UCLA Engineering: UCLA Engineer Magazine

Graduate Student Overcomes Personal Challenges to Thrive at UCLA

Ahror Rahmedov at work in his office.

Ahror Rahmedov, a first year biomedical engineering graduate student at UCLA, has a special interest in the perception and production of normal and impaired speech.

In 1994, Rahmedov was at a medical school classmate’s wedding in Uzbekistan when he was hit in the mouth with a rocket flare. The rocket destroyed his nose, upper and lower jaws, and two-thirds of his tongue. Since the accident, he has had nearly 30 reconstructive surgeries in Uzbekistan and the United States. He’s able to talk, but only with difficulty, and must work harder than most students to make himself understood in the classroom and in the lab.

But despite injuries that may have slowed most people down, Rahmedov became even more determined to succeed at his dreams.

Now at UCLA in the Interdepartmental Program in Biomedical Engineering, Rahmedov is working in Glottal Affairs Laboratory, helping to develop software for synthesizing voices.

“I want to be involved in projects that develop software applications to improve health care, and to provide software support for various machines and equipment used in surgical and post-operative treatment,” explained Rahmedov, who earned his BS in computer science from the University of Washington. “Coming from Seattle and dreaming of warmer, sunnier days during cold and wet winters up north, the Southern California climate and UCLA’s strong biomedical engineering program were ideal for me.”

Rahmedov’s focus is in signal and image processing, and he is using his background in the UCLA Glottal Affairs Laboratory within the department of surgery. The interdisciplinary research group, which includes scholars from medicine, linguistics, physics, and engineering, leverages its diversity to address speech perception problems in new ways.

He is working with Dr. Jody Kreiman and Dr. Bruce Gerratt on a better understanding of voice perception, and how acoustic factors influence perception of key characteristics of human speech.

“Because of his communication difficulties,” explained Kreiman, professor, head and neck surgery, “Ahror is very interested in voice disorders, so the field was a natural fit with his interests and academic background. Our work is more fun and productive when everyone involved has a real interest in the research, and he’s very engaged in our work and fits in well with the other people in the lab.”

Rahmedov has been working with the programming team in the lab on the software, and also has developed a web site that will be used to distribute the open-source software.

Although Rahmedov has discovered that UCLA’s biomedical engineering program is rigorous and requires an extensive understanding of biological systems in much more detail and lower levels, he is enjoying his studies.

“I love my professors,” he said. “They have a broad knowledge not only in their subject areas but also in related fields, which makes it ideal for learning the different aspects of biomedical engineering.”

“Ahror has made great strides in the program, and clearly has a lot of potential to evolve into a very good engineer,” says Warren Grundfest. “I give him a lot of credit with all that he’s had to overcome. He deserves every chance for success.”

- Marlys Amundson