Hana Kim, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has received a 2025 New Investigators Research Grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation). The $10,000 grant supports early-career scholars conducting innovative research in communication sciences.
Kim鈥檚 project, "Predicting Dementia from Written Language: A Bayesian Model Integrating Linguistic and Graphomotor Features in Mild Cognitive Impairment," examines how subtle changes in writing can signal early cognitive decline. Using advanced computer vision and statistical modeling, her study will analyze both linguistic and handwriting features from written samples to help identify individuals at risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.
Reviewers described Kim鈥檚 proposal as highly innovative, noting that her integration of written language analysis with graphomotor data could lead to the development of a quick, accessible, web-based diagnostic tool for clinicians and researchers. The project leverages a large, existing dataset and builds on Kim鈥檚 growing body of work at the intersection of language, technology, and neurodegenerative disease.
Kim will be recognized alongside other award recipients at the 2025 ASHA Convention in Washington, D.C., during the ASHFoundation鈥檚 "Evening with the ASHFoundation: Honoring a Legacy, Inspiring Our Future."