UCSB Department of Technology Management
https://tmp.ucsb.edu/
Award Sponsor: Baker Hill
The Department of Technology Management at UCSB prepares students to become technology leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Located in the campus’s Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering, the department focuses on helping students learn how to use new technologies to create business opportunities and how organizations can turn those opportunities into successful products, companies, and growing industries.
Companies need people who understand both the technology and the business decisions required to build products, launch ventures, and lead teams. Technology Management trains students to play that role. The department offers several programs that prepare students at various levels.
Our Undergraduate Certificate in Technology Management reaches more than 2,000 students each year from over 50 majors across campus. The program gives students practical skills in management, marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology strategy that complement their primary fields of study.
The department also offers the Master of Technology Management program, which prepares early-career professionals and recent graduates to lead technology initiatives inside companies or pursue new ventures. We also train future scholars through our Ph.D. in Technology Management, which prepares researchers to study how technology is changing organizations and industries.
Students in each of these academic programs, as well as students from other programs across the university, can also take part in our hands-on New Venture Program (NVP). The NVP provides opportunities for more than 300 students each year from across campus to engage in hands-on workshops on entrepreneurship and new venture creation and to work with an active network of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and industry mentors to build viable, market-tested business models. The program culminates in UCSB’s annual New Venture Competition, the catalyst for more than 70 startups in the region that have collectively raised more than $1.2 billion in investor capital.
These efforts to teach students across various levels and disciplines the frameworks and practical skills needed to build and run technology businesses have yielded remarkable results for Santa Barbara’s business community. Many Tech Management graduates have gone on to found companies in the region, helping grow the local startup and innovation ecosystem. Many more have joined local technology firms, startups, and fast-growing companies, where they work in roles such as product management, strategy, operations, venture development, and technology leadership.