Women's Workshop on Communications and Signal Processing (12w2147)

Objectives

Women are significantly underrepresented in most engineering disciplines, with even fewer women in visible senior leadership roles, e.g., full and chaired professors, Editors-in-Chief, Distinguished Lecturers, members of the Board-of-Governors of their professional society. Although the number of women in these positions has - with concerted effort - grown, it is still too small. In 2011, the largest percentage of women ever were elevated to IEEE Fellow. Yet the 29 selected still represent less than 10% of the total. Many of the positions noted above are via appointment and appointments cannot be made if the committee does not know a well-qualified individual. Women should be aware of the opportunities available to them, known to those making selections, and comfortable in how they put themselves forward.

Although there is no one way to solve these issues, much can be accomplished by networking with senior leadership. The IEEE Communications Society and Signal Processing Society have long recognized the need to integrate the junior members of these societies into society leadership; as such, they sponsor small workshops where newer members meet more experienced members. These experienced members can both discuss how the positions work and are themselves often in positions to make recommendations. Such workshops foster the mentoring and networking that can make a difference in a career.

This 2-day workshop will include state-of-the-art technical seminars and career panel discussions by the senior women, poster sessions for the more junior participants, and a final panel discussion led by the junior women to define their most pressing career issues. We also want to include a joint team-building activity where we take advantage of the natural beauty of Banff National Park. Many collegial relationships are built over a coffee break, dinner or excursion at a society workshop or conference. Our goal is to present a first-rate technical program that encourages women to attend and to leave with more perspective on their careers, their field, and their professional network.

This workshop will provide a venue where younger professionals can meet and network with model participants and learn about their research, their careers and their societies.

By holding a women's workshop on Communications and Signal Processing, we will attain the following goals:
1) Highlight the growing number of successful women in communications and signal processing
2) Establish a venue where younger women can interact with women role models who can become mentors and future references for IEEE Fellow and other distinguished awards
3) Provide a place to learn how to achieve professional goals from women who have been there.
4) Spotlight the excellence in research achieved by women at all stages of their careers.