50th Anniversary Message

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the IEEE Signal Processing Society has a number of special activities and programs. Since starting its celebration last July, the society has published a number of prospective/retrospective articles on aspects of signal processing technology in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. Additionally, the Society is supporting efforts by the Center for the History of Electrical Engineering to capture both the history of the technology and the history of the Society.

The highlight of the celebration will be at the society’s flagship conference, ICASSP ’98: First, we have invited a number of highly visible speakers, including Thomas Engibous, David French, Fred Shlapk, Bernard Gold, Alan Oppenheim, and Larry Rabiner, to speak about the past, present, and future of signal processing technologies and applications. Secondly, a special reception has been organized so students can spend an informal evening with the Pioneers of the Society. Finally, the Society will present its 1998 Awards, recognize newly elected IEEE Fellows, and honor the recipient of the 1997 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal during the conference Awards banquet. We have invited a special guest, Nathan Myhrvold, to share his vision as our banquet speaker. It is expected that the Pioneers will attend this event, along with many of the Society’s past presidents.

The early pioneers contributed greatly to our Society with numerous discoveries and innovations. Let’s preview the future and understand how we can work together to ensure that the legacy of our earliest visionaries leads to continuing to improve the quality of life. We hope ICASSP ’98 will be an exciting, memorable event in signal processing history. Please come and join us to celebrate.

X.D. Huang, Vice Chair, ICASSP ’98
Y.H. Hu, Secretary, IEEE Signal Processing Society