Call for Project Proposals: IEEE SPS ME-UYR Program - Mentoring Experiences for Underrepresented Young Researchers

Call for Project Proposals

Mentoring Experiences for Underrepresented Young Researchers (ME-UYR) Program

Application Deadline: 31 October 2023

What is it?

The Mentoring Experiences for Underrepresented Young Researchers (ME-UYR) is a mentoring program financed by the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS).

• ME-UYR helps you to establish a connection with a mentor at another university.
• You and your mentor work on a research topic in signal processing, write a paper together, and submit it to a special poster session on IEEE ICASSP.
• IEEE provides funding for you to attend either ICASSP or ICIP and/or visit your mentor’s laboratory.

Who can apply?

Applications are invited from undergraduate and graduate student members of the IEEE SPS who are part of gender, racial, ethnic, or other minority groups that are underrepresented in the IEEE SPS. The applicant must be an IEEE SPS Member at the time of the application.

How do I apply?

Students interested in participating in the program must go to the program website page and look for the list of available mentors and their research areas. Then, they shall contact a mentor in the list to manifest their interest and upon agreeing to a plan, both shall write together a two-page (maximum) project proposal (minimum 11-point font, minimum 2.5cm margins, A4 or 8.5x11 paper). The proposal It should cover the following points:

• Names and affiliations of the student and potential mentor.
• Start and end date of the project.
• Brief outline of the aim of the project.
• Rough outline of the project planning.
• Planning of flagship conference attendance and potential mentor’s lab visit with budget (between $2K and $4K).
• Overview of the needed resources and confirmation that the mentor can provide for these. [1].
• Brief narrative of how this project would benefit the student in their future career in signal processing.

The evaluation criteria include:

• Feasibility of the project topic and project planning.
• Quality of the project submission.
• Geographical and gender equality.
• Potential impact of the project for the student’s future career.

If the student does not find a suitable mentor in the provided list, they might invite additional mentors to register to the program by September 3^rd, 2023, the instructions for the mentors can be found on this document.

For students that have not decided on a mentor by mid-September, there will be a connecting event on September 18^th, 2023 (tentative date), where registered mentors will introduce themselves to potential candidates. More information on the event can be found on the program website.

All the project proposals should be submitted by email to sp-me-uyr@listserv.ieee.org.

What will happen if my application is accepted?

• Students and mentors work together and have remote meetings for nine months.
• The student and mentor work out a research plan together.
• The student runs experiments, with guidance from the mentor.
• The mentor can provide data, computing, and/or contacts with senior students.
• After nine months, you submit a paper together to a special poster session at ICASSP 2025.
• An event will be held at ICASSP 2025 where the papers that were not accepted can be presented [2].
• The student might use the project funds to visit the mentor’s laboratory.
• The student might use the project funds to attend either ICASSP or ICIP.
• Yearly events will be held during ICASSP where current and former participants of the program and their mentors can meet and network.
• An extra event might be planned during ICIP, depending on the number of projects related to image and video processing.
• Participating students will be encouraged to attend the Women in Signal Processing Lunch and the Student Job Fair which is held during ICASSP and ICIP.

IEEE SPS ME-UYR Committee

• Lucas Thomaz
• Ruchy Pandey
• Ryan M. Corey
• Odette Scharenborg
• Tirza Routtenberg
• Mark Hasegawa-Johnson