IEEE Signal Processing Cup (SP Cup)

After the success of past editions of the IEEE Signal Processing Cup (SP Cup) (https://signalprocessingsociety.org/get-involved/signal-processing-cup), the Signal Processing Society is launching its sixth edition. The goal of the SP Cup is to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to form teams and work together to solve a challenging and interesting real-world problem in the field of signal processing.

You are encourged to submit a proposal.

In the following are the proposed activities and the schedule for the organization of the SP Cup 2020.

1.    SP Cup Proposals from the SP Technical Committees

Submission date for SP Cup proposals: September 16, 2019

Each TC/SIG can submit a proposal, which should include some details of a challenging problem, the assessment criteria, a description of the required data to process, etc.

2.    Selection of the successful SP Cup proposal

TC Chairs vote by September 25, 2019

Each TC Chair MUST vote for one proposal, but TC Chairs cannot vote for their own proposals. The vote will be coordinated by the Student Services Committee.

The selection result will be announced on September 27, 2019.

3.    Publicizing the Call-for-Competition

Date of circulation: October 1, 2019

By October 1, 2019 the TC/SIG whose proposal is selected will help to develop a webpage dedicated to the competition for the SP Cup. All other details, including the data to be used in the challenge and a development platform, should be available by October 31, 2019. The Call-for-Competition will be publicized to all relevant parties in universities to set up teams and participate in the SP Cup. Each team must be composed of: (i) One faculty member (the Supervisor); (ii) At most one graduate student (the Tutor), and; (iii) At least 3 but no more than 10 undergraduates. At least three of the undergraduate team members must be either IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) members or SPS student members.

4.    Submissions from Participating Teams

Submissions deadline: February 15, 2020

Announcement of the best 3 teams: March 13, 2020

All the submissions must be received by February 15, 2020. Each submission should include a report, in the form of an IEEE conference paper, up to 6 pages, on the technical details of the methods used and the results, as well as the programs developed. The TC who wins the call-for-proposal will evaluate the submissions. By March 13, 2020, the best 3 teams for each of the two categories will be identified to participate in a session for the final competition, to be held at ICASSP 2020

5.    Final Competition at ICASSP 2020

Conference dates: May 4-9, 2020

A maximum of three members from each of the three teams selected will be paid to attend ICASSP 2020 for the final competition. More members are also welcome to attend, but they will not be provided with any travel grant. In addition, those team members who will not be presenting a paper at the conference will be offered a complimentary ICASSP registration.

A Judging Panel (composed of members of the TC concerned and other TC Chairs) will be set up to pick the ultimate winners at the conference. The teams need to present the technical details regarding how they solve the challenging problem, and demonstrate their results at a session.



Each team invited to ICASSP will have its travel supported by the SP Society. Each team member is offered up to $1,200 for continental travel or $1,700 for intercontinental travel, and at most three people from each team will be supported. The participants can claim their travel expenses on a reimbursement basis. Furthermore, the selected teams will be invited to join the Conference Banquet as well as the Student Career Luncheon so that they can meet and talk to SPS leaders.

The prizes offered to the three teams for each of the categories in the final competition are suggested to be as follows:

The champion:        $5,000

The first runner-up:    $2,500

The second runner-up:    $1,500





For any information do not hesitate to contact me:

Dr. Lucio Marcenaro

IEEE SPS Director Student Services