The 2002–2003 academic year marked the one hundredth anniversaryof MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering (since 1975 the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). Since then, the core values of the departmenthave remained remarkably consistent. The primary mission has always been to provide undergraduate and graduate students an education that combines rigorous academics and the excitement of discovery.

The department has long attracted talented faculty and students with a passion for things electricaland things computational. The electron and the bitare fitting symbols for the first one hundred years. Going forward, new technical areas will surely establish their importance and new symbols will be needed—perhaps the photon, the amino acid, and the qbit.

Threaded through the book is a wonderful essayby Professor Paul Penfield. The essay captures the essence of the evolution of the department, and with it the development of both electrical engineering and computer science.
The book also contains classic papers authored by EECS faculty over the last century, appreciations of some of the department’s outstanding people, alook at the interdepartmental research laboratories that play such an important role for EECS faculty and students, representative abstracts of their most significant work as selected by faculty members, alist of all department doctoral theses, and somedelightful historical photographs.