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Dr Bruce Xiao Wang

Dr Bruce Xiao Wang

Research Assistant Professor

Research Overview

My main research interests lie in forensic speech science, sociophonetics, acoustic phonetics, Bayesian statistics and the evaluation of voice evidence. My work in sampling variability in forensic voice comparison contributes to the on-going discussion of validity and reliability in the forensic evidence comparison. I argue that forensic experts should focus on measuring and minimising uncertainty, not maximising discriminability. I also maintain active research interest in articulatory phonetics and disordered speech. I use Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) investigating the interpretability of acoustic signals from an articulatory perspective.

Education and Academic Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of York
  • M.Sc. in Forensic Speech Science, University of York
  • B.A. in Translation and Communication (Joint), Shanghai Maritime University/University of Portsmouth

Academic and Professional Experience

  • Research Assistant Professor (2023-), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  • Postdoctoral fellow (2022-2023), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  • Lecturer in Phonetics (2021-2022), Newcastle University, UK

Teaching Areas

  • Teaching Areas
  • Phonetics
  • Sociolinguistics

Research Interests

  • Research Interests
  • Forensic speech science/forensic voice comparison
  • Forensic statistics
  • Acoustic and articulatory phonetics
  • Sociophonetics

Research Output

  1. Wang, B., X., Chen, S., Zhou, F., Liu, J., Xiao, C., Chan, A. & Tang, T. (2024). English Prosodic Focus Marking by Cantonese Trilingual Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing  Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00508
  2. Coretta, S., Casillas, J. V., Roessig, S.,... & Wang, B. X. (2023). Multidimensional signals and analytic flexibility: Estimating degrees of freedom in human-speech analyses. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6(3), https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245923116256.
  3. Wang, B. X. (2022). The effect of sampling variability on overall performance and individual speakers’ behaviour in likelihood ratio-based forensic voice comparison. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 29 (1), 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.23731
  4. Wang, B. X., Hughes, V. and Foulkes, P. (2022) The effect of sampling variability on systems and individual speakers in likelihood ratio-based forensic voice comparison. Speech Communication, 138, 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2022.01.009
  5. Wang, B. X., Hughes, V. and Foulkes, P. (2019) The effect of speaker sampling in likelihood ratio based forensic voice comparison. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 26(1): 97-120.
  1. Wang, B.X., Hughes, V. (2022) Reducing uncertainty at the score-to-LR stage in likelihood ratio-based forensic voice comparison using automatic speaker recognition systems. Proc. Interspeech 2022, 5243-5247, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2022-518
  2. Wang, B.X., Hughes, V. (2021) System Performance as a Function of Calibration Methods, Sample Size and Sampling Variability in Likelihood Ratio-Based Forensic Voice Comparison. Proc. Interspeech 2021, 381-385, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2021-267
  3. Wang, B. X., Hughes, V. and Foulkes, P. (2019) Effect of score sampling on system stability in likelihood ratio based forensic voice comparison. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). Melbourne, Australia. pp. 3065 – 3069.
  4. Rose, P. and Wang, B. X. (2016) Cantonese forensic voice comparison with higher-level features: likelihood ratio-based validation using F-pattern and tonal F0 trajectories over a disyllabic hexaphone. Proceedings of Odyssey 2016 The Speaker and Language Recognition WorkshopBilbao, Spain. pp. 326-333.
  1. Li, B., Wang, B. X., Chen, S., Zhang, C. C., Lau, P. Y. & Yang, Y. K. (2023) Talker normalisation of prosodic cues in non-native speakers. Presentation at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing Asia. 1-3 December, 2023.
  2. Wang, B. X. & He, L. (2023) Exploring the Articulatory Perspective of Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients: Unravelling the Link between MFCCs and Vocal Tract Features. Work in Progress paper at the 31st International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. Zurich, Switzerland. 9 – 12 July, 2023.
  3. Wang, B. X. & He, L. (2023) The interpretability of Mel-Frequency cepstral coefficients: A pilot study using articulatory phonetics. Presentation at the 15th Phonetic Conference of China, Southern University of Science and Technology, China. Shenzhen, China. 7 – 9 July 2023.
  4. Wang, B. X., Chen, S. and Zhou, F. (2023) Declarative or declarative question? – on the acoustics of English prosody of Hong Kong trilingual children with autism spectrum disorder. Poster presentation at the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Chicago, Illinois on May 11, 2023.
  5. Wang, B. X. and Hughes, V. (2022) Reducing the degree of uncertainty within automatic speaker recognition systems using a Bayesian calibration model. Poster presentation at International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. 10-13 July, 2022.
  6. Hughes, V. and Wang, B. X. (2022) Forensic experts should focus on uncertainty rather than discriminability. Poster presentation at International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. 10-13 July, 2022.
  7. Chan, R. and Wang, B.X. (2022) Evidential value of long-term laryngeal voice quality acoustics. Poster presentation at International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. 10-13 July, 2022.
  8. Hughes, V. and Wang, B. X. (2022) Crises of uncertainty, reproducibility and replicability in forensic comparison. Poster presentation at European Academy of Forensic Science Conference. Stockholm. 30th May – 3rd June 2022.

Others

  • Principal Investigator. Evidential value of Cantonese speech sounds in forensic voice comparison. PolyU Start-up Fund for RAPs under the Strategic Hiring Scheme (2024 - 2026).

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