Introduction
The general doctoral requirements
of George Mason University apply to this program.
When the term Information Technology and Engineering is used at
George Mason University to describe our school and its activities,
it is intended to mean information technology and information
engineering. These aspects of technology are emphasized in this
geographic region and we will develop excellence in precisely these
areas. Our focus is on the information, systems, and architectural
design approaches to technology. These complement and enhance the
more traditional approaches that are more strongly based on the
physical and materials sciences.
Information technology and engineering at GMU involves an external
design function and an internal design function. Electrical and
computer engineering and computer science involve the hardware and
software aspects of the internal design function. The human element
and the external design functions are also important for successful
system design and operation. Our efforts in information systems,
software systems engineering, and systems engineering primarily
concern working with people to assist them in knowledge
organization. These efforts involve systems, including information
systems, and the entire life cycle of systems from initial
conceptualization and specification of information and
architectural requirements through system evaluation and redesign.
They include the analysis capability that is needed to
quantitatively determine operational characteristics of existing
and future systems and processes. Our activities in operations
research and applied statistics are focused on these important
endeavors.
Our tasks in information technology and engineering vary from
requirements definition and specification to conceptual and
functional design and development of systems. They concern such
topics as architectural definition and evaluation. These occur at
considerably different points in the system life cycle and are
needed for functional integration, maintainability, reliability,
and the appropriate interfaces that ensure system design for human
interaction. This human interaction with systems and processes, and
the associated information processing activities, may take any of
several diverse forms. It may involve human supervisory control of
physical processes, such as the robots that are used in automated
manufacturing. It may involve typically cognitive tasks at the
operational levels of fault diagnosis, detection and correction, or
at the level of strategic planning.
