This award supports the participation of American researchers, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students in a U.S.- Vietnam joint seminar on digital signal processing to be held in Hanoi. The co-organizers are Professor Minh Do of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Professor Dung Dinh of the Information Technology Institute and the College of Technology at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi. The seminar is also being co-sponsored with the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), which was created by the U.S. Congress with the mission to strengthen the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relationship through educational exchanges in science and technology. Digital signal processing is the processing of signals by digital means. The signal is usually carried by a wire, telephone line or radio wave. Signal processing has played an increasingly important role in a wide range of disciplines in science and technology. Research and development in signal processing are driving advancements in many high-tech areas in the U.S. including telecommunications, multimedia, medical and scientific imaging, and human-computer interaction. It includes such devices as mobile phones, modems, and multimedia PCs. Signal processing has its foundations in mathematics, physics, and computer science, which are traditionally strong fields of study in Vietnam. The program will include three short classes for the U.S. and Vietnamese students: 1) fundamentals of signal processing; 2) wavelets and filter banks; and 3) multimedia compression. At the end of each day, both U.S. and Vietnamese scientists will present seminars on current cutting-edge research and open problems in signal processing. In addition, panel discussions involving all the participants will take place in order to explore additional joint research and educational projects to be considered between the two countries.
Vietnam is working on the development of a Millennium Science Initiative (MSI) Center of Excellence in signal processing in Vietnam. MSI is an initiative of the Science Initiative Group and the World Bank to build capacity in modern sciences and engineering in developing countries. It is anticipated that this Center would create an environment for fruitful collaborations with U.S. partners. The researchers also plan to organize future workshops in signal processing that would include broader U.S. participation as well as participation from other countries. This seminar will provide the US postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students an excellent opportunity to receive a global research experience. It is anticipated that they will maintain contacts and collaborations with the Vietnamese researchers and students throughout their careers. The organizers will create a website that will provide information about the workshop and its findings at dspss.vef.gov. In addition, the class materials will be developed using open courseware tools and materials from MIT and Connexions and will be available through this website for the general public long after the seminar is concluded.
