The Denning Technology & Management (T&M) Program is adding a Technology & Business minor in Fall 2016, and will take applications from students in the Colleges of Architecture, the Sciences and Ivan Allen College.
With this addition, one of Tech’s most well-known academic programs will be open to all Tech students, fulfilling one of Steven A. Denning’s goals for the program.
The T&M Program is currently renowned for its cross-disciplinary coursework in business, computing and engineering, as well as corporate involvement and professional networking opportunities.
T&M administrators hope that the addition of Tech students from more diverse fields of study will benefit all the students involved.
One of the program’s goals is to teach its participants to see problems and projects from novel points of view.
The program will remain the same size (between sixty and seventy students per class) to preserve the tight-knit community and close working relationships that students develop amongst themselves and their instructors.
The capstone project is one of the opportunities of participating as a T&M student. In the second year of enrollment, students work in teams of four to six to address a problem within one of the corporate partner companies, for a period of six to eight months.
During this time they can collaborate between teams, grow their professional contacts, and solve a real problem for a major company that they can talk about in their search for other jobs or endeavors in the future.
The T&M Program’s benefactor, Steven A. Denning, made a name for himself in international business, and this is something that the program is striving to continue cultivating in its new students.
All T&M students can apply to attend faculty-led trips abroad focused on relevant coursework.
This spring break, 44 T&M students will be traveling to Central and Eastern Europe to learn about the transition of the region from centrally planned to market economies.
Anne Lynch, the Communications Program Manager for T&M, summed up what she sees as the beauty of the program.
“What [engineering students] have said to me is that with engineering you build it or you don’t,” Lynch said. “With business problems there isn’t one right answer and that excites them.
“They get excited about the unknown. They are coming in from high level engineering courses and finding an appreciation for a different kind of challenge, finding a project-based approach instead of a correct answer. After all, you can have the best idea ever, but if you don’t know how to market it and sell it, or know someone who can market it, it might not go anywhere.”
The Technology & Business minor is composed of 22 hours of cross-disciplinary work based in the Scheller College of Business. One of the program’s goals is to be a part of campus that everyone wants to participate in — and this new minor option goes a long way towards making that a distinct possibility.
The next application cycle for students in the College of Architecture, College of Sciences and Ivan Allen College is next fall.
Anyone with at least a 3.0 GPA and 30 credit hours to be completed by the time of starting the program in Fall 2017 is eligible to apply.
Interested students are encouraged to visit the Technology & Management Program sections of the Scheller College of Business’ website for further information on how and when to apply.