Organize Local Initiatives

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Organize Local Events & Member Driven Initiatives

IEEE Signal Processing Society offers funding to SPS members and chapters to encourage volunteerism and society involvement in local activities. The Society offers funding opportunities for several subprograms under the Member Driven Initiatives program.

In 2021, the MDI program launched two new programs in addition to the existing Seasonal School and Chapter Initiative funding to increase involvement locally through Regional Events and Forums.

SPS members and Chapters can request up to:

  1. US$3,500 in support for in-person or hybrid events
  2. US$2,500 for virtual events.

In 2022, the Society launched its newest initiative program in collaboration with the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee. The SPS-HAC initiative program is aimed at utilizing Signal Processing technologies to address local community challenges and has its own separate call for proposals. More information can be found below.

Member Driven Initiatives

Member Driven Initiative proposals are reviewed on a semi-annual basis.

  • Cycle 1 initiatives (formerly "summer") are events held during April-September and have a proposal submission deadline typically around January.
  • Cycle 2 Initiatives (formerly "winter") are events held during October-March and have a proposal submission deadline typically around June.

Current calls for proposals will be sent to all SPS members and posted to the Call for Proposals page on the SPS website.

Initiative options are outlined below:

Seasonal Schools in Signal Processing (S3P)

Seasonal schools are geared towards providing attendees with specialized background in select signal processing topics, professors and established practitioners work with attendees in virtual tutorials and applications, and building meaningful collaborative relationships. For more details, visit the Seasonal Schools page.

Forums

Aimed at networking events with topics of interest to industry members. Formats include panel sessions and presentations or lectures by industry experts. Content should be created based on interest to industry and cannot include papers for publication.

Regional Meetings

Local high quality technical events (such as local workshops or small conferences) to serve the local or regional community. Events should target themes of interest to SPS members. Meetings can include conference paper publications.

Chapter Initiatives

Submitted by the local Chapter, these interactive events are designed to provide attendees with specialized background in select signal processing topics, chapter-centered events for practicing engineers, chapter meetings featuring industry executives, outreach to get students at primary schools interested in signal processing, design competitions, or other ideas.

SPS-Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) Projects

The IEEE Signal Processing Society has partnered with the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) to conduct a special Call for Proposals to support projects in SPS chapters that utilize Signal Processing technologies to address local community challenges. Projects should present a convincing plan to a) understand the real needs of a local community or local stakeholder organization and b) complete in no more than six months’ time a pilot project utilizing Signal Processing technologies to address those local community challenges.

The official SPS-HAC Call for Proposals and full details on the program are located on the IEEE SPS & HAC Projects Call for Proposals on Signal Processing Technologies for Local Community Challenges page.

The proposal form, along with full details of the current call for proposals for SPS-Humanitarian Activities initiative can be accessed at the following link: IEEE SPS & HAC Projects Call for Proposals on Signal Processing Technologies for Local Community Challenges.

For more information, questions, email sps-mdi@listserv.ieee.org.

If this Proposal Form is approved, the organizers will be encouraged to further develop a full proposal for a more comprehensive review by IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Eligibility and Proposal Submission Process

Eligibility

The following eligibility requirements must be met for the proposal to be considered.

  • Each SPS Chapter and SPS Student Branch Chapter can only submit a total of 4 proposals per year, with up to 2 proposals per sub-program. The Chapters should be vetting all proposals and determining which proposals will be submitted to either Cycle 1 or Cycle 2 of the call for proposal period.
  • Student Branch Chapters (SBC) must submit a completed SBC and Chapter Collaboration Acknowledgement form that includes a signature from the local Chapter endorsing the proposal. If this form is not submitted for proposals submitted by SBCs, the proposal will not be considered.
  • All proposals must have a completed Member Driven Initiative Detailed Budget Form.
  • All proposals containing honoraria or travel support must have a completed Member Driven Initiative Detailed Honoraria Form.
  • Organizers must agree to Reporting Requirements for approved proposals. See Section 10
    • ​Monthly updates must be submitted via the link in an email sent to the organizer.
    • Reports Final report must be submitted within 30 days of completion of the event following the instructions given in Section.

How to Submit your Proposal

Seasonal School, Forum, Regional Meeting, and Chapter Initiative proposals that meet all eligibility requirements can be submitted using the following steps.

Proposal Submission Process

  1. Create your proposal. Draft your proposal using the MDI Proposal Information listed in Section 12 of the Call for Proposals document.
  2. Submit your proposal. (First Submission Phase) Submit your drafted proposal to your local Regional-Director-at-Large via the following form: MDI Proposal Submission to RDAL Form
  3. Receive feedback. Receive feedback from your Regional-Director-at-Large about your drafted proposal and obtain a recommendation to submit your proposal to the second phase.
  4. Submit your proposal. (Second Submission Phase) After receiving the recommendation from the RDAL, submit your proposal (with any revisions suggested) to the official MDI submission platform as referenced in the Official Call for Proposals.

Notification of Decision. Decisions for approved proposals and respective funding amounts will be sent to the organizers of proposals.

View the full 2024 Cycle 1 Member Driven Initiative Call for Proposal here ›

Membership Event Organizer Guidelines: For all SPS financially sponsored and co-sponsored membership related events with the main purpose to help organizers create coherent event experiences.

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