SPAG 2006-2011

The Signal Processing Algorithm Group (SPAG) is the leading group in signal processing and digital systems design in Finland. It has been elected an Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence for 2006-2011. The group was also elected as an Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence for 2000-2005.

Signal processing has greatly changed during the last fifteen years. What was earlier viewed as digital signal processing, forms now only a small part of the new concept of signal processing that might be more adequately described as the methods of analyzing, manipulating and presenting natural information.

The emerging technologies are vastly increasing the capabilities of individuals to interact with the surrounding world in a multimodal way. The future of signal processing lies in developing techniques that enable natural interaction using those modalities that are most natural for a human. The key to success, however, is in combining new visions with strong theoretical foundations and understanding the needs of practical implementations.

The Signal Processing Algorithm Group is lead by Prof. Jaakko Astola. The group has steadily grown and consists now of about 80 researchers. The majority of these are researchers and research assistants working in both applied and basic research projects.

SPAG carries out research in the theory and applications of modern signal processing, and has a flexible team structure:

• Multimedia team lead by Prof. Moncef Gabbouj
• Audio Research team lead by Dr. Tuomas Virtanen
• Information Theoretic Methods team lead by Prof. Ioan Tabus
• Digital Filtering Group lead by Prof. Tapio Saramäki
• Computational Imaging team lead by Prof. Karen Egiazarian
• Methods and Models for Biological Signals and Images team lead by Prof. Ulla Ruotsalainen
• Computational Systems Biology team lead by Prof. Olli Yli-Harja
• Computational Neuroscience team lead by Dr. Marja-Leena Linne

SPAG is one of several research groups within the Institute of Signal Processing (ISP) of Tampere University of Technology. The structure is flexible and the research topics and sometimes researchers are shared by several groups.