ECE Professor Qing Zhao honored with appointment to Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society

Qing Zhao, the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering & Director of Graduate Studies for ECE, has been named to the 2020 Class of Distinguished Lecturers by the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS). She is among a select group of only five professors to be so honored from universities in the United States and around the world.

The IEEE SPS Distinguished Lecturer Program gives IEEE Chapters access to well-known educators and authors in the fields of signal processing who are available to lecture at Chapter meetings. While many IEEE Societies have similar programs, the SPS provides a substantial amount of financial support for the Chapters to take advantage of this service.

“I am excited to present lectures on machine learning and stochastic optimization, both classical results and recent advances,” said Zhao, whose research interests also include statistical inference, sequential decision theory and algorithmic theory with applications in infrastructure, communications, and social-economic networks.

Zhao was nominated to the Distinguished Lecturer Program by the IEEE Signal Processing Theory and Methods (SPTM) Technical Committee, and the final selection was made by the Society’s Award Board with the consent of the Board of Governors.

The Signal Processing Society is the world’s premier professional society for signal processing engineers and industry professionals. It was the IEEE's first society, founded in 1948. SPS offers its members publications, conferences, technical and educational activities, and leadership opportunities.