The Illinois MBA program is earning a reputation as one of the top Techno MBA programs in the country. The December 4, 1995, issue of Computerworld placed Illinois 11th in its rankings of the top 25 Techno MBA programs. The ranking is based on a survey of 296 corporate recruiters at large and medium-size firms who hire employees with MIS and MBA degrees. Over 100 deans of accredited U.S. business schools also contributed to the survey. | |
| The Technology Transfer initiative has offered exciting learning opportunities for students. | A year after introducing the revised MBA curriculum the signs are extremely positive. One feature of the new curriculum is a team approach to both teaching and learning. The experiment in team-teaching, intergrated, interdisciplinary courses has succeeded beyond expectation. although the team-teaching is very labor-intensive, the faculty participants have found the experience invigorating and worth the extra effort. The team-approach is extended to students who do many projects as part of a group. The use of FirstClass, software that allows students and faculty to interact with each other via the computer, has greatly enhanced the team approach to projects, Instead of student teams meeting in "real" time in a "real" room, they work on group projects from their own terminals in "virtual" space. This is both a great time saver and organizer. In addition, since technology is clearly with us to stay, the use of several software packages required by various MBA courses is a bonus. These are the types of software students are likely to use when they enter the business world. |
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| Working on a Technology Transfer project. From left - Tony Baginski, Daren Hobbs, Terry Patient, Donald McCleod, Celeste CeCe. |
Through the activities of the Office for the Study of Business Issues (OSBI), students in the revised MBA program have the opportunity to gain management experience. One OSBI initiative that has been extremely successful is Technology Transfer. Students who select this option work with researchers across campus in conjunction with the university-wide Research Technology Management Office (RTMO), which deals with the licensing and patenting of university sponsored intellectual property. A team of MBA students works with the researcher and the RTMO to conduct market feasibility studies. Included in the overview of the technology the team provides are product analysis, market analysis, participant analysis, and a recommendation about the best course of action - whether or not to obtain patent protection, license, proceed to market, put on hold, or return to the drawing board. From February to May, 1996, 50 MBA students worked on 25 different projects.
The Technology Transfer initiative has offered exciting learning opportunities for students. Steve Vivian, who worked on a project entitled Vosiac with Professor Roy Campbell in Computer Science, said "we're getting risk-assessment and decision-making experience. . . . After we graduate, we should be able to assess the risk of a particular project as it affects all other pieces of the business organization." One MBA student, Sturart Jackson, who has ad doctorate in engineering materials, urged all students to participate in this program, whether they have a technical background or not. The benefits of this program do not accrue only to the students. The researchers are able to take advantage of the business acumen of the MBA students.
 | Scott Buechler joined the program this fall as the new assistant dean for the MBA Program. He joins us from the University of Tennessee where he was director of graduate business programs for five years. Before that he was section head and supervisor of the Publications Division at Martin Marietta Energy Systems. Scott has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee, and a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin. He taught English for six years before joining Martin Marietta. |
The MBA program at the University of Illinois has been building and improving its cutting-edge publicity WWW site for the past two years. On it, the browsing public can find general information about the program, including requirements, admission procedures and forms, a description of the curriculum, costs, and so forth. This information can be accessed at http://mba.cba.uiuc.edu.
The program has also developed a curriculum site that links MBA students to useful business data and sites, files for courses, and program information, online resources, internet published articles, lectures from other institutions, libraries, software, online job resources, and key people. Syllabi and course outlines have been turned into linked WWW documents for easy access online. The purpose of the curriculum site is to help students receive information they need for theis courses FAST. There is an emphasis on speed and efficiency. You can access this information at http://mba.cba.uiuc.edu/curriculum.
To succeed in these projects you need an interest in emerging technologies and (the ability to) apply the skills we learn in the Illinois MBA to them"
Stuart Jackson, MBA Student
| STUDENT PROFILE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduating Class of 1996 | Graduating Class of 1997 | Graduating Class of 1998 | |
| Enrollment | 268 | 304 | 307 |
| Male | 72% | 72% | 67% |
| Female | 27% | 28% | 33% |
| Minority | 14% | 21% | 23% |
| International | 39% | 39% | 39% |
| Age at Entrance | 24 | 26 | 26 |
| GMAT | 618 | 612 | 605 |
| Yrs of Work | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Undergrad GPA | 3.22/4 | 3.182/4 | 3.25/4 |
| Undergrad degrees | |||
| Bus/Econ | 52% | 42.5% | 45% |
| Engineering/Science | 26% | 32.1% | 32% |
| Liberal Arts | 19% | 25.4% | 21% |