Management
In today's fast-paced business world, most companies are supplying technology-based solutions or are highly dependent on technology. Success in this environment demands a combination of traditional and new business skills and familiarity with the technologies that drive modern corporations. If business is in your future, WPI's Department of Management is the place to get the education you'll need to excel in the hyperdynamic, technology-intensive environment in which today's business works. Since its founding in 1865, WPI has been dedicated to creating and conveying knowledge in ways that are most useful to society. In the Department of Management, that mission is carried out in courses that combine a practical component, which helps students apply what they've learned, and a theoretical component, which helps them understand why a method or procedure works and how to use it in other settings.
The department's focus is the management of technology. Each course is designed to address at least one of three major management challenges: leading and managing technology-based organizations; integrating technology into the workplace; and creating new processes, products, services and organizations based on technology. We produce graduates who are poised to succeed as the executives and business leaders of the future.
Programs
The equivalent of a business school at most colleges and universities, WPI's Department of Management offers four major and four minor programs.
Majors
Management
WPI's management major is what some schools would call a general business major. Students gain a broad understanding of business through such foundation courses as marketing, accounting, operations, organizational behavior and finance. Students also select six major courses tailored to their career objectives. The result is a management specialist who can adapt to and function within a variety of business environments.
Management Information Systems
As organizations rely increasingly on computer technology to gather and distribute information, information systems for decision making have become critically important to their success. WPI has one of the nation's best MIS programs--one that provides students with the in-depth knowledge of hardware, software and system design they'll need to produce not only programs but also effective business solutions.
Management Engineering
Management engineering combines business management with technical courses from an engineering or basic science area to develop managers who have a strong technical background. In addition to the broad foundation courses that all business students take, these students take six technical major courses, usually all in one department, that prepare them for their careers.
Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineers focus on the big picture, using their knowledge and creativity to solve problems and make processes work better or more efficiently. For more information about the program, request a separate brochure or visit the Management site.
Minors
The department also offers four minor programs. Management and MIS are similar to the major programs described above.
Entrepreneurship
This minor is available to all students except management, management engineering and management information systems majors who may take the courses as part of their major or as free electives. It provides undergraduates with knowledge and opportunity to launch and manage small and large new business ventures. The program encourages students' willingness to take risks and helps them develop confidence in their own ideas and vision.
Organizational Leadership
Through this minor, students are able to understand and apply leadership theories to their lives and, in the process, make themselves more marketable after graduation. The organizational leadership minor consists of four management courses, a social science and policy studies course, and a capstone course in leadership.
Projects
As a learning experience, no amount of classroom time can take the place of actually working on a project in your major. Major Projects in management are conducted for a wide variety of companies, such as Pratt & Whitney, Teradyne, Bose, GE, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, and many biotech firms.
Some recent project topics:
- Creating an Internet-enabled virtual sales office for a major corporation to allow it to efficiently support sales representatives in the field
- Pinpointing and correcting a software error that caused significant quality-control problems for a major manufacturer in Mexico
- Building a graphical interface for a major investment firm's data warehouse, providing it with more detailed access to information about trends, patterns and other critical data
Project topics often grow from the diverse research within the department. Current faculty research interests include strategic information systems, innovation and change, new product development, international accounting, distributed decision making, data and information quality, and global supply chain management.
Facilities
The MIS/OIE Oracle-Lean Lab, used primarily by students in MIS, IE and MGE, provides opportunities to learn how to troubleshoot systems and networks within a self-contained computing environment, and to simulate operations to find the point of greatest efficiency and effectiveness. The lab supports UNIX, Linux, Windows 2000, NT and 9x platforms.
A number of software packages are supported by the department, including an Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite, as well as several sophisticated financial and accounting databases for student and faculty research projects.
WPI also subscribes to a broad variety of journals, newspapers, and other industry periodicals in both hard and electronic formats that provide useful information on the latest developments in science, technology and business.
Careers
WPI's management graduates are heavily recruited, so the most difficult employment decision some students have to make is choosing which offer to accept. Starting salaries for recent WPI management graduates are typically well above the national average, and our management alumni tend to advance in salary faster than alumni of other majors.
WPI's management majors are regularly hired by some of the most respected employers in the country, including Accenture, Allmerica Financial, Compaq, EMC, Fidelity, Genzyme, Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, Healthsource/CIGNA, Intel, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Morgan Stanley, Pratt & Whitney, Reebok, Sikorsky and Xerox. Some grads choose to further their education at outstanding graduate schools, including Carnegie Mellon and Indiana University.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: November 08, 2006 15:34:23