Celia Shahnaz, SMIEEE, Fellow IEB, received Ph.D. degree from Concordia University, Canada and is currently a Professor, Department of EEE, BUET, Bangladesh since 2015. She has published more than 150 international journal/conference papers. She is a recipient of the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship/Fellowship and Bangladesh Academy of Science Gold Medal for her contribution in Science and Technology. Her research interests include the areas of Deep learning, pattern recognition and machine learning for audio, video, biomedical and power signals, signal processing for speech analysis and speech enhancement, multimodal emotion recognition, digital watermarking, audio-visual recognition for biometric security, multimedia communication, control system, robotics, and humanitarian technology.

 Recently, her papers have received best paper awards in biomedical Engineering tracks at TENCON 2017 and at IEEE WIECON-ECE 2016, in Humanitarian Challenge track at R10 HTC 2017, and the best interactive poster award at ICIVPR 2017. Her paper has been selected for the top ten best paper awards in the Student Paper Contest of the 2018 and 2014 IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), College Station, Texas, USA and Knoxville, TN, USA, respectively. She was the winner, the Best Student Paper Award, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks and Signal Processing (ICNNSP), Zhenjiang, China. She was selected as one of the finalists of the Student Research Presentation Competition in the 2009 SYTACOM Workshop, Montreal, QC, Canada. She was the mentor of 1st/2nd prize winning projects in IEEE IAS CMD Contests (Robotics, Humanitarian) in 2017-2019, USA. She was the supervisor of 4th/5th rank winning teams in SPCUP competitions, ICASSP 2020 (Spain)/2015 (Australia) and 5th rank winning team in VIPCUP competition, ICIP 2020 (United Arab emirates) . She is the recipient of 2019 R10 Humanitarian Activities Outstanding Volunteer Award, 2016 MGA Leadership Award 2015 WIE Inspiring Member Award, 2013 R10 WIE Professional Volunteer Award.

She has been elected as 2021-23 Chair, IEEE SPS Women in Signal Processing. She has been appointed as 2021-22 Member, IEEE History Committee and 2021 Member, IEEE Ad Hoc Committee on Election Practices and Oversight. She was a candidate for the 2021-22 IEEE Region 10 Director-Elect election. She is the current Chair, IEEE Bangladesh Section, 2020 Member, IEEE New Initiative Committee, 2020 Chair, Women in SIGHT Working Group, 2020-22 Member, IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Women in Signal Processing Committee, 2020 Member, IEEE WIE Senior Member Elevation Drive, 2019-2020 Member, IEEE WIE WePower Subcommittee, 2020 Member, IEEE smart Village South Asian Working Group, 2017-2020 IEEE PES Women in Power (WiP) IEEE Region 10 Regional representative, 2017, 2019 Communications Chair, IEEE SIGHT steering Committee, 2017-18 Chair, IEEE WIE Workshops Subcommittee, 2017-18 Member, IEEE Region 10 Subcommittees (WIE, Humanitarian Technology Activity, Education), 2016 IEEE Region 10 WIE Coordinator, General Chair, IEEE TENSYMP 2020, IEEE SPICSCON 2019, IEEE PEEIACON 2019, General Chair: IEEE WIECON-ECE 2019, 2018, 2016, General Co- Chair, IEEE Region 10 HTC 2017 and IEEE WIECON-ECE 2017, Founder and TPC Chair: IEEE WIECON-ECE 2015, IEEE BECITHCON 2019, IEEE RAAIACON 2019, 2018- 20 Member, Technical Committee, Image, Video, and Multimedia (IVM), Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA), 2018 to date Editorial board member, IET Signal Processing, Founder & Chair, IEEE SPS, IAS Bangladesh Chapters, Co-founder & Vice-Chair, IEEE RAS, SSIT Bangladesh Chapters, Founder, Adviser, Nominations and Appointments Chair, WIE AG, IEEE Bangladesh Section. She has more than 20 years of experience (20 years as an IEEE volunteer) of leading impactful Technical, Professional, Educational, Industrial, Women Empowerment and Humanitarian Technology and PES related Projects at national/international levels.

Questions & Answers with Dr. Celia Shahnaz

What is your specific area of STEM?

Myr area of STEM and research interests include the areas of Deep learning, pattern recognition and machine learning for audio, video, biomedical and power signals, signal processing for speech analysis and speech enhancement, multimodal emotion recognition, digital watermarking, audio-visual recognition for biometric security, multimedia communication, control system, robotics, and humanitarian technology.I have published more than 150 international journal/conference papers. I am a recipient of the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship/Fellowship and Bangladesh Academy of Science Gold Medal for my contribution in Science and Technology.

