Speech-Language Pathology
COMPASS Lab
Communication, Optimization, Multilingualism, Patient Education, AI & Speech Science
The COMPASS Lab is a human-centered research and clinical innovation lab dedicated
to advancing communication, learning, connection, and quality of life for individuals
and families across diverse communities.
Grounded in the values of compassion, evidence-based practice, cultural responsiveness,
and interdisciplinary collaboration, COMPASS Lab explores how research, education,
technology, and clinical science can work together to support meaningful communication
outcomes across the lifespan.
Led by the collective expertise of Dr. Kim Sabourin, Dr. Isabelle Barrière, Dr. Siena
Sun, and Dr. Mengyang Qiu, the lab integrates perspectives from speech-language pathology,
multilingualism, cognitive and language sciences, speech sciences, clinical education,
and AI-supported innovation.
Faculty strengths include bilingual and multilingual communication, stuttering and
other fluency disorders, language and literacy development, clinical pedagogy, communication
sciences research, and emerging applications of artificial intelligence in education
and healthcare.
At COMPASS Lab, we believe communication is more than a clinical skill—it is a pathway
to connection, participation, identity, and opportunity!
Research Areas
- Multilingualism, Bilingualism & Cultural Responsiveness led by Dr. Isabelle Barriere
- Stuttering and Other Fluency Disorders led by Dr. Kim Sabourin
- AI, Education & Clinical Innovation led by Dr. Mengyang Qiu and Dr. Siena Sun
- Feeding & Swallowing Practice led by Dr. Siena Sun
- Speech Sound Disorder led by Dr. Siena Sun
- Cognitive and Language Sciences led by Dr. Mengyang Qiu
- Natural Language Processing in Language Disorders led by Dr. Mengyang Qiu
- Family-Centered Care, Mentorship & Translational Research led by Dr. Kim Sabourin,
Dr. Siena Sun and Dr. Mengyang Qiu
Recent Publications
- Barrière, I., Nissenbaum, J., & Lafontant, M. (2026). Reciprocal empowerment to re-humanize language sciences: The first two cycles of the NSF-REU Intersection of Linguistics, Language and Culture. Perspectives on Undergraduate Research & Mentoring, 14(2), 1–12.
- Lakshmanan, U., & Barrière, I. (2026). Editorial: Acquisition, processing, and maintenance of a new language: Crosslinguistic perspectives on sequential bi/multilingualism. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 20, 1964936.
- Manes, J. L., Rohl, A. H., Qiu, M., Stipancic, K. L., Corcos, D. M., Patterson, C. G., Greenlee, J. D. W., & Tjaden, K. (2026). Paired-comparison versus cross-sectional approaches for assessing longitudinal speech change in Parkinson's disease following deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 35(5), 2243-2261.
- Qiu, M., Brisebois, Z., & Sun, S. (2026). Can LLMs simulate human behavioral variability? A case study in the phonemic fluency task. Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics, 250–263.
Recent Presentations
Underlined names indicate students from our program.
- NassrElgrgawi, S. (2026). Is AI ready for SLP? [Poster presentation]. SEU Interdisciplinary Research Symposium, Morristown, NJ,
United States.
- Qiu, M., Sun, S., & NassrElgrgawi, S. (2026). Bridging disciplines in AI for aphasia research: A network analysis of publication abstracts across CS and non-CS venues [Poster presentation]. 55th Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
- Sun, S., Qiu, M., & NassrElgrgawi, S. (2026). How is AI being used across communication disorders? A review of the research [Oral presentation]. Annual Convention of the New Jersey Speech-Language-Hearing
Association, Iselin, NJ, United States.
Contact Information
COMPASS Lab: slpresearch@steu.edu
Dr. Kim Sabourin: ksabourin@steu.edu
Dr. Isabelle Barriere: ibarriere@steu.edu
Dr. Siena Sun: ssun@steu.edu
Dr. Mengyang Qiu: mqiu@steu.edu
