CLIC, NTU (2022–23). How cognitive flexibility relates to other executive functions and learning in young adults; built a centralised anonymised data repository for international collaborators.
- Sleep and attention — NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (2021–22). Cognitive effects of chronic sleep restriction (Sleep and Health Lab, Dr June Lo) and MRI studies of sleep deprivation and sustained attention (AWAKE Lab, Dr Julian Lim).
- Personality, memory and social perception — University of Nottingham (2018–20). Personality and memory interventions; contributor to the Psychological Science Accelerator's cross-cultural face perception study (Nature Human Behaviour); TMS and tactile perception (Dr Nicholas Holmes).