Bylaws & Policies

Technical Committee

Bylaws & Policies

(Approved and adopted by committee vote on June 20, 2008)

1. Name: Signal Processing Theory and Methods (SPTM) Technical Committee (TC).

2. Purpose: The purpose of the SPTM TC is to promote the advancement of the theory and methods of Signal Processing, including the technical areas of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Statistical Signal Processing (SSP).

3. Scope of Interest: SPTM has a broad span, ranging from digital filtering and adaptive signal processing to statistical signal analysis, estimation and detection. Specific areas of interest are listed in the Editors' Information Classification Scheme (EDICS) of the SPTM TC.

4. Scope of Activities:

• a. Assist in the review of papers submitted to IEEE Signal Processing Society conferences. The TC Chair shall coordinate the review for papers submitted to the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) under the SPTM EDICS. All current TC members shall participate in the paper review.

   

• b. Solicit proposals for running bi-annually the two workshops: IEEE International Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing and IEEE International Workshop on Digital Signal Processing. The TC shall invite potential organizers to defend their conference proposal at an SPTM meeting (usually held at ICASSP). After discussion and vote within the TC, a decision will be made and the organizers will be immediately notified.

   

• c. Nominations for awards: The TC members are encouraged to submit nominations for awards within the technical scope of the SPTM TC prior to announced deadlines and using the TC's online interface. All nominations are subjected to discussions and vote within the TC. A single nominee will be chosen in each category provided that the nominee receives a sufficient percentage of the membership vote and a sufficient number of members participate in the voting process. The specific percentages required shall be determined by the TC and announced to the members prior to the voting process.

   

• d. Nominations for Distinguished Lecturers: TC members are encouraged to nominate candidates for the Distinguished Lecturer Award. The selection of the winning candidate follows the same voting procedure as the one outlined under item c.

   

• e. Nomination for Associate Editors: Assist the Editors-In-Chief of IEEE SPS journals in recruiting qualified Associate Editors. The TC reaches broad consensus on potential candidates and the Chair forwards the names of the nominees to the respective Editor-In-Chief.

   

• f. Organization of Special Sessions: TC members are encouraged to organize special sessions on SPTM related topics at IEEE SPS conferences and workshops. The proposals for special sessions are discussed among the TC members and submitted to the Technical Chairs of the conferences and workshops.

   

• g. Organization of Special Issues: TC members are encouraged to edit special issues on SPTM related topics for IEEE SPS journals. The proposals for special issues are discussed within the SPTM TC. The Chair will submit the proposal to the Editor-In-Chief of the respective journal.

   

5. TC Membership:

• a. The TC members shall be current SPS members of good standing, and be elected by current members of the TC.

   

• b. The SPTM TC shall consist of 40 members plus the Chair, the Vice Chair, and the Past-Chair. All TC members are voting members. Each member shall ordinarily serve two consecutive three-year terms, but membership may be terminated at any time if the Chair and the Vice-Chair agree that the member has not fulfilled their TC responsibilities.

   

• c. Each member of the TC is expected to participate in at least 75% of the votes. Members not meeting their obligations will not be considered for renewal of their first three-year term. Renewal of the first three-year term is subject to a vote by the TC members, and is conducted along with the election of new members as outlined in Bylaw 6 below.

   

6. Member Election Procedure:

• a. The new member election shall be organized by the Nominations Subcommittee. New member elections shall be held once each year, so one-third of the TC’s membership turns over each year.

   

• b. The Nominations Subcommittee is responsible for making an open call for nominations in the Society’s e-Newsletters and the website. The Nominations Subcommittee shall come up with a slate of candidates representative of the diversity of SPS members in the Technical Committee area, which includes: gender, geographic, academic/industry, junior/senior, etc. The slate shall include at least as many candidates that have never served in the TC as open slots. The Nominations Subcommittee will also conduct the balloting.

   

• c. Candidates can be self-nominated or nominated by Technical Committee members. Each nominee must confirm in writing their willingness to serve and perform the duties described in the Society Bylaws and Policies and Procedures. Each nominee must also submit a one-page position statement and/or vitae, as determined by the TC, to be distributed before the election.

   

• d. (Amended 6 December 2013) Current TC members who are in their first term may be nominated for a second consecutive term, but are not eligible to vote in that new member election and shall not be part of the Nominations Subcommittee for that election. After the second term on a TC, members may run for additional terms, but there must be an absence of at least 3 years between terms.

   

• e. Technical Committee members shall be elected by the members of the Technical Committee itself based on the needs of the Technical Committee. Each year the new member election results shall be finalized by 15 November, so election results will be known before the end of the year and the results can be reported to the Society’s Executive Office. All terms are on a calendar year basis (1 January-31 December).

   

• f. The new members shall be both approved by a majority of the Technical Committee elected-members, and most preferred by the Technical Committee members responding to the ballot, provided a quorum of the Technical Committee members responded to the ballot. In the event of a tie, the Technical Committee Chair will break the tie.

   

• g. The election will be conducted by e-mail, unless another means is proposed and approved by the TC.

   

7. TC Chair and Vice-Chair:

• a. The TC members nominate the Vice-Chair, following the procedure described in SPS Bylaw 5.6 “Technical Committee Election Procedures”. The Vice Chair position automatically succeeds to the position of Chair. The term of office of Chair, Vice-Chair and Past Chair is two calendar years.

   

• b. The Chair and Vice-Chair will maintain a web-page of membership and communicate the Technical Committee's activities to the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

   

• c. After serving for two years, the Chair will remain a member of the TC, as Past-Chair, for two more years.

   

8. Technical Committee Meeting:

• a. The TC will meet face-to-face at least once a year during ICASSP. The TC will also hold meetings at SPTM workshops. A quorum of the TC shall be one-half of the voting members. The TC also holds email meetings when necessary.

   

• b. TC approval requires a majority of the votes cast by the quorum.

   

9. Amendments:

• a. Bylaws and amendments thereto may be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the members of the TC present at a regularly convened meeting, provided there is a quorum. Bylaws and amendments may also be adopted by an email vote receiving approval by two-third (2/3) of the members of the TC.

   

• b. Following the adoption by the TC members, the proposed bylaws or amendments shall become effective after the SPS Board of Governors approves them.