Rin Steitz

Under Dr. Shobhana Chelliah and the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL)

• Deployed Hugging Face Wav2Vec2 and XLS-R models into inference pipelines, enabling scalable transcription of 40+ hours of Dimasa and Boro audio
• Performed perceptual analyses of tonal contrasts in Dimasa and Boro, including auditory inspection of pitch contours, tone realization, and suprasegmental features critical for intelligibility
• Managed end-to-end audio workflows for CoRSAL researchers and linguistic clients, overseeing data quality, annotation accuracy, and perceptual validation of audio used for ASR training
• Designed and conducted small-scale listening tests to evaluate ASR-generated transcriptions, assessing tone accuracy, speech quality, and listener-perceived distortions
• Extracted and modeled tonal features (F0, harmonicity, energy profiles) using Librosa, Parselmouth, and Praat to support perceptual research on tone and prosody and automated tonal feature extraction (Librosa, Parselmouth), reducing latency by 35% during inference
• Partnered with native speaker consultants (Dimasa, Boro, Lamkang) to validate tone categories and resolve perceptual ambiguities in annotated corpora, standardizing data across IPA and Devanagari scripts, reducing annotation errors by 90%
• Enabled 20% improvement in text generation accuracy as measured by reduced WER/CER scores by constructing and validating 60+ EAF-aligned corpora through manual transcription and acoustic alignment auditing in ELAN

• Implemented UX/UI updates to the Linguist List website using HTML and Python
• Made targeted text, formatting, and layout changes to improve submission workflows
• Streamlined design changes based on user feedback and managerial review
• Achieved a 96% reduction in daily user complaints related to conference and CFP submissions

• Reviewed, edited, and approved submissions across Jobs, Supports, Internships, Conferences, Conference Calls, Journal Calls, and Summer Schools
• Provided guidance to submitters on formatting standards, deadlines, and submission requirements
• Created and managed social media campaigns promoting academic and professional opportunities
• Communicated with a high volume of international submitters ensuring accuracy and professionalism

• Designed interactive lessons for 6 students between CEFR levels A1-C1 on a weekly schedule
• Used students' interests to guide learning and create interactive lessons
• Implemented technology tools to support language learning and improve student engagement
• Tracked student progress and language advancement according to CEFR levels and textbook progress
• Administered assessments to gauge learning comprehension

• Supported administrative staff with data entry tasks, maintaining accurate records of student information
• Assisted in coordination of departmental events and activities for students with disabilities
• Managed scheduling and appointment logistics for faculty and student meetings
• Provided administrative support by maintaining accurate records and files within the office
• Facilitated communication between students, faculty, and external resources to enhance service delivery
• Transcribed meeting minutes for faculty members.
• Catalogued and documented GA and TA hours for the department, sending reminders out to ensure proper and timely document collection

• Organized cultural immersion activities and games such as teaching "Down by the Bank" and fingerpainting Christmas scenes to enrich students' understanding of English-speaking environments
• Supported students learning English by designing self-made worksheets on lesson topics as well as interactive activities to support the learning of daily class material in CEFR levels B1-C2
• Encouraged student motivation by focusing class material on fundamental skills that contribute to long-term language understanding with a class of 18 level B2 students by providing interactive lessons including charading current vocabulary, creating dialogues, and role-playing that encourages retention of content
• Implemented strategies to understand sound assimilation and pronunciation techniques for American English for a one-on-one student