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3. Publication News

New Editors-in-Chief for SPS Publications

Five publications of the IEEE Signal Processing Society welcome new Editors-in-Chief beginning January 2009 for the term that will run until 31 December 2011.  These new Editors-in-Chief are:  Konstantinos N. Plataniotis (University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada) for the IEEE Signal Processing Letters, succeeding Dr. Alex B. Gershman (Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany); Li Deng (Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA) for IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, succeeding Dr. Shih-Fu Chang (Columbia University, New York, NY); Helen Meng (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China) for the IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, succeeding Dr. Mari Ostendorf (University of Washington, Seattle, WA); Nasir Memon (Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY) has been named Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, succeeding Dr. Pierre Moulin (University of Illinois-Urbana, Urbana, IL); and Athina Petropulu (Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA) has been named Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, succeeding Dr. Alle-Jan van der Veen (Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands).

Signal Processing Magazine Deadlines:  http://www.ieee-spm.org/?i=cfp 

Special Issue Deadlines

Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (website)

• MIMO Radar and its Applications - Deadline (extended): 3 February 2009
• Compressive Sensing - Deadline: 20 February 2009
• Model Order Selection in Signal Processing Systems – Deadline: 20 April 2009

IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing (website)

• Virtual Analog Audio Effects and Musical Instruments – Deadline: 15 March 2009
• Voice Transformation - Deadline: 1 April 2009

IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (website)

• Electronic Voting - Deadline: 15 February 2009

IEEE MultiMedia Magazine (website)

• Multimedia-Metadata and Semantic Management - Deadline: 15 January 2009
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia – Deadline: 15 May 2009

Recent Issues of SPS Sponsored and Co-sponsored Publications

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4. TC News

IMDSP TC Renamed as Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing TC

The former Image and MultiDimensional Signal Processing (IMDSP) TC recently revised its name to add the term "video" and updated its acronym accordingly as IVMSP -- Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing (IVMSP) TC . The motivation for the name change was to make it clear to the technical community that the TC coverage includes video signal processing. Learn more about this change and major TC activities from this exclusive report.

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2009 Class of Distinguished Lecturers

The IEEE Signal Processing Society’s (SPS’s) Distinguished Lecturer (DL) Program provides the means for Chapters to have access to well-known educators and authors in the fields of signal processing to lecture at Chapter meetings.  Distinguished Lecturers are appointed for a term of two calendar years. The 2009 Class of SPS Distinguished Lecturers includes:

CHARLES A. BOUMAN, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Prof. Bouman’s lecture topics include: model based imaging: in search of the free lunch; intelligent enhancement and restoration in imaging pipelines; iterative reconstruction without the iterations; and grand challenge problems in digital imaging.

VIKRAM KRISHNAMURTHY, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Prof. Krishnamurthy’s lecture topics include: adaptive filtering games for designing reconfigurable sensor networks; statistical signal processing for protein dynamics and protein-based–from macro to sub-nano scales; and radar resource management and integrated tracking.

SHOJI MAKINO, NTT Communication Science Labs, Kyoto, Japan. Dr. Makino’s lecture topics include: blind audio source separation based on independent component analysis and underdetermined blind source separation based on sparseness.

SERGIOS THEODORIDIS, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Prof. Theodoridis’ lecture topics include: adaptive kernel methods; support vector machines; and music information retrieval (MIR).

LANG TONG, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Prof. Tong’s lecture topics include: distributed sensing and inference in random information fusion networks; detection of information flow and anonymous networking; and cognitive spectrum sharing: sensing, access, and networking.

While many IEEE Societies have similar programs, the SPS provides financial support for the Chapters to take advantage of this service. Chapters interested in arranging lectures by the Distinguished Lecturers can obtain information from the Society’s DL web page. Interested members may check each issue of the E-News for upcoming SPS Distinguished Lectures near you.

