IIT LAUNCHES ‘TECHNO-BUSINESS’ PROGRAM

In today’s economy there is a critical need for professionals who thoroughly understand the complex interrelationships between science and engineering and business. Technology companies start, succeed and fail with astounding speed. The stock market rides a roller coaster. Corporate giants battle to keep the best employees and maintain a market edge. Never before has there been more of a demand for savvy business leaders with a technology knowledge base broad enough to not only ride out the new economy’s occasional storms, but set new directions for sustaining growth.

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is now preparing such leaders. This fall, as the first classes in IIT’s techno-business degree program formally begin, the university puts a new face and focus on undergraduate business education, melding IIT’s established reputation in teaching engineering, science, design and technology with expertise in business and entrepreneurial acumen.

"Business has become one of the most popular academic majors, but there is a critical need to more strongly link this major with engineering and science,” said Dennis Roberson, IIT vice provost for new initiatives and executive director of IIT’s Institute of Business and Interprofessional Studies. “Our techno-business curriculum fuses technology intelligence with business expertise to produce the kind of graduates industry leaders tell us they need the most.”

IIT will offer two business degrees: the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Applied Science. Both are grounded in the functional area of business, the latter with a greater level of technical exposure in mathematics, science and engineering. Both include the opportunity for students to concentrate their studies in a specific technology-based industry or business skill area, depending on the degree program.

A key component of the techno-business curriculum is real-world experience applying business principles and practices to solving actual engineering, science and technology problems. Students will participate in and be challenged by IIT’s innovative Interprofessional Projects program, where they will work on small multidisciplinary teams to build technical and management skills tackling current challenges facing corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, non-profits and government agencies. In the Entrepreneurial Projects program, student teams initiate broader business planning challenges through conception, development and marketing of an actual new product or service, potentially launching their own start-up businesses in the process.

Additionally, IIT’s Leadership Academy teaches students how to advance their personal effectiveness and leadership skills in the workplace, to inspire others to succeed. Both degree programs also leverage the experience and teaching excellence of IIT’s Stuart Graduate School of Business.

“IIT graduates already understand science and technology, but a solid grounding in business, including sales and marketing experience, finance, product development and operations is crucial to making more effective use of that technology,” said Roberson, formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Motorola, who spent more than 30 years in leadership positions at technology corporations. In his role at IIT, Roberson leads new collaborative ventures between the university, industry and government.

“Our techno-business students will graduate with a unique portfolio of experience that more solidly prepares them for today’s volatile job market through IIT’s innovative blend of a business and technology curriculum,” said Roberson. “Everything we teach, from case studies to strategies will be centered on technology-based start-ups or technology-centered areas of established companies, which you just don’t find in most undergraduate business programs.”

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.