Clinicians
Bring the research into your clinical practice.
Access clinical tools, normative data, implementation resources, handouts, and practical guidance for applying velopharyngeal imaging and related research in patient care.
Clinical resourcesGet involved with the iCO Lab
Bring your perspective to the work.
Complex clinical questions need more than one area of expertise. We welcome collaboration opportunities with students, clinicians, engineers, data scientists, researchers, and community partners.
Research partners & collaborators
Let's connect.
Nearly every iCO Lab project is collaborative. We welcome conversations at any stage, from emerging questions and existing datasets to new methods and translational ideas. We value partners whose expertise, data, or perspective can extend our precision-health approaches and help move discoveries toward practice.
Students
Train across clinical and technical disciplines.
Work on active projects in speech, imaging, predictive modeling, and translational research alongside multidisciplinary collaborators.
Student opportunitiesCollaborators
Bring your complementary expertise to shared questions.
Projects span speech-language pathology, surgery, engineering, imaging, data science, physics-based modeling, and biomaterials application/development.
Collaboration areasFunders & media
Explore the impact of our work.
Review published evidence, ongoing innovation, funded projects, and examples of how the work is reaching clinical, scientific, and public audiences.
Research impact
For prospective students
Student opportunities.
Our undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral trainees contribute to active projects while building foundational research skills and seeing firsthand how questions move from the lab toward clinical impact. Students join active projects, learn how rigorous research is built, and see how evidence moves toward clinical impact. Availability varies by project, funding, training needs, and mentorship capacity.
Undergraduate students
UVA undergraduates may participate during the academic year or summer as volunteers or for academic credit.
- Research operations and data organization
- Engage in the research process
- Interdisciplinary directed research experience
Graduate students
Clinical graduate students may pursue a thesis or contribute to aligned projects with faculty mentorship.
- Practice-oriented clinical questions
- Research skill development
- Funded research assistantships when available
Doctoral students
Ph.D. trainees develop independent programs of interdisciplinary, clinically grounded scholarship.
- Close faculty mentorship
- Research, teaching, and service
- Competitive funding packages
Advanced research training
Postdoctoral scholars
We are always interested in discussing project ideas with prospective postdoctoral scholars and supporting the development of independent fellowship and research funding applications. Opportunities may align with our work in clinical imaging, speech and resonance, craniofacial and velopharyngeal disorders, computational modeling, precision-health diagnostics, and translational technology development.
We welcome conversations about potential applications to NIH, NSF, and other postdoctoral fellowship or career development programs.
To discuss potential opportunities, contact Dr. Mason.
Contact Dr. Mason →Research Focus
Our areas of expertise.
Our lab integrates clinical knowledge with advanced imaging, speech science, biomechanics, computational modeling, and data science. Together, these areas allow us to study complex communication disorders from multiple perspectives and translate discovery into patient-specific care.
Our Expertise
Imaging & measurement
MRI, image processing, segmentation, anatomy, and quantitative phenotyping.
Speech & communication
Speech-language pathology, acoustics, resonance, perception, voice, and swallowing.
Modeling & data science
Biomechanics, statistics, machine learning, scientific computing, and digital twins.
Clinical implementation
Surgery, engineering, biomaterials, implementation, visualization, and decision support.
Current Project Areas
Clinical & surgical
Cleft and craniofacial care, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, radiology, dentistry, pediatrics, voice, airway, and swallowing.
Engineering & biomechanics
Patient-specific geometry, muscle mechanics, simulation, device design, and biomaterials.
Data, AI & computation
Computer vision, statistical learning, multimodal data, predictive modeling, and responsible AI.
Implementation science
Patient experience, clinical decisions, outcomes, usability, health communication, and adoption.
Design & visualization
Scientific communication, interactive tools, human-centered design, and accessible education.
Multi-site & community partnerships
Shared protocols, diverse cohorts, external validation, with clinical and community partnerships.
Start a conversation
See a connection to your work?
Tell us what interests you, what perspective you bring, and why the iCO Lab may be a fit.