On behalf of the organizing committee of ICASSP 2016 and the IEEE Signal Processing Society, we are delighted to welcome you to the 41st IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), to be held at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China, March 20-25, 2016. ICASSP is the world’s largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on the research advances and latest technological development in signal and information processing. Our conference will feature top level speakers, exhibits, and posters from all over the world.
The latest technology wave of electronic applications, communication networks, sensors, and computers has ushered in the Era of Big Data. It is without a question that this exciting new era presents a huge number of technical challenges and, at the same time, tremendous opportunities for signal processing. Signal Processing has always been at the center of information technology. This year’s conference theme is “Signal and Information Processing: The Heartbeat of a Smart Society”. We hope that the latest R&D results in signal and information processing discussed at this conference can lay the foundation leading to the development of next generation technologies for a better and bright future.
As you will see in the next few days, we have put together a very exciting technical program at ICASSP 2016 which covers a wide range of important and timely signal processing topics. For this year’s conference, we received a total of 2682 regularly submitted papers. Working with our able Technical Program Chairs, Professors P.C. Ching and Dominic Ho, members from the 11 Technical Committees, 2 Standing Committees and 2 Special Interest Groups of the IEEE Signal Processing Society followed a highly rigorous review process to evaluate the submitted manuscripts within a strict timeline. We thank all the TC/SC/SIG members as well as the Special session organizers and reviewers for making this high quality technical program possible. In particular, our Special Sessions Chairs, Professors Tim Davidson and Jianguo Huang, have worked diligently with the Session organizers to assemble a strong lineup of sessions on special timely topics. Tutorial Chairs, Professors Jian Li and Jose Principe, brought together a school of highly anticipated tutorials on contemporary topics to Shanghai. The Show-and-Tell Sessions organized by Dr. Fa-long Luo continues the fine ICASSP tradition of live experience by delegates on the latest signal processing concepts. For the future of ICASSP and SPS, Student Session Chair, Prof. Wei Zhang coordinated several student-oriented activities including the Student Dialogue Session and the Student Luncheon. Also, working with the Best Student Paper Award Committee, the TPC chairs, Professors P.C. Ching and Dominic Ho, have shortlisted six candidates for the Best Student Paper Awards, with the final winners to be selected after a special session featuring the student award finalists. We also invite all of you to visit the sponsors and exhibitors’ booths in Mandarin Hall where you will find the latest signal processing tools and products.
Apart from the conference’s technical program, we also wish to draw your attention to the city of Shanghai. As the most populous city in China and the country’s financial center, Shanghai has always been the locomotive of China’s modernization over the past two hundred years. A major world city with a large community of foreign residents from across the globe, Shanghai has also a very diverse culture bridging the East and the West. Today, Shanghai is proud to be the first city in Mainland China to host ICASSP and to welcome the thousands of ICASSP conference participants and guests from around the world. We encourage all of you to take a moment during the conference to explore this very vibrant city, to learn about its history, to appreciate its distinct Eurasian culture, to witness its modern transformation, to sample its fine cuisines, and to meet its friendly residents.
The Organizing Committee of ICASSP 2016 is particularly thankful for the generous support from our industry sponsors and exhibitors. It should be pointed out that this year the student related activities have received particularly generous financial support from our industrial sponsors. To all of them, we wish to express our heart-felt appreciation
We would like to thank every member of the Organizing Committee and the professional members of CMS and CIFAL, without whom this conference would not be possible. We especially would like to thank the local team (primarily from SJTU) and the many student volunteers who are going to be instrumental throughout the conference. The staff members, the student volunteers, and the Organizing Committee shall continue to serve the delegates throughout the conference period.
We are confident that you will find the ICASSP 2016 a memorable and pleasant professional event that shall have a lasting impact on your professional career.
Sincerely,
Zhi Ding, Wenjun Zhang, Zhi-Quan Luo
General Chairs, ICASSP 2016