Min Wu Elected President of IEEE Signal Processing Society

A University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and associate dean of engineering has been elected president of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (IEEE SPS).

Min Wu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, has been elected to serve as IEEE SPS president-elect from 2022–2023 and then transition to a two-year term as the society’s president starting in 2024.

IEEE SPS is the world’s premier association for engineers and industry professionals involved with signal processing, and Wu is the first woman-of-color to be elected as president in its 73-year history.

IEEE SPS boasts a membership base of nearly 20,000 researchers from 100 countries who are active in signal processing, an engineering sub-field that focuses on analyzing, modeling, enhancing, and synthesizing signals such as sound, images, and scientific measurements.

In her upcoming leadership role for IEEE SPS, Wu says she will bring her over 25 years of experience within the society—which she joined while still in graduate school—to advance the organization’s diversity and impact on a global scale. This includes increasing opportunities for students and scientists throughout their career through IEEE SPS-sponsored professional development activities.

“Signal processing today plays an essential role in data science and machine learning, especially when dealing with data from the physical world or from complex systems like the Internet of Things,” says Wu. “Since the scientific principles and applications involved with signal processing are so diverse, IEEE SPS needs to further embrace the many different regions, backgrounds, cultures and technical interests of our membership to further advance the field.”

Wu has held numerous leadership positions within IEEE SPS over the years. This includes editor-in-chief of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vice president of finance, chair of the IEEE Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee, as well as leadership roles in major conferences. She received the IEEE SPS Meritorious Service Award in 2016 and was named an IEEE Fellow in 2011.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and her doctorate in electrical engineering from Princeton University before coming to UMD in 2001.

—Story by Maria Herd