Call for Mentors

DEADLINE: 14 September 2025

The IEEE SPS SigMA (Signal Processing Mentorship Academy) steering committee will soon launch the fourth installment of its mentoring program for young IEEE SPS researchers and would like to invite you to join as research mentors. The goal of SigMA is to increase opportunities for the signal-processing community by attracting and retaining more researchers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

To achieve this objective, the SigMA program connects young researchers with established researchers in signal processing (mentor) to establish a collaborative student research project, which is of significant interest to both.  Each project will last for about 9 months. The young researchers will be supported with travel funds to attend ICASSP 2027 and, optionally, to also visit the mentor’s laboratory. The project will culminate in a joint research paper to be submitted to ICASSP 2027, and an event to bring students and mentors from current and previous editions of the program together to share their experiences.

The third edition of the program is currently supporting a group of 13 students paired with mentors from several countries, developing innovative research. The feedback gathered from the current participants and those from the first editions is very exciting. Previous participants have said that the program impacted their future by changing their view on research and the academy and opening a path to pursue a PhD.

To build upon this past success, the SigMA steering committee is first recruiting potential mentors interested in helping young researchers within IEEE SPS and identifying their areas of research interest. We will send out a call to potential student participants soon and ask them to sign up for an online connecting event, to which you will be also invited. This online event will be designed to match students with mentors in their field and will be held on 22 September 2025 (date to be confirmed). Once you have accepted one of the students as your mentee, the two of you will write a proposal of up to two pages together describing a research plan of interest to you both and submit it to our committee for review. The project proposal deadline is 2 November 2025. 

Please note that each mentor and mentee can only submit one project proposal, and both parties should be from different institutions (preferably from different countries). To join the program as a potential mentor, please complete the registration form, as soon as possible and no later than 14 September 2025. Information about the mentors will be made available to the young researcher candidates on the SigMA website so they can directly contact you to discuss the possibility of jointly writing a project proposal.

After mentors and students have been connected, the accepted research mentoring projects will begin in January 2026. The SigMA program will support up to 24 projects in this fourth edition. 

A more detailed description of the program, including the timeline, can be found here.

As a highly respected researcher in IEEE SPS organizations, we would greatly appreciate your participation in this program. Your mentorship can provide lasting benefits to young researchers and, as a consequence, to the broader worldwide signal-processing community. We kindly ask you to complete the registration form by 14 September 2025.

If you have questions, please contact the SigMA steering committee using the following e-mail address: sp-sigma@listserv.ieee.org

Sincerely yours,

IEEE SPS SigMA Committee
Maurício do V. M. da Costa (Chair)
Ruchi Pandey
Ryan M. Corey
Odette Scharenborg
Tirza Routtenberg
Lucas Thomaz (ex-officio member)