At the time I was a postdoc at The University of Maryland, my mentor, Prof. K. J. Ray Liu, was Editor in Chief of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. As such, he wrote a number of very good columns. One of the best ones is “Signal Processing Inside”
The main point of the article is to highlight how Signal Processing as a technology does not get the recognition it deserves from society, simply because it is a “phantom technology”, working from behind the scenes to make most of modern day advances work. The article highlights how other industries and companies (e.g. Intel) face the same problems. But, unlike these industries and companies, the Signal Processing community per-se has not the resources to mount very expensive advertising campaigns. So, as the article says, it’s up to us, the Signal Processing community, to help ourselves and work for this technology to be broadly known.
In my case, this column has made a big influence in many of the ventures I do. One example is this blog, because when I thought about it, I wanted to be a tool to promote the impact that DSP has on our world. Ironically, it has influenced other activities I have been doing that had prevented me for posting more often.
In any case, I believe that “Signal Processing Inside” is a must read for anybody in the DSP community. If you like it, you should also read “Volunteers“.
