March 2015

The PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2015 is now open! This year's challenge is 'Reducing False Arrhythmia Alarms in the ICU'. False alarms in the ICU can lead to a disruption of care, impacting both the patient and the clinical staff through noise disturbances, desensitization to warnings and slowing of response times, leading to decreased quality of care. False alarm rates can be as high as 90% or more. To address this issue we have developed an expert-labelled data set of 1250 life-threatening arrhythmia alarms with five minutes of electrophysiological and pulsatile waveform data leading up to each alarm event. Competitors are challenged to devise a method of processing all the available data to reduce false alarms with minimal or no effect on true (vital) alarms.

The conference formerly known as the “Digital Signal Processing Workshop” (DSP Workshop) is now known as the “Signal Processing Workshop”.  This name evolution is a reflection of the ever-expanding reach of signal processing --- to processing on graphs, or xampled processing of continuous time signals, or plenoptic sensors, or financial analysis, to name a few.  The conference continues to partner with the SPS Education Committee, and is a premier outlet for signal processing education.  The Website is spw2015.coe.utah.edu

The IEEE MGA vTools team is happy to announce successful new releases for the following vTools applications:

Know a classmate or student who may benefit from a Student membership to the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS)? We are pleased to announce that SPS is offering FREE Student membership to IEEE Student and Graduate Student members for the 2015 membership year! Now through 15 August 2015, IEEE Student and Graduate Student members can take advantage of SPS Student conference discounts; travel grants to ICASSP, ICIP, and GlobalSIP; access to job and networking opportunities, and much more - at no cost!

Register now for the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (2015 WIE-ILC), to be held 23-25 April 2015, in San Jose, CA, USA. With a theme of "Lead Beyond: Accelerating Innovative Women Who Change the World," the conference focuses on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Attendees will have the opportunity to create communities that fuel innovation, facilitate knowledge sharing, and provide support through highly interactive sessions designed to foster discussion and collaboration.