Institute offers memberships to graduates and the experienced who can integrate their theoretical knowledge with practical skills in a technological sector that is rapidly advancing
Information technology (IT) applications have changed the world faster than most people could have imagined.
Within a decade, the use of the internet, broadband network access devices, laptop computers, mobile phones, PDAs and other wireless communication devices had grown exponentially, changing forever the way we communicate, run businesses and understand the world.
Chan Chun-leung, past chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) IT division, said the rapid technological advances of various types of communication devices had made them indispensable to consumers and businesses which considered innovations, such as communications satellites, wireless phones and computer networks, staples of everyday life.
Dr Chan said demand for these communication devices had created a need for professional IT engineers who could help design, develop, install, test and maintain them.
Such was the dependence on communication technology, for social and commercial applications, that the edges between professional IT communication engineers and those who used communication technology had begun to blur, Dr Chan said. 'Many people who use computers, or technology, to perform simple tasks now consider themselves IT professionals.'