Three years after its launch, the AASP TC Challenges series has achieved its goal of stimulating ground-breaking approaches to hot topics in Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing. The challenges run so far have been great successes, leading to unprecedented participation, new publicly available datasets, and highly attended special sessions and workshops

K. J.

The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) invites nominations for the position of Editor-in-Chief for the following journal: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (JSTSP) for a 3-year term starting 1 January 2016. Nominations should be submitted to Thrasos Pappas, SPS Vice President-Publications, via pappas@eecs.northwestern.edu by 16 March 2015.

For our February 2015 issue, we cover recent patents granted in the area of infrared imaging and analysis. The section below covers patents granted recently in the fields of vehicle speed detection, analyzing electroluminescence samples, terahertz imaging systems, IR imaging devices and  vehicle mounted communication systems. A system and method is presented in Patent no.

Zhao, Xiaochuan, (University of California, Los Angeles) “Learning under Imperfections by Networked Agents” (2015)  Advisor: Ali H. Sayed Distributed learning deals with the problem of optimizing aggregate cost functions by networked agents from streaming data. This scenario arises in many contexts including distributed estimation, machine learning, resource allocation, and in the modeling of flocking and swarming behavior by biological networks.

Li, Kang (Northeastern University) “Video event recognition and prediction based on temporal structure analysis”, Advisor: Fu, Yun The increasing ubiquitousness of multimedia information in today's world has positioned video as a favored information vehicle, and given rise to an astonishing generation of social media and surveillance footage. Consumer-grade video is becoming abundant on the Internet, and it is now easier than ever to download multimedia material of any kind and quality.

Software defined radio (SDR) is an architecture for designing more flexibility and generalized hardware for communication systems, radar, sonar or remote sensing systems making more intelligent and multi-function radio systems possible. In the January 2015 issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE , two articles present surveys in the fields of software defined networking (SDN) and the spectrum management for radar systems which is one of the key techniques for radar and wireless communication.

In this series, we introduce a scientist, who makes use of signal processing techniques for his research findings, by means of an interview. This month, we are happy to introduce Dr.

The December edition of the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter is live and covers a microgrid experience in Tianjin, building management systems, smart substations, and a look at what the IEEE Smart Grid Initiative is planning for 2015.

As a special benefit to IEEE members for the month of December, IEEE-USA will offer “Starting Your Start-Up -- Book 2: Market Size and Strategy,” by Tanya Candia. The “Starting Your Start-Up” e-book series is designed for the engineer or entrepreneur who has a promising product or service idea, but no real marketing expertise. “Book 2: Market Size and Strategy” helps flesh out the initial plan and find the real market size, even when dealing with a disruptive technology in which market size data is hard to find.