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Technologies that at first seem like magic soon become so commonplace that we no longer even think about how amazing they are – or wonder how they operate. Our digital home assistants – Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home and their emerging rivals – have been with us long enough that we take for granted they can understand our unique voices, commands and questions, even with other noise occurring around them.

So much of our daily lives are powered by signal processing technologies. They go unnoticed mostly because that’s the purpose – to help our lives run more seamlessly, with little to no impact. For example, you’re probably reading this blog on your computer. Guess what? Signal processing is responsible for your computer’s ability to store data and run smoothly.

The rapid advancement and proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the past two decades significantly impacted how we do research. For instance, our research increasingly relies on growing computing power and storage capacity to gather and process the constant production of data - our observations of systems and phenomena we would like to understand, control, and improve.

In 2008, United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago severely damaged Dave Carroll’s Taylor guitar worth $3,500. After nine months of unsuccessful pleas for compensation, Carroll wrote the song "United Breaks Guitars” – a YouTube hit with more than 17 million views. Four weeks later, the airline’s stock fell about 10 percent for a loss of $180 million.