Howdy y'all! On behalf of the entire ICASSP 2010 Organizing Committee and the IEEE Signal Processing Society, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., held from March 14 to March 19, 2010. Our Conference is the 35th in a series of signal processing conferences dating back to 1976, when the first ICASSP was held in Philadelphia, PA. Our Conference is back in the United States after a highly-successful ICASSP 2009 in Taipei, Taiwan. Next year, ICASSP will travel to Central Europe, where it will be held in late May of 2011 in the beautiful jewel of a city that is Prague, Czech Republic. The tour that ICASSP takes from continent to continent underscores the international nature and global impact of the signal processing field. For those of you who are attending ICASSP from abroad, we especially welcome you after your long journey. No matter from where you have traveled, we hope that you find your stay in Dallas to be informative, invigorating, and most of all fun!
Dallas is an exciting city known for its fantastic restaurants, numerous nightspots, a thriving Arts district, state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venues, and nearly-endless shopping and retail options. With over 2700 restaurants, Dallas is said to have the most restaurants per capita in the U.S., so you will have no trouble finding something to eat here. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system of light rail trains, buses, and the free M-line Streetcar to Uptown make getting around the city a breeze. And there are many things to see, including the extensive collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the exhibits at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and the American Airlines Center, home of the NBA Dallas Mavericks and the NHL Dallas Stars. Go experience an exhibit, cheer on a team, have some great food with friends, and enjoy the best that this city has to offer.
For many of you, travelling to Dallas involves plane flight, and we have two excellent airports that serve our city: the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, and the regional Dallas Love Field Airport. DFW International is a hub of numerous national and international airlines, many with direct flights from major cities across the globe.
Many of you will stay at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, adjacent to the Conference Center that houses the main sessions of ICASSP 2010. The Sheraton Dallas Hotel recently completed a $90 million renovation of its rooms, lobby areas, and eating establishments. In terms of convenience, getting to the Conference from your hotel room is a snap — it is a quick ride down your elevator to the second floor, where you can cross over via a skybridge to the Conference Center where all the action is. For you tireless IEEE Signal Processing Society volunteers, you'll find many of your working meetings in the State Room on the 3rd floor of the Conference Center or in the Majestic Rooms overlooking the hustle and bustle of the city on the 37th floor of the Hotel. There is a skybridge northwest from the hotel to the Plaza of the Americas where anyone can get a quick bite to eat as well.
While attending the Conference, you'll discover why Dallas is a great place for ICASSP because everything is bigger in Texas, including the conference venues. From Tuesday morning onward, almost everything is located on the first floor of the Conference Center: the opening sessions, the lecture sessions, the poster sessions, and the Exhibit Hall where the Show-and-Tell demonstrations are also held. The layout of ICASSP 2010 makes it easy to get from one session to another so that you can see the lectures, view the posters, watch the demos, and talk to the exhibitors you want without having to climb a single stair. Even so, be sure to attend the tutorials, workshops, and other events away from the first floor of the Conference Center that the many exhibitors have offered to you as part of their strong sponsorship.
The banquet entertainment this year on Wednesday evening is truly special: a private-event Rodeo performed at the Resistol Arena, the home of competitive professional rodeo in Dallas. Get ready to watch real bronco and bull riding, roping, and steer wrestling in a dazzling display of Western skills by cowboys and cowgirls. Travel to the Arena is by deluxe motor coach, and the show starts after a traditional Texas barbeque dinner.
ICASSP 2010 will be successful largely because of what you as an attendee have and will contribute to the Conference, but it would not even happen without the strong commitment and efforts of all of the members of the ICASSP 2010 Organizing Committee. To John Hansen, Panos Papamichalis, Issa Panahi, Antonia Papandreou-Suppappola, Philip Loizou, Nasser Kehtarnavaz, Gene Frantz and Cathy Wicks, Sam Shearman, Dinesh Rajan, Thad Welch, and all of Billene Mercer's dedicated staff at CMS, I thank you for all of your efforts in bringing ICASSP back to the Lone Star State. And now, on with the show!
Scott C. Douglas
General Chair
ICASSP 2010