VOLUME 11, NO. 3     FEBRUARY 1998

Information engineering for everyone

course titled Information Engineering Across the Professions was presented for the first time in C Term '97 and will be offered again during the same term of the current academic year. "The course addresses a need that arose from the impact that information technology is making on all professions - technical and nontechnical," says John Orr, professor and head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Orr and ECE Professor David Cyganski and Associate Professor Richard Vaz collaborated on the design of the course and on writing the Web-based textbook, as well as in the teaching of the course.

Developed with a grant from the National Science Foundation, the course is intended for first- or second-year students who are not majoring in electrical or computer engineering. "It provides them with conceptual knowledge of the nature of information, bandwidth, types of transmission and storage media, and the fundamental principles that govern information technology," says Orr.

"The course makes extensive use of the World Wide Web, which also serves as an example of the future of information technologies," says Cyganski. "We use laboratory project-based modules we have customized to address different student disciplinary interests and backgrounds, such as the sciences, the arts, mechanical engineering, and management, and expose students to professional applications of these technologies. We hope this course is an example of engineering as the new liberal arts."

The goals of the course include stimulating interest in the new area of information engineering among students and faculty; teaching "real" engineering and technology without prerequisites; writing a Web-based textbook; publishing a conventional (paper) textbook; and helping other schools adopt the course. "We need to ensure that students learn basic skills in information manipulation before we attempt to teach them sophisticated concepts of information theory," says Orr. "This course enables us to do that. Today's students sometimes believe that the Web can do almost anything. They need to see that real labs have a place in education alongside virtual labs."

The course was presented in June at a Projects Showcase that was part of the American Society for Engineering Education's Annual Conference and Exposition in Milwaukee. WPI was one of 21 institutions to display NSF-sponsored engineering research. Additional information about the course is available at http://ece.wpi.edu/infoeng/.

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