The main theme of SLT 2021 will be "Spoken language technologies: deep learning and beyond". Besides deep learning, we also encourage explorative efforts on new paradigms and forward-looking approaches for the advancement of spoken language technologies.

This IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Chapter Certification program is now accepting applications for review in 2021. This is open to all Chapters who are not currently certified, or whose certification will end on 31 December 2021.

Did you know the Society offers funding under the Member Driven Initiatives program for events that encourage involvement by SPS membership, including local chapters, universities, industry members as well as individual members? 

This issue brings to you our interview with Dr. Behrooz Makki [M’19, SM’19]. Behrooz received his Ph.D. degree in Communication Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2013-2017, he was a Postdoc researcher at Chalmers University.

In this issue, we interviewed Dr. Anubha Gupta. Anubha received her PhD. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India in 2006 in Electrical Engineering. She did her second Master's as a full-time student from the University of Maryland, College Park, the USA from 2008-2010 in Education with a concentration: Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies.

A reminder that chapter events and officer reporting need to be updated in vTools <http://vtools.ieee.org&gt; throughout the year.  This will ensure that current data is on file and that your chapter activity is accurately recorded.  All units are encouraged to try to hold at least virtual meetings, if possible, to show that the unit is active.

The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) announces the 2021 Class of Distinguished Lecturers and Distinguished Industry Speakers for the term of 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, which are noted below.  The IEEE SPS Distinguished Lecturer (DL) Program provides a means for Chapters to have access to well-known educators and authors in the fields of signal processing to lecture at Chapter meetings. 

The OU Analytics dashboards provide an intuitive interface to present data using tables and charts with the capability to customize using filtering options by OU, Region, Section, Grade, Gender, etc.  Counts provided can further link to the respective member contact details.

The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) would like to express our concern and support for the members of our global community and all affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The launch of the 2021 Membership Renewal year has begun and 1st notice renewal bills were mailed to members on October 1st. Members are encouraged to renew early online at www.ieee.org/renewal.&nbsp; The membership renewal site provides opportunities for members to browse and explore an online interactive catalog of 2021 offerings and customize their renewal.