Radio maps characterize quantities of interest in radio communication environments, such as the received signal strength and channel attenuation, at every point of a geographical region. Radio map estimation (RME) typically entails interpolative inference based on spatially distributed measurements. In this tutorial article, after presenting some representative applications of radio maps, the most prominent RME methods are discussed.

Sparse modeling for signal processing and machine learning, in general, has been at the focus of scientific research for over two decades. Among others, supervised sparsity-aware learning (SAL) consists of two major paths paved by 1) discriminative methods that establish direct input–output mapping based on a regularized cost function optimization and 2) generative methods that learn the underlying distributions.

Word art, which is text rendered with properly designed appealing artistic effects, has been a popular form of art throughout human history. Artistic text effects are of great aesthetic value and symbolic significance. Decorating with appropriate effects not only makes text more attractive but also significantly enhances the atmosphere of a scene. Thus, artistic text effects are widely used in publicity and advertising.

The anniversary of a number of significant signal processing algorithms from the 1960s, including the least mean square algorithm and the Kalman filter, provided an opportunity at ICASSP 2019 to reflect on the links between education and innovation. This led ultimately to the proposal of some special sessions as well a panel session that would provide some insight, via a historical perspective, consideration of the current status, and an assessment of the emerging educational future.