Chapter Activities at A Glance:   IEEE Signal Processing Coastal Los Angeles Chapter

As of 2008, the IEEE Signal Processing Coastal Los Angeles Chapter becomes part of the Coastal Los Angeles Section, instead of the Los Angeles Council. It is a joint chapter in the Coastal Los Angeles area for the Communications, Signal Processing and Vehicular Technology societies. The 2009 officers are Ron Smith and Charles Wang as Co-Chairs and Paul Anderson as Treasurer and Membership Development. Two excellent technical meetings have been held last year, presented by Fred Harris from the San Diego State University on "DSP Based Corrections of Analog Components in Digital Receivers", and by Rick Wesel from University of California - Los Angeles on "New Results in Coding and Communication Theory". The presentation charts are available at the Chapter Website.

If you are interested in organizing a new SPS chapter, or participating in activities in a SPS local chapter near you, please check out Local Chapter Resources. Additional questions and comments can be addressed to the SPS Chapters Committee.
 

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6. New Initiatives and Trends

LASeR: The Lightweight Rich Media Representation Standard

Rich media services and interfaces typically offer increased user experience by the dynamic combination of video, audio, images, graphics or text. The rich media representation is defined by the LASeR standard for mobile devices. It is based on reusing simple MPEG-4 Systems tools and the MPEG-4 decoder model and addresses rich media services on a wide range of devices and delivery situations.

Learn more about the LASeR standard from the Standards in a Nutshell article by J.-C. Durfourd in the November 2008 issue of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

Swarm Intelligence and Signal Processing

Swarm intelligence deals with the behavior of natural or artificial swarms. Swarms are systems that consist of many individuals that are organized and coordinated by principles of decentralized control, indirect communication, and self-organization. Examples of natural swarms are social insect colonies, flocks of birds, schools of fish, or herds of land animals. Examples of artificial swarms include groups of robots, intelligent mobile devices that can communicate with each other, or virtual swarms in the form of a computer program. An interesting phenomenon of swarms is that collective swarm behavior can emerge on a global scale, even when all individuals have only a restricted view of the system and interactions between individuals and their environment occur only on a local scale.

The DSP Exploratory column of the November 2008 issue of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine features an article by D. Merkle and M. Middendorf on optimization methods developed in swarm intelligence that have found an increasing number of applications in diverse fields, including signal processing.

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Advanced FPGA Design: Architecture, Implementation, and Optimization,
by Steve Kilts, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2007.

Description from the publisher: This book provides the advanced issues of FPGA design as the underlying theme of the work. In practice, an engineer typically needs to be mentored for several years before these principles are appropriately utilized. The topics that will be discussed in this book are essential to designing FPGA's beyond moderate complexity. The goal of the book is to present practical design techniques that are otherwise only available through mentorship and real-world experience.

Visit the book's website for more information.

Image Fusion: Algorithms and Applications,
by Tania Stathaki, Elsevier, 2008.

Description from the publisher:  The growth in the use of sensor technology has led to the demand for image fusion: signal processing techniques that can combine information received from different sensors into a single composite image in an efficient and reliable manner. This book brings together classical and modern algorithms and design architectures, demonstrating through applications how these can be implemented.  Image Fusion: Algorithms and Applications provides a representative collection of the recent advances in research and development in the field of image fusion, demonstrating both spatial domain and transform domain fusion methods including Bayesian methods, statistical approaches, ICA and wavelet domain techniques. It also includes valuable material on image mosaics, remote sensing applications and performance evaluation.

Visit the book's website for more information.

A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing: The Sparse Way, 3rd Edition
by Stephane Mallat, Elsevier, 2009.

Description from the publisher:  The new edition of this classic book gives all the major concepts, techniques and applications of sparse representation, reflecting the key role the subject plays in today's signal processing. The book clearly presents the standard representations with Fourier, wavelet and time-frequency transforms, and the construction of orthogonal bases with fast algorithms. The central concept of sparsity is explained and applied to signal compression, noise reduction, and inverse problems, while coverage is given to sparse representations in redundant dictionaries, super-resolution and compressive sensing applications.

