What is it?

Signal Processing Mentorship Academy (SigMA) is a mentoring program sponsored by the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS).

• SigMA helps you establish a connection with a mentor at another institution.
• You and your mentor work on a research topic in signal processing, write a paper together, and submit it to IEEE ICASSP 2028.
• IEEE SPS provides funding for you to attend ICASSP (mandatory) and, optionally, to visit your mentor’s laboratory.

Who can apply?

The applicant (mentee) must be an IEEE SPS member in good standing at the time of the application. Each mentor and mentee can only submit one project proposal. In each project, mentors and mentees must be from different institutions, and preferably from different countries.

How do I apply?

Students interested in participating in the program must go to the program website page, fill out the pre-registration form, and look for the list of available mentors and their research areas. Then, they shall contact a mentor from the list to express their interest. After agreeing to a plan, both must write a two-page (maximum) project proposal using this Latex template. The template must be strictly followed and shall not be modified in style or format. The application deadline is 15 October 2026.

All the project proposals should be submitted here:

• SigMA Project Proposal Submission Form

Evaluation

The evaluation criteria include:

• Feasibility of the project topic and project planning.
• Overall quality of the project.
• Potential impact of the project on 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 for the program by 14 September 2026. The instructions for the mentors can be found here.

The list of Potential Mentors for the program can be found here.

For young researchers who have not found a mentor by mid-September, a connecting event will be held where registered mentors will introduce themselves. More information on the event can be found on the program website.

What will happen if my application gets accepted?

• Students and mentors will conduct their research remotely over nine months (starting in January, 2027).
• The mentor shall provide data, computing capability, and (non-mandatory) contacts with senior students.
• After nine months, the research is concluded by writing and submitting a paper to ICASSP 2028.
• The student must use the project funds to attend ICASSP 2028.
• All projects will be presented at a special SigMA event during ICASSP 2028, where mentors (non-mandatory) and mentees (mandatory) can meet and network.
• Independently, the paper can be accepted or rejected for publication and presentation at the conference main track. There will be no special treatment for papers submitted under SigMA program financial support. In case of rejection, the paper will not be published in the official conference proceedings and will be eligible for submission to another venue.

SigMA Steering Committee

• Dr. Maurício do V. M. da Costa, Hamburg University, Germany (Chair)
• Dr. Ruchi Pandey, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, India
• Dr. Ryan M. Corey, University of Illinois Chicago and Discovery Partners Institute, USA
• Dr. Odette Scharenborg, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
• Dr. Tirza Routtenberg, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
• M.Sc. Eduardo Alves da Silva, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Dr. Lucas Thomaz, Instituto de Telecomunicações/Polytechnic of Leiria, Portugal (ex-officio member)