The PROGRESS Initiative by the IEEE Signal Processing Society aims to foster diversity and inclusivity within the signal processing domain, especially by encouraging and aiding women and underrepresented minorities in pursuing academic paths in this field. Acknowledging the strides made in diversifying STEM student populations, the Initiative also acknowledges the ongoing deficiency in diversity among professors and academic leaders in these disciplines.

PROGRESS at ICIP 2024 will be an all-day event held on Sunday, 27 October 2024, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM. It will feature high-profile speakers in the signal processing field from both academia and industry.

PROGRESS Workshop registration is free; however, space is limited! Students are encouraged to attend. Lunch included for registrants.

PROGRESS Workshop travel grants are under review. Thank you to those who applied. The announcement date is pending.

Naoufel Werghi, Khalifa Univerity, Abu Dhabi, UAE  (Chair)

Diana W. Dawoud, College of Engineering & IT, University of Dubai

Farokh Atashzar, New York University, New York, NY, USA (Chair)

Theodora Chaspari, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

Abhishek Appaji, B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

Athina Petropulu, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Islem Rekik
Islem Rekik is the Director of the Brain And SIgnal Research and Analysis (BASIRA) laboratory (http://basira-lab.com/) and an Associate Professor at Imperial College London (Innovation Hub I-X).  She is the awardee of two prestigious international research fellowships. In 2019, she was awarded the 3-year prestigious TUBITAK 2232 for Outstanding Experienced Researchers Fellowship and in 2020 she became a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow under the European Horizons 2020 program. Together with BASIRA members, she conducted more than 100 cutting-edge research projects cross-pollinating AI and healthcare —with a sharp focus on brain imaging and network neuroscience. She is also a co/chair/organizer of more than 25 international first-class conferences/workshops/competitions (e.g., Affordable AI 2021-22, Predictive AI 2018-2024, Machine Learning in Medical Imaging 2021-24, WILL competition 2021-23). She is a member of the organizing committee of MICCAI 2023 (Vancouver), 2024 (Marrakesh) and South-Korea (2025). In addition to her 160+ high-impact publications, she is a strong advocate of equity, inclusiveness and diversity in AI and research. She is the former president of the Women in MICCAI (WiM), and the co-founder of the international RISE Network to Reinforce Inclusiveness & diverSity and Empower minority researchers in Low-Middle Income Countries (LMIC).

Kinda Khalaf
Dr. Kinda Khalaf is currently the Associate Dean of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, where for the last 10 years she served as founding interim chair, associate chair and accreditation leader of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining KU, she held faculty appointments in Engineering and Medicine at the University of Miami (Florida, USA), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), where she held the first joint appointment between the faculties of Engineering and Medicine, and the American University of Sharjah (UAE). Dr Khalaf is a US National Merit Scholar and is on the list of International Who is Who of Professionals since 2012. She has been awarded the prestigious LAMME Scholarship, the Woman of Engineering Award for outstanding Academic Achievement, the Presidential Fellowship Award, the University of Miami College of Engineering Teaching Award, and the Khalifa University Faculty Excellence award. An advocate of innovation in engineering and medical education, she has co-established an interdisciplinary education research group focusing on implementing curricular innovative pedagogies and the design of quantitative assessment instruments and employability skills in engineering and medical programs. Dr. Khalaf serves on the Board of Trustees for Emirates College of Technology since 2021, Siemens Healthineers Innovation Think Tank since 2020 and is on the review board of the Abu Dhabi Council for Education (ADEK) Programs since 2019.

Prof Ernesto Damiani
Ernesto Damiani is a Professor of Practice in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and the Senior Director of the Khalifa University Center for Cyber Physical Systems (C2PS). Dr. Damiani holds a full professorship at the Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where he leads the SESAR research lab. Ernesto’s research interests include data-intensive service-oriented architectures, Cyber-Physical Systems security and privacy-preserving Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics.

Dr. Damiani has held visiting positions at a number of international institutions, including George Mason University in Virginia, US; Tokyo Denki University, Japan; LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia; and the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) at Lyon, France. He has been a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Progress of Science.

Dr. Damiani is the Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions on Service Computing, the flagship Transaction on Services of the IEEE Computer Society. He has served in the editorial board of several others international journals, including the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. He served as Vice-Chair of the  ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing, and of IEEE Technical Committee on Industrial Informatics.

In 2008, Ernesto was nominated ACM Distinguished Scientist. He received many awards, including the Chester Sall Award from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, the Research and Innovation Award from the IEEE Technical Committee on Homeland Security and the Outstanding Service Award from the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP).

Prof. Dima Jamali
Dima Jamali is currently serving as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Canadian University in Dubai, UAE.  She also served as Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Sharjah, UAE, from August 2020 to August 2023.  She has been highlighted by Forbes and Insights Success Magazine as one of the most admired women in the educational sector in 2023.

She served as a Tenured Professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB). At AUB, Associate Dean for the Olayan School of Business, and Director for Strategic Partnerships. Full Professor in 2010 and became the Endowed Chair in Responsible Leadership in 2014.Her accolades include the 2016 National Council for Scientific Research Excellence Award for Lebanon and the 2015 Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award, described by the Financial Times as the “Oscars of the Business School World.” She was ranked among the top 2% of global scholars by Stanford University in sustainability for 2020 and 2021 and was 30th among the top 100 scientists in the UAE in 2022, placing 2nd in Business and Management. Over the past five years, she has led the UN Global Compact Network for Lebanon, collaborating with top private sector firms to advance the SDGs and UN 2030 agenda through national social, humanitarian, and environmental projects.