Activity Updates from the Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM) Technical Committee

Contributed by Kristine Bell (SAM TC Chair)

The Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM) Technical Committee (TC) addresses the areas of sensor array and multi-channel statistical signal processing.  The committee interests span the areas of signal detection and estimation, direction-of-arrival estimation, beamforming, blind source separation, source localization and tracking, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems and space-time coding, sensor networks, and multichannel signal processing. Our main application areas are focused on radar, sonar, wireless communications, microphone array processing, navigation, seismology, radio astronomy, and biomedicine. Visit SAM TC website to learn more.

In December 2009, the SAM TC sponsored the 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Computational Advances in Multi-Sensor Adaptive Processing (CAMSAP 2009) in Aruba, Dutch Antilles, co-chaired by Yonina Eldar and Daniel Palomar.  The workshop featured 6 plenary talks, and 91 papers organized into 12 invited and 5 regular sessions.  Upcoming workshops include SAM 2010 in Israel in October 2010 (http://www.sam-2010.org/) and CAMSAP 2011 in Puerto Rico in December 2011.

SAM TC members and nominees received numerous awards and honors in 2010.  Abdelhak Zoubir was selected as a Distinguished Lecturer for 2010-2011, and the SAM TC also successfully nominated Venu Veeravalli as a Distinguished Lecturer for 2010-2011.  Arye Nehorai was chosen to receive a 2010 Meritorious Service Award, and Dan Fuhrmann and Randy Moses were elevated to IEEE Fellow.   The SAM TC submitted successful nominations for 2010 Best Paper Award (Spencer, Q.H.; Swindlehurst, A.L.; Haardt, M., "Zero-forcing methods for downlink spatial multiplexing in multiuser MIMO channels,"  IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, Feb. 2004), Magazine Best Paper Award (Patwari, N.; Ash, J.N.; Kyperountas, S.; Hero, A.O., III; Moses, R.L.; Correal, N.S., "Locating the nodes: cooperative localization in wireless sensor networks,"  July 2005), and Magazine Best Column Award (Baraniuk, R.G., "Compressive Sensing [Lecture Notes]," July 2007).

In December 2009 and March 2010, six new TC members were elected: Maria Greco, Yingbo Hua, Marco Lops, Steven Smith, Lee Swindlehurst, and Joseph Tabrikian;  and seven TC members were elected for a second term: Biao Chen, Alexandar Dogandzic, Erik Larsson, Hongbin Li, Sergiy Vorobyov, Peter Willett, and Abdelhak Zoubir.  The TC wishes to thank retiring members Alex Gershman, Ivars Kirsteins, Hagit Messer-Yaron, CM See, Nikos Sidiropoulos,and Xiang-Gen for their many years of service on the TC.