Bachelor of Science in Information Science, Systems, and Technology (ISST)

Digital information technologies have become pervasive in science, engineering, manufacturing, business, finance, culture, law, and government, dramatically changing the way people work and live. The proliferation and significance of these new technologies demands a new focus in engineering education—one that remains rigorous and technically oriented but is simultaneously devoted to integrating engineering design, theory, and practice within the social and organizational contexts in which these complex digital information systems are employed. The information science, systems, and technology (ISST) major studies the design and management of complex information systems. Just as structural engineers and nanofabricators use physics at radically different scales, so also there is a scale difference between the focus of the ISST major and the more traditional, look-under-the-hood majors in computer science and operations research and industrial engineering. Rather than focusing on the computing and communication technologies that underlie digital information systems, the ISST major emphasizes information systems engineering in broad application contexts, where issues at the confluence of information science, technology, and management are the primary concerns. The ISST major has two options. The management science option educates students in methods for quantitative decision making and their application to information technology as well as the broader role that information technology plays in making these methods effective. Students in the information science option will obtain advanced training in methods for the creation, representation, organization, access, and analysis of information in digital form.