Researchers in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences have earned international recognition for their work in rehabilitation technology.
Gerald C. Imaezue
Gerald C. Imaezue, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and director of the Brain and Aphasia Recovery Lab (BARLab), and Celine Davis, a doctoral student, received first prize and the Best Overall Rehabilitation Technology Award at the LaunchPad Rehabilitation Technology Innovation Competition, held during the annual conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM).
This recognition highlights the lab’s innovation and impact in advancing AI-driven rehabilitation science to improve recovery for individuals with aphasia. Their winning paper, "Mirror Speech Entrainment: A Personalized, AI-Driven Rehabilitation Tool for Nonfluent Aphasia," was co-authored by Imaezue and Davis.
Imaezue acknowledged the outstanding efforts of Davis and Krishna Veni Maram, a member of the Brain and Aphasia Recovery Lab, noting that Maram played a pivotal role in bringing this vision to life, leading the technical development of the Mirror Speech Entrainment platform.
As part of the award, the BARLab team will receive exhibit booth space at the ACRM 2026 Annual Conference EXPO and will be featured in an upcoming episode of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation podcast, RehabCast, further highlighting their innovative contributions to the field.
The LaunchPad competition is a highly competitive, six-month, two-stage event spotlighting early-stage health technology innovations from research labs and start-ups worldwide. BARLab’s achievement not only underscores the lab’s commitment to advancing neurorehabilitation through technology, but also highlights the creativity and technical leadership of its student researchers.