SPS President-Elect Visits China

From 12-18 July 2015, SPS President-Elect Rabab Ward visited China to provide support and expand outreach efforts to our quickly-expanding Region 10 membership base. In particular, Dr. Ward engaged with SPS’ newest conference, ChinaSIP, as well as connected with SPS Chapters in Beijing and Chengdu to discuss membership development, member services, and explore better ways to better serve SPS members and Chapters.From 12-18 July 2015, SPS President-Elect Rabab Ward visited China to provide support and expand outreach efforts to our quickly-expanding Region 10 membership base. In particular, Dr. Ward engaged with SPS’ newest conference, ChinaSIP, as well as connected with SPS Chapters in Beijing and Chengdu to discuss membership development, member services, and explore better ways to better serve SPS members and Chapters.

While visiting Chengdu, Dr. Ward worked with the organizers and attendees of ChinaSIP, attending talks and panels and even gave a lecture about new SPS initiatives, volunteer activities, and more. She was one of three to participate in a panel discussion about professional advancement and how to achieve higher IEEE member grades of Senior Member and Fellow. Dr. Ward also met with the Chair of the SPS Chengdu Chapter and spoke to Chapter members about SPS membership initiatives and services.

In Beijing, Dr. Ward met with the SPS Beijing Chapter, including the Chapter Chair, academics, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs. She also had the honor of meeting with two high officials of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), who funds academic research. In addition, she visited the IEEE offices in Beijing that provide support and service to members in China.

During a visit to Tsinghua University, Dr. Ward gave a two-hour seminar about IEEE, SPS, and the latest advancements in the signal processing field. She met with 32 academics, some of whom were very active Society members, explaining the procedure and benefits of forming SPS Student Branch Chapters. This was also the first public viewing of SPS’ new Signal Processing and Machine Learning video, which was met with positive feedback by the attendees. Finally, Dr. Ward visited several of Tsinghua’s labs working on signal processing applications.

Dr. Ward also visited the Communication University of China in Beijing, meeting with the university president and hosting a lecture about signal processing, IEEE, and SPS to a group of approximately 230 people. The university specializes in media studies – including journalism, television, movies, drama, film, and communications – while also offering media management and engineering courses related to media technology. While the engineering portion only accounts for approximately one-third of university programs, a great deal of signal processing research is conducted in the labs in regards to speech and special effects. Attendees asked a series of questions and Dr. Ward met with many local academics to discuss and provide support to those who wanted to establish new SPS Chapters in their areas and universities.

Dr. Ward would like to thank all involved for the superb generosity and hospitality she received on her visit to China. If you have any questions about SPS membership or how to start your own SPS Chapter, email SPS Membership and Content Administrator, Jessica Perry, at jessica.perry@ieee.org.