Another Month of COVID-19

August 2020 is here. None of us really could imagine that we will be still working around COVID19 issues, but we are, and it’s a new normal. Many American universities are preparing for the fall semester, and it will be a hybrid semester at American schools, meaning, some in-person classes with most classes being online due to health and safety concerns. A similar situation is expected around the globe. This new hybrid way of teaching and research will most likely persist for the entire school year. Other institutions and companies are expected to make similar arrangements, and Google just announced that its workers will be working from home until the summer of 2021.

Nevertheless, the signal processing community seems to be navigating through this pandemic “storm” very well. Most of our jobs can be done from any parts of the world unless one is expected to collect data from human or animal trials. Even in those cases, most signal processing researchers and engineers seem to be able to get their hands on data. Overall, the field seems to be robust to the current pandemic, and we should think how to use its robustness to attract more talent to our community.

One of the things to look forward to this fall is ICIP 2020. The conference is packed with excellent speakers. I’d especially like to draw your attention to Young Professionals events. They are really cool and worth your time, especially, if you are looking for a job in these awful circumstances.

Stay safe and healthy!

Ervin Sejdic