When did you first become interested in tech and was there a moment where you knew you were going to be a computer programmer?

I first became interested in tech at my childhood looking at the electrical and electronic commodities around my family, such as television, toaster, iron, music player, pressure cooker--i found their working principle pretty interesting and their capacity of providing technical solutions to do the tasks amazed me. I became more curious about knowing the electrical and electronic components around me and how those items that were easing our lives. I found the tech challenging but their contributions to serve and benefit the community motivated me to be a tech embracer, not necessarily only a computer programmer. I was introduced to the world of computer programming during my undergraduate study in the department of EEE, Bangladesh university of Engineering and Technology (BUET). I learnt different programming languages during my undergraduate, M.SC and PhD research and continued learning more till now to supervise my undergraduate, M.SC and PhD students to keep me current and updated with the emerging technology. Therefore, it was always around me and I gravitated towards it as a result.

How would you explain your STEM field to young girls?

To the young girls, if you embrace my STEM field, you will be skilled to handle and contribute to the 4th industrial revolution that is very much needed for digital Bangladesh, You will be equipped with knowledge to build smart cities with telemedicine and health care, artificial intelligence , robotics, IoT, and smart agriculture. Also, my field will provide you an opportunity to develop technology for meeting the UN 17 sustainable development Goals (SDGs)

What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field?

If a child tries to spend more time with lego, shape, puzzle solving, computer gaming, chess playing, it is an indication that the child has an interest or aptitude for optimizing problems in the quickest possible that is important for my STEM field.

Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone?

Signal Processing, Machine and deep learning have applications in Assistive devices involving measurement, instrumentation and control. The overall goal of such research is to develop humanitarian assistive devices as they are designed to support and meet the sustainable Development Goals. For example, non-invasive glucose , Bilirubin level estimation and jaundice detection devices, voce , eye gaze, hand and brain signal controlled wheel chair, smart hat for prevent ing fall of elderly people, braille device, auto injection device, Digital Sthetho-phone and Wrist-card for health care, Anti-theft motor cycle security control device, wireless and wearable ECG monitoring device, water waste collecting robot are some of the innovations that I led with my students and they are humanitarian in nature. In some cases, machine and Deep learning techniques are also employed to have improved performance parameters. The measurement, instrumentation and control mechanisms used in such devices are effective for intelligent tasks, even applicable and usable by disabled communities. Such devices are low cost, scalable and sustainable to support the rural community. Therefore, I felt interested to choose this STEM field. I was inspired by my math and science teacher at school, biology teacher at colleague, and eventually by my M.SC and Ph.D supervisors. Specially the interest and skil of my talented students also helped me retain in this field. It is notable that my husband’s research mind (Shaikh Fattah, https://sites.google.com/site/drshaikhfattah/ ) helped me to solve many challenges through many technical discussions in this emerging field.

What is the biggest challenge you face as a woman in STEM?

I am the first Women in EEE Dept of BUET with a PhD and first female professor, First Women Chair of IEEE Bangladesh, First Women Senior member of IEEE in Bangladesh. I am the first person from Bangladesh and first women from the subcontinent to become the candidate to run for Asia pacic IEEE’s top position and achieve positions in many global committees as the first Bangladeshi through international competitions. I have raised the name of Bangladesh to the globe by my research, and activities. Doing it in the Engineering Community of Bangladesh and the globe was highly challenging. I faced unusual barriers from male dominated Engineering organizations and professions to break each barrier in every step of my life and became the pioneer in every field overcoming the mis perception about Women Leadership prevalent in the Engineering Community. Reshaping the perception locally as a woman leader and proving it to the global community as a Bangladeshi woman was the biggest challenge.I became mother of a son after 14 years of her marriage, I faced a huge social set back. I overcome all obstacles in family/ organization/ society by my will power, strong determination, high ethical standards and hard work.

Do you still see sexism and discrimination in the workplace?

Yes.

What is Celia's life like in 2025?

More engaged , more focused , and more contributory to create impact on billions of people’s lives in Bangladesh and around the world through technology, innovation and research.

What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM?

Never doubt your readiness, always sit at the table for discussion, seek mentorship from seniors and always improve your skill to remain competitive. You can be from a small village/town, country but your hard work, ethics, merit, passion, capacity and confidence cannot be small. Please continue working hard and your actions will be spoken and you will be recognized. I humbly request young girls to read my brief bio, visit my google scholar citations (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gwrHyr8AAAAJ&hl=en) and website (www.celiashahnaz.com) to realize the enormous hard work and commitment to my STEM field not only for me but for the technical community around me.