Special Report Information Technology

April 1997

		Introduction Almost every facet of information technology - electronics, power, networks, computer languages, communications, or digital and analog devices - involves electrical or computer engineers. And while these areas of engineering are changing society, they are also changing engineering. The first section of this report explores the relationship between information technology and the computer and electrical engineers of Virginia Tech's Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering. We begin with some of our power electronics and computer engineering efforts to advance the technology. Then we highlight a few areas in which computers or advanced chips are helping us in efforts as far ranging as improving cellular communications or exploring electromagnetic waves on the ocean surface or in the upper atmosphere, or helping to improve the reliability and quality of the electric power network. We end the first section by probing our development and use of information technology in engineering education - from the use of student software packages, to multimedia, to the use of the Internet in distance learning. It is in education, perhaps, that computers may have the greatest impact on the lives of engineers.

The Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering
Virginia Tech