Information, computation and communication course for all

The need for scientific knowledge of computer and communication systems can be felt in all fields of science where computer tools and methods are used. The IC School responded to this need by launching the ICC course, which teaches the basics of information, computation and communication. This was a very major undertaking involving a total of 11 professors, 16 assistants/PhD students and 65 assistants/undergraduate students.

The course is intended for all first-year EPFL students regardless of their chosen branch of study (except architecture). The course is broken down into three modules:

Module 1 covers the notion of algorithm and the representation of information (in binary terms, information is represented by a series of "0" and "1", otherwise referred to as "bits" (i.e. the standard measurement unit in computing).

Module 2 focuses on signal sampling and data compression, the former being the means used to represent video or audio signals, for instance.

Module 3 deals with system-related aspects: processor, memory, communication and security, i.e. hardware aspects.

Feedback from the 1,400 students who attended the first semester of the ICC course was very positive: "I discovered an entirely new world. Learning how computers work and everything that we can do with them is fascinating. Absolutely essential knowledge for tomorrow's world, and certainly useful in today's world," comments one of the students.

James Larus, Dean of the EPFL's School of Computer and Communications Sciences is enthusiastic: "This is the first time we have ever done anything like this! It is an entirely new approach to explain the essential principles of information science – without teaching programming – to all future EPFL graduates." One of the students describes what he liked most about the course: "the general culture aspect of the course helps us to better grasp this extremely important field, which most people have virtually no understanding of."

To conclude, André Schiper, the IC School professor who designed the ICC course, is pleased with the successful outcome: "It was a tremendous challenge that the IC School had to face...we wanted to show the true nature of computers and communication systems in a way that would dispel the widely held view that IC = "programming". It was a major undertaking to approach such a vast field with so few hours at our disposal. Lengthy discussions were often needed in order to select the subjects to be presented: the subjects had to be representative of the field and teachable within the given timeframe. The subjects also had to be accessible to students who had just arrived at the EPFL. Because Computer and Communication sciences have become so omnipresent, and yet not very well understood, we owed it to ourselves to live up to the challenge."