UCSB Technology Management Program To Offer Graduate Degrees

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Ashley Golden
Technology Editor

The University of California, Santa Barbara’s Technology Management Program (TMP) will now offer graduate degrees. The program, titled Graduate Program in Management Practice (GPMP), will be offered as a one-year Master’s Degree and will be like an MBA for Engineers. This change in status will occur as soon as 2014, though there are current graduates from the program already.
In TMP, students design new technological innovations and products, such as apps, and learn management skills to deliver these products to the market. For instance, a group of students knows as The Birdeez group developed an app called Birdeez that won a top award at the DEMO conference last fall and has the potential to be a profitable business venture. Courses offered in GPMP include Business Strategy & Leadership, New Venture Finance, and New Product Development.

Bob York, TMP’s director and professor of electrical and computer engineering, says of the program, “It’s going to be very similar to a degree you’d get at a business school, but we’re not creating a copycat program. We’re trying to do something very innovative. This is a management program for scientists and engineers. We’re living in a real technical world with a real need for tech leaders—people who are not just creating the technologies but actually delivering them to market—and we feel this is a space that’s not being served right now. This is a real opportunity for us to create a very unique program that will be training the technical leaders of the future. We’re empowering the scientists and engineers to become the leaders and innovators. I think that’s a big step, and an important one.”

As stated on the program’s website, “TMP helps prepare graduate students to enter the technology business world with knowledge of balance sheets, income statements, discounted cash flows, capital budgeting, opportunity recognition, market segmentation, target marketing and sales, IP management, business planning, public speaking, team work, and leadership. Our goal is to see UC Santa Barbara‘s Technology Management students sought out by technology corporations and start-ups.”

“The word technology means what you do with what you know,” said Mike Panesis, TMP’s manager. “It’s not about electronics or chemistry or being able to build things, but taking what you’ve learned, the knowledge you’ve gained, and doing something with it. And that’s what we specialize in.”

The program, established in 1998, has been teaching such skills unofficially for years, but now the addition of awarding a graduate degree to students adds weight and recognition to their work.

Students interested in applying to the program can go to their website at http://www.tmp.ucsb.edu/ and fill out the GPMP enrollment form.

Image Courtesy of TMP