With the limited number of research funds available to undergraduate students, the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) Undergraduate Student Summer Research Award provides undergraduate students with funds to explore meaningful research, offering an opportunity to expand their interests outside of the classroom curriculum.
Recipients of the award will conduct research on their topic of choice that addresses a social or disability problem in the health, assistive technology and rehabilitation fields. The recipient is granted $5,000 for the summer to assure that they can devote themselves full-time to their project. Funds may be used toward living expenses and research related travel.
The 2024 Undergraduate Student Summer Research Award recipient is Alisa Stolyar, a senior studying Data Science at Pitt. Stolyar’s project mentor is SHRS Health Informatics’ Vice Chair for Research and Assistant Professor Yanshan Wang.
In March, Stolyar placed third for best student paper at the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Summit.
Read more to learn about Stolyar’s research and her recent honor at the conference.
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Q: What is the purpose of your research project?
A: Millions of people experience varying levels of hearing loss, and the process of finding a hearing aid can be challenging. My aim was to simplify the search for over-the-counter hearing aids through the summarization of existing hearing aid reviews.
Q: Why did you choose to investigate this particular topic?
A: Hearing loss is a prevalent and impactful condition that affects millions globally. In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids for individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss, establishing a distinct category separate from prescription hearing aids. This regulatory change may leave some patients, particularly those unfamiliar with hearing aids, without medical guidance in their decision-making process. To address this, the CLEARdashboard (Consumer Led Evidence – Amplification Resources dashboard), developed by the Department of Communication Science and Disorders team at SHRS, was created as an educational platform to assist users in comparing the technical specifications of various OTC hearing aids.
I was initially brought on to the CLEARdashboard team to design and develop the dashboard to consolidate information on hearing aids. While this was a great learning experience, UX/UI design and website development wasn’t exactly related to my major or interests. I wanted to apply my academic knowledge and interests to the dashboard through Natural Language Processing (NLP) and data science and decided on this research, since reviews were something that was missing from the dashboard.
Q: What are your future career goals?
A: My goal is to use data science to make a tangible impact. I’ve found that I enjoy working in health care data because there is a direct impact on patient outcomes and quality of life. I also plan to explore different types of data outside of health care.
Q: What does this award mean to you?
A: I have been participating in science fairs and research since high school, and I am extremely grateful to have been given an opportunity to continue doing research as an undergraduate student. It is rare to have a chance to conduct independent research, especially as an undergraduate, and it was a challenging and transcendent experience during which I have learned more than I imagined.
Q: Your paper placed third at the AMIA symposium, Congratulations! What did your paper entail?
A: In my paper, I proposed the new feature on the CLEARdashboard which would utilize the NLP methods to analyze product reviews from two prominent hearing aid online retailers. Analyzing product reviews using NLP is particularly helpful because these reviews often contain detailed, real-world insights into the performance and usability of hearing aids that may not be captured in technical specifications alone.
I used NLP techniques in the automatic summarization of large volumes of user feedback into concise “pros and cons” lists, providing patients with a clearer understanding of the strengths and limitations of each device. This approach saves patients from manually sifting through extensive reviews and helps them make informed choices based on aggregated consumer experiences. The generated summaries were validated by three human evaluators to ensure the most comprehensive and reliable method of presenting this information, enhancing the decision-making process for individuals selecting OTC hearing aids.
Q: What was it like to be named a finalist?
A: I am very honored to have been named a finalist and was honestly quite surprised since it is semi-rare for an undergraduate student to attend AMIA, let alone win third place in best student papers! I am very happy to have been able to contribute to the pool of knowledge in this field and hopefully improve the process of searching for an OTC hearing aid! I am very proud of the work I put into this project and the experience has been an extremely valuable one.
Stolyar’s mentor, Yanshan Wang, shares his thoughts on Stolyar’s impactful research:
“Team science collaboration lies at the heart of our health informatics research. A prime example of this collaborative spirit is Alisa’s project, made possible through the SHRS Undergraduate Student Summer Research Award. This initiative exemplifies our strong interdisciplinary partnerships, particularly with the Department of Communication Science and Disorders, as well as other departments across the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the School of Medicine and the broader Pitt community.
Through projects like this, we not only demonstrate our pioneering role in translating cutting-edge AI methods into practical health care applications but also reinforce our commitment to cultivating the next generation of health care AI professionals. Our work underscores the importance of collaborative, cross-disciplinary innovation in shaping the future of intelligent and human-centered health care.”
Read about the 2023 award winner, Amelia Saccomandi
