The IEEE North American School on Information Theory delivered interactive education for graduate students in the engineering and mathematical sciences, and the opportunity to meet with distinguished lecturers and peers in a supportive environment. Information Theory studies the transmission, processing, and use of information in many contexts; it draws from and contributes to a large number of disciplines in the mathematical sciences. The areas of study of participants included pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, and the engineering sciences. The types of research topics presented by students, and the tutorial areas discussed by lecturers, spanned foundational theory, algorithmic design, and implementation in practice.

In its seventh year, this event was designed to provide graduate students with opportunities to:

• Learn from distinguished lecturers in the field who will present long-format (2 1/2 hour) tutorials;
• Participate in a stimulating and inviting forum of scientists;
• Present their own work for feedback and potential collaboration;
• Deepen their connections with the community 

Lecturers:

• Robert Calderbank, Duke
• Brendan Frey, Toronto
• Andrea Goldsmith, Stanford
• Alon Orlitsky, UCSD
• Henry Pfister, Texas A&M
• En-hui Yang, Waterloo

Poster Session

As part of NASIT, there was be a poster session each day. The idea of the sessions was to provide an informal and relaxed setting for students to interact with other students and faculty to get experience in presenting and to discuss their ideas and their research; students were required to present a poster in one of the three sessions. The organizers encouraged more junior graduate students, who did not yet have original research to present at NASIT, to present a "tutorial-style" poster on some topic of interest to the student. Posters were not refereed, and that previously published results are completely acceptable.

In addition, the school featured interactive panels and poster sessions, as well as social and technical student events.