Tech Topics - Winter 2007 - (Page 49) RealWorld GARY MEEK Marrying Technology and Management T $15 billion in capital under management, his firm has helped build more o compete in today’s high-tech, than 160 companies that have provided global economy, companies are or used technology in new and looking to recruit talent possessing innovative ways. both managerial and technological His investment will endow a know-how. Finding such graduates in professorship in technology and short supply at most universities, management, enabling Tech to recruit a many businesses report having to leading academic to serve as faculty spend significant amounts of time and director of the program, as well as money to bridge the training gap for provide other support critical to the new employees. program’s creation and sustainability, Georgia Tech’s Colleges of including curriculum development, Management and advertising and Engineering are promotion, exworking together panded faculty Companies we’re to meet the involvement and talking to are corporate need administrative excited about this for graduates leadership. who can succeed program because Corporate inon the interdiscipterest in the prothey need engineers linary teams that gram is already who understand are now standard strong, said Linda market forces and in industry. The Oldham, the two colleges are the financial College of Mandeveloping the agement’s assoimplications of Technology and ciate development technology. Management director, who is Program, which responsible for will enable underrecruiting repregraduate engineering and management sentatives of major companies to serve students to learn one another’s on an external advisory panel. language through coursework in their “Companies we’re talking to are respective fields as well as teamwork excited about this program because to solve real-world problems. they need engineers who understand Set to start next fall, the program market forces and the financial will initially allow undergraduates to implications of technology earn certification in technology and investment,” Oldham said. “They also management. Down the road, students need management majors who could have the option of earning dual understand the technical aspects of bachelor’s degrees in engineering and process and product development, as management. well as the capabilities and constraints Steven Denning, IM 70, of the engineering disciplines.” recognized the impact the Technology College of Management Dean and Management Program would have Steve Salbu’s discussions with on students’ careers and companies’ students, alumni and corporate leaders success. He has committed to giving $5 over the past year highlighted the need million over five years to help make for the program’s interdisciplinary the program a success. approach. Denning, chairman of General “Many current engineering and Atlantic LLC, built his global private management students … recognize equity firm by investing in that their desired career paths will technologies with the potential to demand strong skill sets in both disciplines. The Technology and transform industries and markets in Management Program will set them ways that improve society. With about By Brad Dixon “ Alumni, corporate support helping students acquire interdisciplinary skills apart from graduates of other universities, greatly enhancing their leadership ability and earning potential,” Salbu said. “We anticipate that this program will help us attract some of the nation’s most promising high school seniors to Georgia Tech,” he added. College of Engineering Dean Don Giddens said, “Georgia Tech is renowned for excellent programs in engineering and management. The fusion of these fields through the Technology and Management Program will further heighten the Institute’s reputation as a world leader in interdisciplinary education.” Admission into the Technology and Management Program will be highly competitive, with initial enrollment of about 60 Georgia Tech students a year. Second-year students will be able to apply in the spring to enter the program at the start of their third year. The students will take courses focusing on teamwork, collaborative product development, business process modeling, sustainable business practices and integrated project management. In an integrated capstone project course, interdisciplinary teams will work on a real-world project for one of the major corporations recruited to help with the program. These projects will require students to solve significant problems involving both technical and managerial issues. Mark Ferguson, chair of the faculty committee developing the curriculum, said when he started his career as a manufacturing engineer at IBM after graduating from Virginia Tech, every project he worked on was interdisciplinary, involving marketing, operations and other business professionals. “Most universities’ engineering programs now afford little opportunity to work on interdisciplinary teams,” said Ferguson, an associate professor of operations management, whose corporate experiences motivated him to delve into the business side by earning his doctorate in business administration from Duke University after receiving his master’s in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech. “I recognized that I needed to broaden my knowledge of other disciplines.” GT 49 “ TECHTOPICS | WINTER 2007
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