Mission and Vision
Signal Processing Mentorship Academy (SigMA) is an IEEE SPS initiative that provides funding for mentoring experiences to young researchers, pairing them with established researchers in signal processing from a different institution, and typically from a different country, for a nine-month collaborative research project. The program culminates in a joint submission to ICASSP and an annual event held at ICASSP.
The goal of SigMA is to give all SPS members opportunities to develop their technical research and soft skills, attracting and retaining more researchers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Program Roles
Mentee: A young researcher in their early stages of academic life (e.g. undergraduate or graduate student) who is a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society.
Mentor: An established researcher who acts as the advisor of the young researcher for the duration of the project. The mentor provides the student with supervision, guidance, and access to resources (including datasets and computational resources) required for the project. The mentor should also link the student to other students/researchers in their lab to further improve the student’s network and knowledge.
In a project proposal, mentors and mentees must be from different institutions and preferably from different countries. Each individual can only be involved in one project proposal.
Research Project
The young researchers and mentors who have their project proposal selected for funding in the 2026 Call for Project Proposals are expected to work in cooperation during the program (about 9 months), meeting (online) periodically. Optionally, mentees can visit their mentors’ lab. By the end of the project, the young researchers and their mentors will co-author a publication for submission to the ICASSP conference. Even if the paper is not accepted for the main conference, the project's output is presented during ICASSP in the SigMA event to the current and past participants of the program. ICASSP attendance is mandatory.
Students whose papers related to their projects got accepted for publication at ICASSP will be invited to present their work to other SPS students via local chapters to increase the visibility of their work and the program. The steering committee and the SPS Regional Directors will assist in the connection with the local chapters.
Funding Scope
SigMA Program Timeline
Program Calls
Call for Mentors (1 July to 30 September 2026): A call for mentors will be sent to established researchers willing to advise young researchers with backgrounds in signal processing. Interested mentors will register online, and their names will be listed on the SigMA website so that prospective students can contact them and develop project proposals. The current list of mentors is available here.
Call for Project Proposals (31 July to 30 October 2026): Young researchers interested in participating in the program must register and find suitable mentors for their projects. Once a candidate (potential mentee) and a mentor agree to work together, they must write and submit a project proposal.
Evaluation
The proposals received will be evaluated by the SigMA Steering Committee. The evaluation criteria include:
- Feasibility of the project topic and project planning;
- Quality of the project submission;
Potential impact of the project on the student’s future career.
List of Current and Past Participants and Projects
A list of the current and past SigMA participants and funded projects can be found here.
Where can I get more information?
The SigMA Steering Committee can be contacted through: sp-sigma@listserv.ieee.org.
SigMA Steering Committee
- Dr. Maurício do V. M. da Costa, Hamburg University, Germany (Chair)
- Dr. Ruchi Pandey, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, India
- Dr. Ryan M. Corey, University of Illinois Chicago and Discovery Partners Institute, USA
- Dr. Odette Scharenborg, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
- Dr. Tirza Routtenberg, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
- M.Sc. Eduardo Alves da Silva, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Dr. Lucas Thomaz, Instituto de Telecomunicações/Polytechnic of Leiria, Portugal (ex-officio member)
