The medals recognize James McClellan’s impact on digital signal processing curriculum development and Biing‑Hwang “Fred” Juang’s role in defining modern speech and audio signal processing.
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Two faculty members from the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have been named recipients of 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Medals, among the highest honors awarded by the world's largest technical professional organization.
Professor Biing‑Hwang “Fred” Juang has been awarded the Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal for foundational contributions to speech and signal processing that underpin modern voice communication and recognition systems.
Professor Emeritus James H. McClellan has received the James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal for his transformative impact on engineering education, including pioneering new approaches to how digital signal processing is taught worldwide.
“IEEE Medals represent the highest level of professional recognition,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, Steve W. Chaddick School Chair. “The recognition of Jim and Fred is a point of pride for the entire ECE community, which continues to benefit from their lasting contributions to education and research.”
IEEE Medals honor individuals whose work has produced enduring, field‑shaping impact across research, education, and technology. The medals were formally bestowed at the IEEE Honors Ceremony on April 24, 2026, in New York City.
Professor Suman Datta was also recognized and presented the Andrew S. Grove Award — a Technical Field Award — at the Honors Ceremony.
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Biing‑Hwang “Fred” Juang
2026 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal
The professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, was awarded the IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, one of IEEE’s highest technical honors in the field. The medal recognizes his foundational contributions to signal modeling, coding, and speech recognition, which underpin nearly all modern voice communication systems.
Juang was among the earliest innovators of vector quantization for speech coding and hidden Markov model–based speech recognition, enabling ultra‑low‑bit‑rate vocoders and large‑scale commercial speech recognition systems deployed by AT&T and Lucent Technologies. These systems delivered substantial real‑world impact, including hundreds of millions of dollars in operational savings during their widespread adoption.
Since joining Georgia Tech in 2002, Juang’s work has continued to advance the field through research at the intersection of signal processing and machine learning, with lasting influence on communications, human–computer interaction, and modern AI‑enabled systems. His honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering, Academia Sinica, and IEEE Life Fellow status.
James H. McClellan
2026 IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal
McClellan received the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal, recognizing a career of outstanding contributions to engineering education. He is honored for his widely adopted approaches to teaching digital signal processing.
McClellan is best known as a pioneer of the “DSP First” approach, which introduces signal processing concepts at the start of the undergraduate curriculum rather than as a capstone topic. That framework has been adopted at more than 125 universities worldwide and continues to influence engineering education decades after its introduction.
In addition to his educational impact, McClellan is a central figure in modern signal processing, with landmark contributions including the Parks–McClellan filter design algorithm and the McClellan Transform.
He joined Georgia Tech in 1987 and has previously received multiple IEEE honors, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Award and the 2024 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal. He retired from the ECE faculty in 2020.
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