Dr. Akihiko Sugiyama was engaged in the research and development of signal processing directly connected to commercial products such as network transmission terminals, semiconductors, personal computers (PCs), and mobile phone handsets until 2018 in the Central Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation. He has continued signal processing research at Yahoo! Japan Research since 2019. He was awarded a Dr. Eng. degree from Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1998 by submitting a dissertation on adaptive signal processing algorithms.

He has contributed significantly to the education of a broad range of engineers in the company not to mention his direct-report engineers. He has actively hosted and supervised over 70 internship students from all over the world. He developed a unique technical writing method based on a three-point analysis and slide-first for students and junior engineers to efficiently draft reports and papers and contributed to its dissemination. The three-point analysis identifies the value of the research outcome, the trick to enable the value, and the solved problem. It helps the author establish a clear logic without contradiction widely encountered with novices where the research outcome, which is the value of the research, does not solve the problem stated in the paper. The preparation of presentation slides before the manuscript based on the three-point analysis results with a large minimum font size forms the framework of the paper. Paragraphs and sections developed from each slide constitute a draft of the paper. The paper title, which usually takes long time to design, is almost uniquely defined using the value and the trick. What to write in the abstract and the introduction, which are considered the most difficult in drafting, are clearly stated paragraph by paragraph with examples. This design of a clear logic with the three-point analysis, visualization of the logical structure with slides, and reduced hesitation brought by a clearly defined procedure are the distinguished features compared to conventional technical writing. Regular and short courses in five universities in Japan and twenty-nine overseas invited talks demonstrate that it is effective and useful.

Dr. Sugiyama was appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer by the Signal Processing Society as well as the Consumer Technology Society, IEEE, and delivered 174 invited talks in 87 cities of 31 countries. Through these invited talks, his 20-year teaching career as a part-time lecturer at universities, and the 17 chapters in books he authored, he has contributed to promoting an understanding of signal processing and its applications to commercial products. As stated earlier, practical education through international invited talks and internship supervision as well as the development of a unique technical writing method have made unparalleled contributions to understanding signal processing technology and thus, deserve the Distinguished Educational Practitioners Award.