Information theory is rapidly approaching its 70th birthday. What are
promising future directions for research in information theory? Where will
information theory be having the most impact in 10-20 years? What new and
emerging areas are ripe for the most impact, of the sort that information
theory has had on the telecommunications industry over the last 60 years? How
should the IEEE Information Theory Society promote high-risk new research
directions and broaden the reach of information theory, while continuing to be
true to its ideals and insisting on the intellectual rigor that makes its
breakthroughs so powerful? These are some of the questions that an ad hoc
committee (composed of the present authors) explored over the past two years.
We have discussed and debated these questions, and solicited detailed inputs
from experts in fields including genomics, biology, economics, and
neuroscience. This report is the result of these discussions