Researchers, Emergency Medical Response Team Earn Honors

Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of UT Dallas faculty and students. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communication manager.

Students Receive Research Grants

Two UT Dallas students from the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) recently were awarded two of three annual student research grants from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.

Kathryn Wiseman AuD’17 received the 2018 student research grant in audiology to support her dissertation project on inconsistent cochlear implant use in young children with hearing loss and the effect of device use on their overall speech, language and hearing skills.

“Some kids don’t perform as well as others, so we’re trying to figure out why that could be,” said Wiseman, who is now pursuing her PhD at UT Dallas.

Wiseman said new cochlear implant technology called “datalogging” can track actual device usage and provide a more accurate assessment of daily use than parent estimates applied in previous research. The next step is to link frequency of device usage by the children with their communication skills.

Olga Peskova MS’17 received the 2018 student research grant in early childhood language development. The award will help fund her dissertation project studying speech errors made by children with cochlear implants.

“Although the cochlear implant provides some sense of hearing and helps children understand and produce speech, they still make perception and speech production errors,” Peskova said.

The grants provide $2,000 each toward the students’ research.

“These two hardworking students are combining their clinical experience and research to shift the landscape of research in these vital areas,” said Dr. Andrea Warner-Czyz, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders. 

Emergency Response Team Garners State Award

The student-led University Emergency Medical Response (UEMR) team received the 2018 First Responder Award at the recent Texas EMS Conference in Fort Worth.

The statewide award, sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services, is given to a registered first-responder organization that demonstrates emergency medical services leadership in patient care, public access, medical control, disaster preparedness, public education or training.

“The award from the state further substantiates the value of the UEMR program and its contribution to the emergency medical care it provides to the UT Dallas community,” UT Dallas Police Chief Larry Zacharias said.

The UEMR student volunteers are certified in emergency medical training and serve as around-the-clock first responders to provide fast, direct Basic Life Support (BLS) and first aid on campus. Organized in 2017, the team has grown to more than 30 student volunteers who help shorten response time and improve the accessibility of emergency care to the UT Dallas community.

UT Dallas students Scott Bell, Yushra Rashid and Trevor Gawronski represented the team at the awards ceremony.

“The award is a fantastic representation of how our volunteer EMTs have attained the highest professional standard,” Bell said. “I am proud of the incredible emergency care our program provides, and this state-level recognition lets us know we are heading in the right direction.”