Participation in an information-based society should be universal and affordable. The research mission of Penn State's IST is to contribute knowledge to meet this goal. The college will promote an understanding of the principles behind and the uses of advanced computing, communications, and information systems in industry, government, and society.

This research mission, by its very nature, will be cross-disciplinary. While the members of the IST faculty will ultimately determine the precise directions the college's research will take, current National Science Foundation (NSF) themes such as knowledge and distributed intelligence, new computational challenges, electronic commerce, cognitive science, and the next generation of the Internet are potential areas of concentration.

Other vital issues that may be pursued include the increasingly important questions of access to information by different portions of society, and public policy concerning the ownership, use, and distribution of information. To undertake this research, not only will it be important for IST faculty members and students to collaborate across disciplinary lines, but it will be important for them to form external partnerships with corporations and foundations willing to support University research.