Raison d’Être: 2025 Edition [President’s Message]

In his January 2012 column for IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, K. J. Ray Liu, then president of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), highlighted the importance of establishing a formal community when individuals come together to create a professional society [1]. He emphasized that the Society’s primary mission, its raison d’être, is to serve its community, and the key to achieving this mission is to serve its members effectively.

President Liu noted that, after significantly revising the bylaws in 2010, the SPS established a Membership Board to engage more members and address all constituents’ needs, especially those previously overlooked. I had the honor of serving as the vice president for Membership from 2013 to 2016, during which time I oversaw both the Membership and Educational Activities portfolios. Throughout my tenure in this role, I witnessed the Society’s ongoing efforts to enhance its service to the community and to extend the benefits of the signal processing value chain to all members.

With that in mind, I would like to share some insights into how our Society has fulfilled its raison d’être in recent years. Over the past few years, the Society has introduced various initiatives and activities designed to engage and support members who may not regularly publish articles in its publications or attend its flagship conferences, ICASSP and ICIP. Since covering everything in a single column is challenging, I will focus on a few noteworthy programs that may not be well known to everyone.