The Office of Human Subjects Protections is pleased to announce that Dr. Juliana Saba, a member of the Cochlear Implant Processing Laboratory (CILab) has been selected as the recipient of the Summer 2024 HIVE Award!
Dr. Saba holds both a BS and an MS in Bioengineering, as well as a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. She found her true calling in human subjects research when she joined Dr. John Hansen’s CILab, which primarily focuses on engineering, while its human subjects protocols involve diverse listening experiments with individuals who use cochlear implants (CI), hearing aids (HA), and those with typical hearing (TH). Participants engage in various speech and non-speech sound tests, utilizing novel sound coding strategies developed in the lab to enhance communication in noisy environments, specifically for cochlear implant users.
Five years ago, Dr. Saba started as a Research Assistant in the CILab and now serves as a Post-Doc and Lab Manager. Her responsibilities include coordinating Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals and managing logistics and experimental design for both cochlear implant and typical hearing subjects across all CILab research procedures. Additionally, she ensures compliance with study protocols and personnel requirements. Dr. Saba also contributes to human subjects procedures for the CILab’s NIH R01 CCi-MOBILE $3.2 million research project, where UTD is the lead site.
Dr. Saba exemplifies the core values of the HIVE Award by emphasizing organization and providing focused mentorship to PhD students within the CILab. Her commitment to connecting with study participants ensures their comfort during their involvement in research. Dr. Hansen specifically highlighted her dedication in this regard: “She takes great care to ensure each PhD student is responsible for their subject listener testing – as well as how to interact and be supportive of the CI user’s time and accommodate any special needs.” When asked if she had any advice for aspiring researchers, Dr. Saba stated it’s okay to be uncertain about your next steps and not have everything figured out. She emphasized, “If you have passion, you can go really far.”
When asked about her future aspirations, Dr. Saba quoted a past mentor: “If I knew where I see myself in 5 or 10 years, I would be doing it already.” She emphasized taking each day as it comes and expressed gratitude for her current position. Dr. Saba’s ethical and compassionate approach to human subjects research was evident as she described the most important thing she learned about human subjects research: “Qualitative feedback is just as important as quantitative measures. The human subjects (cochlear implant users) are not just an “N” in our studies, but humans each with a unique experience using our proposed solutions. The solutions that work for one subject can be a solution that does not work for another.”
The Office of Human Subjects Protections proudly welcomes Dr. Juliana Saba as a valued member of the HIVE!