A course in information engineering across the professions

A new course titled "Information Engineering Across the Professions" is being implemented at WPI. This course is intended for students outside of the Electrical and Computer Engineering majors. It addresses a need that has arisen from the impact that information technology is making on all professions, technical and non-technical. This course will provide students with knowledge regarding such concepts as the nature of information, bandwidth, types of transmission and storage media, and the fundamental principles governing information technology. Through the use of laboratory project-based modules customized to address different student disciplinary interests and backgrounds (e.g., mechanical engineering the sciences, the arts, management), the course will expose students to professional applications of these technologies. The course will be taught making extensive use of the World Wide Web (which also will serve as an example of the future of information technologies), and this web material will be available for use by other institutions and other faculty.