ISM 101: Management of Technology Seminar
Instructor: Subhas Desa
Office: Engineering 2, Room 369
Phone: 831-459-1641
E-mail: sdesa@soe.ucsc.edu
Seminar Times: Thursday, 2 PM - 3:45 PM
Location: Jack Baskin Engineering, #156
Office Hours: Tuesday 1- 3 PM ; and by appointment
About the seminar
This seminar will expose students to the breadth and depth of management of technology through weekly talks by leading industry practitioners and university researchers in the fields of technology and business. Topics covered will include engineering/product design and development, operations, strategy, microeconomics, finance, and marketing. These topics will be addressed within the context of high technologies such as software, information systems, semiconductors, storage and networks, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.
Operation of the seminar:
• Week 1: Intoduction to the seminar series
• Weeks 2-10 will have live presentations by industry professionals or university faculty as follows:
• Senior industry professionals from large and small high-technology companies will provide business perspectives on the development, management, and commercialization of technology
• UCSC faculty will provide technological perspectives on the development, management, and commercialization of technology, focusing on their domains of expertise such as software, networking, and semiconductors
• Week 10: Closure: summary and conclusions from the series; lessons learned
Contents of the seminar
The actual topics covered during any quarter will depend on the speakers selected for that quarter and will include many of the topics listed below:
• Understanding Technology and Product Life Cycles in High-Tech, e.g., software, semiconductors, networking, telecommunication
• Technology and Product Development in high-tech domains such software, semiconductors, networks and storage, and biotechnology
• Assessing markets for new technologies and products
• Developing strategies for competitive advantage in new technologies and products
• Planning technology development using decision making and risk analysis methods
• Economics and finance of technology development
• Managing and executing the technology development process
• Information systems for integrating the management, planning, execution, and monitoring of the technology development process
• Innovation and creativity in new technology and product development
• Understanding and managing value chain networks for the technology enterprise
• Information Systems for effective and efficient value chain network management
Work involved in the seminar
The workload for this seminar will involve 1 hour per week of "in-classroom" time and 1 hour per week of "out-of -classroom" time. Students will be expected to write a two-part term paper:
• Part A (or Part B): Choose one of the business topics covered by a speaker from industry. For this topic, define the fundamentals problem or issues, briefly describe how the problems/issues were addressed and solved, present key results, describe lessons learned, and discuss future opportunities.
• Part B (or Part A): Choose one of the technology domains presented by a UCSC faculty member. For this domain briefly describe the technology, summarize the state of the art, and discuss opportunities for innovation and the corresponding commercialization challenges.
Grading
• Attendance: 25%
• Notebook: 25%
• Term Paper, Part A: 25%
• Term Paper, Part B: 25%
Draft for Term Paper, Part A, due on 2/10; Draft for Part B due on 3/03; Final Paper due on 3/15
General comments:
• Note that ISM 101 is a seminar , which is intended to get you interested in and excited about the field of Management of Technology (MOT). To learn and master the fundamentals of MOT you must take the MOT sequence of courses (MOT1, MOT2, and MOT3) that are offered concurrently.
• Attendance is mandatory . Please contact me ahead of time if you have to miss a seminar for some important reason.
• Keep a notebook (including speaker names, titles, and dates of each talk) in which you take notes for each seminar. These notes will also be very helpful when writing the term paper.
• Immerse yourself in this experience. Don't be too concerned if you're a little lost during a talk. If you are too lost see me, and we can take care of the issue.