Charge

An informal charge to the Institute-wide information curriculum committee was given by Joe Morone:

"... a fundamentally new technological undergraduate degree -- based in information technology, rather than engineering or science. The basic idea is to develop a new, cross-school degree, that is uniquely appropriate for Rensselaer (ie, is a technological degree) but that appeals to a fundamentally broader pool of applicants than that traditionally drawn to RPI. This would be a degree that hits a middle ground between liberal arts and engineering -- grounded in science and technology, but broader and more accessible than engineering. The key starting point is that the explosive growth in the converging information-based technologies (computing/communications/entertainment etc) appear to have created the opening for a fundamentally new kind of technological degree -- more cognitive, more man-machine interface, more systems oriented than our traditional degrees, and less hard and physical science base (eg, no need for thermodynamics, engineering mechanics, chem of materials, etc.). Such a degree could find a wide range of applications in industry (knowledge engineers in companies ranging from Microsoft and Oracle, to GE Capital and Citibank, to Fox and Blockbuster), and would be inherently more accessible and broader than the traditional, accredited degree in engineering. Basically, our charge would be to start with a clean sheet of paper in designing this."

Players

• Selmer Bringsjord
• Dave Porush
• Deb Jonhson
• John Gowdy
• Sabine O'Hara
• Larry Kagan
• Cheryl Geisler
• Mike Kalsher
• Ramesh Diwan
• Ron Noel
• Dave Boles
• Linnda Caporael
• Andrea Rusnock
• Langdon Winner
• Teresa Harrison
• Patricia Search
• Philip Rubens
• James Zappen

Overarching Proposals

• Cheryl Geisler's proposal
• Selmer Bringsjord's overview of Info MegaCenter and curriculum
  • html || postscript
• Vision that emerged from recent H&SS Retreat (4/4).
• Bolek Szymanski's graphical overview of MegaCenter
• Dave Porush's graphical overview of MegaCenter
• the concentric circle" model of info curriculum, due to Joe Morone?

Projects

• uper-Minds
• Creative Agents
• Legal Machines

Relevant Links

• External Links
  • MIT's Media Lab
  • USC's Information Sciences Institute
  • The Logic and Computation BS @ CMU
• Internal Links
  • Dave Musser's site. Primarily intended to inform and solicit input from School of Science members. Excellent material on background and current material on Institute-wide curricula issues (including links to relevant curricula outside RPI).
  • Linnda Caporael's "In the year 2050," interesting brainstorming about IT and the future.
  • The document the Deans used in their planning for the mega-center during the early January retreat.
  • An early memo on EMAC, interesting b/c it came before a lot of the IT in IT.

Running Commentary

• 3/12/97-

Meetings

• Meeting 1, 7:30am, Thursday morning, 2/27, Cafe Dolce. At its first meeting, there seemed to be a collective sense that the MegaCenter, at least initially, should be conceptualized as something completely untrammeled by presuppositions regarding its physical space, location, and information infrastructure. Some expressed the idea that the MegaCenter, building on networking and distance learning technology of a sort that already distinguishes Rensselaer, could include elements in tune with the sophisticates who are inventing our future: for example, perhaps the MegaCenter could reach out into the Troy area in the form of "cyber cafes" allowing professors (and, of course, the Net as a whole) to be electronically present, and students (including non-Rensselaer ones) to learn in an environment that coincides with the very notion of being "wired."
• Meeting 2, 7:30am, Thursday morning, 3/6, Cafe Dolce. We discussed the "concentric circle" model proposed for curricula in information, and left agreeing to propose courses (both on-the-books and new) that would be appropriate under this model (see "Running Commentary").
• Meeting 3, 7:30am, Thursday morning, 3/20, Cafe Dolce, 275 River St, up from City Hall
• Meeting 4, 12noon lunch, 3/20, outside Dean Duchin's office, Sage Bldg
• Meeting 5, 3/27, 7:30am, Cafe Dolce. This stimulating meeting centered around the connection between intellectual property issues and information technology. It seemed to all present that IP provides a portal for many H\&SS faculty to to take into IT (information technology) issues.
• Meeting 5, 4/3, 7:30am, Cafe Dolce.
• H&SS Retreat. A significant portion of the retreat was devoted to consideration of the Info MegaCenter/Info Curriculum issue. In particular, the breakout group devised and reported back to the larger group with a project- and apprentice-based vision for the Info Curriculum/Info MegaCenter. (Click here for a look at the picture that summed things up.)
• Meeting 6, 4/11, 7:30am, Cafe Dolce. Selmer wasn't there. Anybody got notes to send me?
• Meeting 7, 7:30am, Cafe Dolce. A great discussion! People are encouraged to submit names of "heavyweight" for a symposium on IT. Larry has nominated Stewart Brand. Others?
• Next Meeting: 5/1, 7:30am, Cafe Dolce

Contact Info

• Selmer Bringsjord / selmer@rpi.edu
• Top Level of Bringsjord's Web Site

Disclaimer

This site ought not to be construed as any official statement by H\&SS about the Information MegaCenter/Information Curriculum. It was created (and is maintained) by Selmer Bringsjord, and as such doubtless reflects his take on IT matters.