Research Opportunities for Undergrads
Are you interested in becoming involved in linguistics research? Please check back in November when we will be recruiting candidates for Spring 2026.
FUTURE APPLICATION PERIODS:
Spring 2026: November, 2025
Summer 2026: March, 2026
Fall 2026: July, 2026
Note: The application period for the positions listed on this page has closed. Opportunities for Spring 2026 will be posted in November, 2026. Available opportunities and a link to the application form will be added at that time.
Our research opportunities are either paid or volunteer, as noted in the description. Volunteer positions often lead to paid RAships in later semesters. The hours and length of commitment are variable, depending on the project. Paid RAships are funded by the supervisor's research grant or the Linguistics endowment fund.
Applications are assessed on the basis of academic excellence and stated qualifications. All applicants will be informed by email regarding the outcome of their submission.
| Professor, Project Information | Seeking Students? (Yes/No) and Further Details |
|---|---|
| Yue Wang, Henny Yeung, Angelica Lim Human robot interaction (HRI), affective robotics, computational linguistics Breaking Barriers RA: Seeking one RA (paid) for the project "Creating adaptive vocal interfaces in human-AI interactions". As AI voice assistants become more prevalent, it is essential to address how they manage communication challenges. This research study aims to explore how both people and AI systems adapt to misunderstandings and develop more effective, user-friendly voice technology for real-world use. In this project, you will learn how to develop and deploy code on the Pepper robot in combination with web applications, as well as run a human robot interaction (HRI) experiment to collect participant data. There is also an opportunity to analyse and prepare audio data for post-experiment analysis. This research study is a collaboration between the SFU Language and Brain Lab and Language Learning and Development Lab in the Department of Linguistics, as well as the Rosie Lab in the School of Computing Science. Responsibilities include:
Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in Computing Science, Linguistics, or related fields. Application Deadline: September 21, 2025 ------------------------------ |
No (closed): 1 RA (paid) to start ASAP for Fall 2025 5 hrs/wk (including 1-hr weekly lab meeting). Renewable for up to 2 additional consecutive semesters (until end of August 2026). Requirements:
|
| Ashley Farris-Trimble Phonological processing, opacity, typology, learning Phonological Processing Lab: Seeking up to 4 volunteer RAs to work across several projects. Paid position may be available after a semester's involvement. Duties may include:
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No (closed): up to 4 volunteer RAs for Fall 2025 5 hrs/wk (plus 1-hr weekly lab meeting) Qualifications:
|
| Yue Wang Experimental phonetics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics Language and Brain Lab: Seeking 2 volunteer RAs to work on the project Adaptations in Conversation: Engaging voices, faces, brains and machines. Paid position may be available after a semester's involvement. Duties may include:
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No (closed): 2 volunteer RAs for Fall 2025 5 hrs/wk (plus 1-hr weekly lab meeting) Qualifications:
|
| Henny Yeung Infant Directed Speech (IDS), phoneme discrimination, word segmentation, joint attention Language Learning and Development Lab: Seeking 1 volunteer RA to work on the project Cross-Cultural Infant Language Development. Duties will include annotation and analysis of speech directed to infants, and community recruitment. Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in LING, Cognitive Science, or related fields ------------------------------ |
No (closed): 1 volunteer RA for Fall 2025 5 hrs/wk Qualifications:
|
If you have any questions about these positions or about the application process, please contact the Research Grants and Projects Coordinator.