Research is conducted by faculty, research scientists, and graduate students affiliated with six associated academic departments: biomedical engineering, cognitive science, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mathematical sciences, and psychology. The research involves work in all aspects of the science and technology of language and speech, with fundamental studies under way in areas such as language modeling, natural language processing, neural auditory processing, acoustic processing, optimality theory, and language acquisition.

The Center coordinates a full complement of courses dealing with a diverse array of topics in language and speech.

As part of its educational mission, the Center offers a wide range of seminars from prominent speakers throughout the academic year and organizes an annual summer research workshop.