On behalf of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) 2013 Organizing Committee, we would like to cordially welcome you to Vancouver, a city that has been chosen by the United Nations as the world's “Most Livable City” eight times in the last 10 years.
For thousands of years the Coast Salish people have called the area now known as Vancouver their home. Their history and cultural traditions, upholding a deep respect for nature and humanity, are tightly woven into the city's cultural fabric. Vancouver's cosmopolitan appeal can be attributed to its international diverse population. There are Aboriginal populations as well as British descendants, Chinese, Japanese, German, Indo-Pakistani, French, Italian, Dutch, Scandinavian, Ukrainian, Filipino, Greek and Korean among other nationalities. Immigrants from all over the world have given Vancouver an international flavor, a rich diversified cuisine and a wide range of entertainment for all ages. This makes Vancouver a cosmopolitan tolerant city where everyone feels welcome. Festivals, museums, theatres, as well as opera, numerous music venues and dance companies at the cutting edge of contemporary arts enrich Vancouver’s sophisticated arts community. Vancouver is also renowned for its world-class educational institutions that make International Education B.C.’s fifth largest “export”.
Besides its cultural diversity and sophisticated amenities, Vancouver is known for its incomparable natural beauty. It has plenty of green space and many recreation opportunities. Vancouver has a population of over two million residents who exploit their spectacular natural setting to the hilt, and when tire of the immediate region can travel a short distance to the unimaginably vast wilderness of the BC interior. The surrounding snow-covered slopes are perfect for winter sports and breathtaking views of the city twinkling below. Vancouver is one of the few places in the world where it is possible to ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon. To sample what Vancouver has to offer, please take advantage of the complimentary bus rides we have arranged to Lynn Canyon Suspensions Bridge, Museum of Anthropology & the University of British Columbia and Grouse Mountain. Please check the social events page on our ICASSP’s website.
The 38th edition of ICASSP you are attending now is the second time our IEEE Signal Processing Society holds one of its two major conferences in Vancouver. ICIP was held in Vancouver in 2000.
This year, our ICASSP will feature over 1700 paper presentations, selected from close to 3400 total submissions, the record numbers in the history of ICASSP and all other conferences sponsored by the IEEE Signal Processing Society since early 1970’s. These papers, together with plenary keynote talks given by and special sessions organized by leading experts as well as the timely tutorials, are on the latest technical developments worldwide on acoustics, speech, language, image, video, and all other areas of signal processing both in theory and in applications. In addition, exhibits and on-site workshops will offer all attendees various types of technical and hands-on experiences.
The conference venue is the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (West Building), consisting of 220,500 square feet (20,490 m2) of convention space. Surrounding the building are 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of walkways, bikeways, public open space and plazas. The West Building opened to the public on April 4, 2009. It effectively tripled the capacity of the convention centre. The building hosted the International Broadcast Centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the dedicated efforts of all our members of the Organizing Committee. We also gratefully acknowledge the precious financial support from a long list of organizations, foundations, and companies, including Microsoft, Baidu, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Nuance, MathWorks, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Google, and IBM. Special thanks are extended to Conference Management Services for their superb work concerning paper handling and registration as well as many other essential services provided to us. Finally, we thank IEEE and its Signal Processing Society for sponsoring and supporting our conference.
We hope that you will not only enjoy the technical and social programs of the conference but also enjoy meeting local people and experiencing Canadian culture during your stay in Vancouver. We look forward to meeting you soon.
Rabab Ward
Li Deng
General Chairs, ICASSP 2013