SPS Young Professionals meet during ICIP 2015

As an outreach effort to its members, the Signal Processing Society (SPS) sponsored a social reception for members of the Quebec City Chapter. The young professionals attending IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP 2015) were also invited. The IEEE Young Professionals Program (formerly known as GOLD – Graduates Of the Last Decade) is intended for IEEE members who have received their first professional degree within the last fifteen years and aims at helping young professionals evaluate their career goals, polish their professional image, and create the building blocks of a lifelong and diverse professional network.

The event was arranged by the Quebec City Chapter and hosted by the chair of this chapter, Dr. Paul Fortier, Laval University and by the Chair of SPS Young Professionals Subcommittee Dr. Mahsa T. Pourazad, TELUS Company & University of British Columbia. The pre-dinner reception was held in the beautiful historic library of the Quebec Parliament. The iconic venue, the delicate appetizers and selection of drinks formed a wonderful atmosphere for attendees to meet, network and exchange ideas in a friendly and relaxed manner. The speech of the President-Elect of the Society, Dr. Rabab Ward, was welcoming and informative. She stressed the importance of the chapters as well as the activities of its members to nurture the liveliness of the Signal Processing Society. She talked about the various new initiatives the Society is introducing to enhance the value added to members at large. It includes (i) financial support for new initiatives by chapters especially geared towards industry, (ii) holding networking events for chapters members in conjunction with some of the Society’s flagship conferences, and (iii) financial support for each SPS chapter worldwide to send two practicing engineers to attend SPS conferences, namely GlobalSIP, ICASSP, and ICIP.

During the cocktail, the attendees discussed how SPS could assist young professionals in their careers. Examples included hosting tutorial sessions on topics of interest, organizing networking events and social functions that bring in young professionals in industry and academia together, and facilitating the evolution of students to become world class professionals. This first meeting was hopefully the first edition of a long series. Stay tuned to the SPS eNewsletter to be notified of the latest news and do not hesitate to contact Dr. Mahsa T. Pourazad (pourazad@icics.ubc.ca) for more information.

Resources: http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/young_professionals/i...