Information Science

Definitely worth a read for a wide audience - anyone interested in the storage and processing of data (applied mathematicians, computer scientists, electrical engineers, and statisticians). Also, it could be used for an interesting topics course in the mathematical sciences as low as the sophomore or junior level (as it is at Stanford). One particularly nice aspect of the book is that it provides a clear, basic introduction to the core concepts in each core area of information science. Since he approaches the subject from several points-of-view, Luenberger provides a well-rounded introduction that will motivate readers in one discipline to learn a little more about an ancillary discipline.

When DSN was visiting Stanford's Department of Management Science and Engineering[...] in the late 90s, it was called "Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research". A change for the better, no? One thing that hasn't changed is the excellence of the people there. We just got our copy David Luenberger's new Information Science[...]. Not only is it a handsome book, big but not heavy with cottony paper, it's like an entire college education on a field you never knew existed, looking at everything from file compression to marketing to microeconomics through one beautiful framework set forth of by Claude Shannon in 1949. It includes a nice Shannon quote, from 1953: The first [method] I might speak about is simplification. Suppose that you are given a problem to solve, I don't care what kind of problem-a machine to design, or a physical theory to develop, or a mathematical theorem to prove or something of that kind-probably a very powerful approach to this is to attempt to eliminate everything from the problem except the essentials; that is, cut is down to size. Almost every problem that you come across is befuddled with all kinds of extraneous data of one sort or another; and if you can bring this problem down into the main issues, you can see more clearly what you are trying to do an perhaps find a solution. Now in so doing you may have stripped away the problem you're after. You may have simplified it to the point that it doesn't even resemble the problem that you started with; but very often if you can solve this simple problem, you can add refinements to the solution of this until you get back to the solution of the one you started with. Luenberger comments "Shannon's approach of abstraction to an essence should become clear as we study his contributions throughout this text. His work is a testament to the power of the method."

Information Science, a highly interdisciplinary work, delivers a beautiful and unifying structure of the subject in a timely manner. Audience from any academic discipline in science and engineering, business and economics, and statistics and finance will be able to obtain additional insight from yet another perspective--the missing piece in your jigsaw puzzle. With entertaining historical anecdotes and enlightening modern examples, Stanford Professor David G. Luenberger builds his book around the five 'E's' of information: Entropy, Economics, Encryption, Extraction, and Emission. Each area directly underpins, drives, or builds modern information products, services, and technology--from compressed music/photo to digital cash, pricing economics to bundled marketing, database systems to communication networks. Featured by the author's lucid and precise writing style, the presentation is logical, coherent and pedagogically sound! Professor Luenberger's Information Science most successfully embraces many varying and disperse (yet extremely important) concepts and structures in (but not limited to) e-Business models and IT innovations into Science and Management. It's a must-read for any student and scholar who are ready to compete and thrive in the today's information era.