Visit the book's website for more information.

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Post-doctoral / Research Associate position in inverse imaging for semiconductor manufacturing
at University of Hong Kong

The Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Hong Kong has an opening for a post-doc/research associate position in optical lithography research, tenable from as soon as possible. The candidate will work on a research project (funded by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong) that develops inverse imaging techniques for photomask designs in semiconductor manufacturing, and explores issues such as robustness and imaging limits.

Candidate should have a Ph.D. in electrical and electronic engineering, or equivalent (such as applied mathematics), and should have an established record in imaging system modeling and solving inverse problems for imaging. Initial contract will be one-year, with possibility of renewal up to three years. Candidates without Ph.D. will be considered at the Research Associate level. Interested candidates should send their CVs to <isl AT eee.hku.hk>, with the subject "Application for post-doctoral/research associate position 2008-09".  Inquiries about the post should be addressed to the project leader and Director of Imaging Systems Laboratory, Professor Edmund Lam, at <elam AT eee.hku.hk>. Remuneration package is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience, with medical and dental benefits.

Ph.D. position in mathematical statistics - reliable detection of explosives and narcotics
at Lund University, Sweden

Applications are invited for a PhD position in mathematical statistics aimed at developing robust and reliable detection algorithms for concealed explosives and narcotics using spectroscopic techniques, such as nuclear quadrupole resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance and resonant Raman spectroscopy. These techniques allow for efficient, but complementary, methods to reliably detect, at close-range, both solid-state and liquid explosives and narcotics, as well as vapour-traces of such substances at a distance of 45-60 m. The project also includes examining pharmaceutical applications of the techniques as well as analysis of the developed techniques. Some further details on the current project can be found here.

Exceptional applicants are invited to contact Prof. Andreas Jakobsson at <andreas.jakobsson AT matstat.lu.se> for further information about the project. Applicants should have a strong background in statistical signal processing and mathematical statistics, and should have a M.Sc. degree in Engineering, Mathematics, or a related discipline. Proficiency in English is a requirement. Last day for application is 13th February 2009. Please see this page for the complete announcement.

Post-doctoral research fellow on image quality assessment
at University of Nantes, France

The Image and Video-Communication team at the IRCCyN lab, University of Nantes France, is currently recruiting a post-doctoral research fellow to work on quality assessment of watermarked images and JND masks. Candidates should have a strong research record and a number of years research experience in digital watermarking and/or human vision modeling. The successful candidate will be expected to carry out novel research in HVS based watermarking (JND masks) and objective/subjective quality assessment of watermarked images. Full time position for one year starts in January/February 2009. Experience in software development using C/C++ and Matlab is highly desirable. Depending on experience and background, annual salary for a post-doctoral researcher is about 35000 Euros. Applicants should email a detailed Curriculum Vitae along with a publication list to <Florent.Autrusseau AT polytech.univ-nantes.fr>. Further information on the lab's research fields can be found here.

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Statistical Signal Processing - Synthetic Aperture Sonar at TU Darmstadt, Germany

• Postdoctoral Positions on MIMO Radar and Sensor Networks for Detection/Estimation at Lehigh University, USA

• EPSRC Industrial CASE PhD Studentship in Statistical Signal Processing at Heriot-Watt University, UK

• PhD Position on Secure Identification and Authentication Codes at the University of Geneva, Switzerland

• PhD Scholarship in Cochlear Signal Detection and Modelling at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Interested in advertising graduate scholarship, post-doc positions, or funding opportunities?
Please prepare a short text of the announcement (150-200 words) and visit the web submission site to enter your input. It is recommended to include the deadline or valid period of the announcement, and an URL for more information such as group/research description and detailed qualification expectation. Contact Associate Editor Prof. Alessandro Piva at <alessandro.piva AT unifi.it> if you have any questions. Note that advertisements on faculty and other full-time position are in the domain of IEEE job advertisement (http://careers.ieee.org/); the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine also provides opportunities for paid advertisement.

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