Arun Prakash Singh

Arun Prakash Singh is a Researcher at the University of Oslo (UiO), affiliated with the Unit for Multilingualism and the Department of Linguistics and Nordic Studies within the Faculty of Humanities. He currently leads the Marie Curie-funded Hindi-BabNet project, focusing on Hindi-speaking infants' language development and acoustic analysis of parental speech. Previously, he worked on the BabyLearn project at UiO (2022–2024), examining Norwegian infant-directed speech’s role in early speech comprehension. His academic background includes a PhD in Acoustics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (2020), a Master of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering from HBTU, Kanpur (2010), and a Bachelor of Technology from UPTU, Lucknow (2007).

• Education:
• PhD: Acoustics Lab, IIT Kanpur, India (2020)
• Master of Technology: Electronics and Communication Engineering, HBTU, Kanpur (2010)
• Bachelor of Technology: Electronics and Communication Engineering, UPTU, Lucknow (2007)

Research Interests:

Singh’s work integrates speech engineering techniques with linguistics to study early language development and multilingualism. His key areas include infant-directed speech (IDS) analysis, statistical methods (frequentist and Bayesian), and machine learning applications in speech recognition. He employs tools like Praat, Audacity, TensorFlow, and PyTorch to analyze acoustic data and model parent-infant communication dynamics across languages (Hindi, Norwegian) and socio-economic contexts.

Scientific Awards:

• MHRD INDIA Post Graduate Scholarship (2007)
• MHRD INDIA PhD Scholarship (2013)

Advising and Grants:

While not currently supervising students, Singh has contributed to interdisciplinary projects funded by the EU Marie Curie program and the ESRC. His past roles include Senior Project Scientist at IIT Kanpur’s Acoustic Lab (2020–2022) and Postdoc on the BabyLearn project. His research bridges engineering and social sciences, emphasizing practical tools for linguistic analysis and data-driven insights into language acquisition.

Labs and Teams:

Associated with IIT Kanpur’s Acoustic Lab during his PhD, Singh now collaborates with UiO’s Clinical Linguistics and Language Acquisition and Experimental Linguistics groups. His current work in the Department of Linguistics and Nordic Studies involves developing computational models to study multilingualism and IDS’s impact on vocabulary growth in Hindi-speaking children.