What Is the Future of Signal Processing?: Views Across Our Community [Community Voices]

The goal of the “Community Voices” column in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (SPM) is to encourage and share reflections from diverse members of our community on questions that are of interest to many of us. In this article, we posed the following question to our readers: “After half a century of development, some say signal processing is already matured in terms of theories and techniques, and perhaps would not have a new research breakthrough. Others have observed the problem of signal processing inside (a term that was coined by SPM's then editor-in-chief, Prof. K.J. Ray Liu, in his editorial in the September 2004 issue). What are your thoughts on the future of signal processing?” As we were shaping the question, we were inspired by discussions with Prof. Alan Oppenheim of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Dr. Thomas A. Baran, who was chairing the organizing committee of MIT's The Future of Signal Processing Symposium that honored Prof. Oppenheim's career. We hope that you enjoy reading the responses from our community members around the world. These responses were selected from the online responses we received and have been edited for style, length, and clarity. Please let us know your ideas for future discussion topics by sending your e-mail to Andres Kwasinski (axkeec@rit.edu), area editor for social media and outreach.