In 1948, an American researcher almost singlehandedly laid the foundation for computers, cell phones, compact discs, the Internet, interplanetary communications and most other aspects of what we call the Information Age. Sixty-four years later, Sergio Verd\xfa, who served as the 2012 Andrew J. Viterbi Distinguished Lecturer in Communications at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering on March 1, offered a strikingly clear introduction to visionary Claude Shannon\u2019s work and its impact with a presentation titled "What Is Information Theory?"