Technical Program Chairs' Overview

Welcome to ICASSP 2002. ICASSP has been a centerpiece for the creation, orchestration and dissemination of digital signal processing as one of the enabling technologies for the information age revolution. This prominent position did not come easily. It required consistent and unquestionable quality papers, diversified albeit focused technical tracks, and obviously innovative and trend setting theories and technologies. All of this notoriety hangs, as sharp as Damocles' sword, over each new ICASSP technical committee. We felt its effect all year round, but with the help of the excellent submissions from the contributing authors, we are very proud of the results. ICASSP 2002 features over 1,200 technical presentations, in the form of regular oral and poster presentations, student forum presentations, special sessions, tutorials, and plenary sessions. This is approximately the same number as in last year's program, a positive outcome in view of the traumatic events that occurred last September.

I - Regular Submissions

We received 2,400 submissions that yielded 1,770 valid papers, broken down as follows:

There were minor oscillations in the submissions from last year, with a marked increase of interest in the Industrial Technology Track. The submission of papers, paper review and session assignment was all-electronic. We specified and designed with Conference Management Services an improved web-based tool for the management of the technical program that performed very reliably (but of course can still be further improved).

The review process was conducted by the technical committee structure of the society. Having experience with other conferences and other societies, we must congratulate the technical committee chairs and their members for a superb job. The professionalism of the technical committees is one of the deciding factors of the ICASSP success. Since peer review occurs in anonymity, we would like to publicly recognize the technical committee's role and extend a special thanks to our direct liaisons: Alejandro Acero, Magdy Bayoumi, Michael Brandstein, Scott Douglas, Georgios Giannakis, Alex Gershman, Robert Gray, John Sorensen, Thad Welch, Mats Viberg, and Jose Fridman. From the 1,770 regular papers submitted, 1,007 papers were accepted (a 56% acceptance rate).

Together with the Technical Committee liaisons, we have organized the accepted papers into 11 technical tracks, comprising 56 lecture and 60 poster sessions. There are at most 6 parallel oral sessions and 7 parallel poster sessions. The allocation of a paper as an oral or poster presentation was made primarily based on program focus, hence high quality papers are found in either modality.

II - Special Sessions and Tutorials

A call for Special Sessions and Tutorials was issued last Fall. Jian Li, the Tutorial Chair, spearheaded our efforts and did an outstanding job. She invited 5 and received 24 proposals from distinguished researchers in the field, from which 10 were included in the final program. This year the tutorial program sessions are half day, and will be held both prior to the regular technical program (Sunday afternoon and Monday full day) as well as afterwards (Saturday morning). Participants will receive notes, papers and an extensive bibliography. We are very upbeat about the quality and role of the tutorial program.

The Special Session program was highly competitive this year. Don Johnson, the Special Session Chair, received 32 proposals from which only 6 were selected. All are leading edge topics of interest to the signal processing community and were selected to have little overlap with the regular sessions.

Many thanks to Jian and Don for a job well done, and to the organizers and participants to volunteer their time in instructing and broadening the horizon of digital signal processing.

III- Keynote and Plenary Speakers

ICASSP 2002 speakers program keeps the tradition of high quality, motivating and engaging topics that highlight the essence of digital signal processing. This year we have invited Drs. James A. Moorer, Jont B. Allen and Simon Haykin.

IV- Student Forum

Continuing on last year's success, the Student Forum will happen on Wednesday afternoon. No regular sessions are held concurrently with the Student Forum to help focus the attention of all ICASSP participants on the work of students who will carry the DSP torch to future generations. The goal is to create a nurturing environment that will provide an opportunity for young DSP engineers to introduce themselves and interact with more senior researchers and practitioners. From the 392 abstracts submitted, 163 abstracts were selected for presentation, and Takis Kasparis, the Student Forum Chair, created 16 technical topical sessions.

V- Industrial Technology Track

This year, the Industrial Technology Track was fully integrated in the ICASSP organization with Jose Fridman, the ITT Chair, participating as one of the society's Technical Committee Liaisons. We practically doubled last year's submissions, a proof that the link to the DSP engineer and practitioner is a necessary role for ICASSP. The Industrial Technology program this year has 8 scheduled sessions with an emphasis on innovative product implementations and solutions for the industry.

We look forward to seeing you in Orlando for what promises to be a vibrant, engaging, enjoyable, and technically strong conference, right on the ICASSP tradition.