We are proud to share the transition of the QLAB to Northeastern University and the successful Fall semester that followed!
Making The Move
QLAB departed from the University of Delaware and now resides in Northeastern University’s Forsyth building. Many students and members of our team took part in the transition to Northeastern’s campus. Katherine Trice, a former U. Delaware graduate student, transferred to Northeastern University. U. Delaware graduate student Anqi (Jojo) Hu made the physical transition to Boston, while Yi-Lun (Rachel) Weng, also a current U. Delaware graduate student, helped orchestrate the move from Delaware and continued to hold down the fort on Delaware’s campus. Rachel will physically join the team in Boston in January 2022.
Engaging the Community
Upon joining the Northeastern community, QLAB participated in the University’s largest undergraduate event focused on opportunities in research. S.O.U.R.C.E. (the Showcase of Opportunities for Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor) is a conglomeration of the University’s best labs displaying their cutting-edge research and innovations across an array of disciplines. QLAB tabled at this large-scale event and had the opportunity to share recent work. Researchers and members of the lab engaged students on exploring language acquisition and learning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning and the Theory of the Mind, and other current projects. In response, students were eager to participate in QLAB’s work, with over 70 undergraduates expressing their interest in joining the lab.
QLAB’s work extended beyond the Northeastern campus and to the greater Boston community this fall. Graduate student Katherine Trice submitted and presented her talk at the 46th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD). As referenced in the Fresh Conference Presentation excerpt, Katherine’s Talk focused on pragmatic inference and social cognition within the process of understanding and retaining word meanings. Katherine delivered an engaging presentation which can be found here, and we are very proud of her launching us into the new semester, and city, with this Talk!
Milestones in the Lab
We are excited to share the recent approval of QLAB projects! Thus, our Brain, Language, and Autism study (BLAST) has officially launched at Northeastern. We are very excited to start engaging interested families in the Boston area. You can find out more about participation here. Given our institutional approval, we will also be kicking off additional online behavioral language studies for adults in Spring 2022. Stay tuned on our Current Projects page!
QLAB also had its first MRI visit for BLAST at Northeastern. This visit included a space-themed MRI adventure with alien language games and language assessments, which all took place at NUBIC (Northeastern University Biomedical Imaging Center). The participant really loved the practice scanner and gave us excellent tips on how to make the MRI visit more fun for kids in the future. Thanks for the awesome MRI decoration ideas!
Wrapping Up the Semester, and the Year
As our first semester has come to a close, we are all reflecting on the progress we have made in the last four months, and in the year overall. QLAB would like to take a moment to appreciate Dr. Qi, our graduate students, and all of the RA’s who have played a vital role in our successes and progress. Specifically, we want to thank all of our University of Delaware Research Assistants. Thank you, Kate Ridoux, Bella DiGennaro, and Brooke Baiocchi, for your contributions to the lab.
We wish you all happy holidays with friends, family, and loved ones, and we look forward to sharing the discoveries awaiting us in the new year!