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IEEE THEMES (Thematic Meetings in Signal Processing) is a new joint initiative of the Conference Board and the Publication Board of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. The first THEMES will be held on March 15, 2010 in Dallas. This event’s theme is “Signal and Information Processing for Social Networking," featuring eight papers and presentations by senior authors selected by a rigorous review process. Registration is now open, and options are available for onsite attendance and online virtual participation.

On behalf of the Awards Board and the Board of Governors of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), Michael Zoltowski in his role as Vice President - Awards and Membership announced the winners of the 2009 SPS major awards. These SPS members will receive the prestigious awards during ICASSP 2010 in Dallas, Texas.

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The Multimedia Signal Processing Technical Committee (MMSP TC) successfully organized the 2009 MMSP Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, marking a milestone for the first time one of the major IEEE Signal Processing Society events being held in Latin America. Planning is underway for MMSP 2010, which will be held in Saint-Malo, France. The TC also invites proposals to organize the 2011 MMSP Workshop. Another major effort in 2009 that the MMSP TC is actively engaged in was to revitalize the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME) jointly organized by four IEEE societies. The TC welcomes a new Chair and eight newly elected members in January 2010.

Recently DISPS TC members organized the first special issue devoted to the important emerging topic of multicore design and implementation of signal processing systems on IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. The TC sponsors Workshop on Signal Processing Systems (SiPS) -- the 2009 edition was successfully held in Tampere, Finland, and the 2010 edition is calling for papers and participation.