Master of Science in Business and Technology

As part of the M.S. in Business and Technology degree, students will take 12 credit hours of graduate-level business courses taught by Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management faculty, including:

The Language of Business: Accounting and Finance

This course covers the basic concepts of financial accounting, including the financial reporting process and the development, interpretation, and analysis of financial statements for external users, such as investors and creditors. This course also provides the framework for analyzing the various components needed to value real assets, as well as an introduction to the valuation of financial assets. Topics include the time value of money, capital budgeting, measuring risk in financial markets, market efficiency and an introduction to options.

Strategic Management of Technology Corporations and AI Integration

This course introduces basic economic principles, followed by an in-depth study of the tools and concepts for identifying, formulating, and implementing business strategy, teaching frameworks to analyze external and internal conditions of the firm with an aim of understanding both current positions and future performance potential of firms. The course also explores how to create business level competitive advantage, how to discover, diagnose, and solve corporate-level problems including corporate diversification, strategic alliances, and global strategies. This course focuses on strategic challenges related to technology and innovation, with an emphasis on tech firms and firms in markets being transformed by new technologies, such as generative AI. Students will learn effective methods for implementing AI technologies to automate cognitive work in companies, boosting individual productivity and transforming business models. Topics include technology platforms and ecosystems, building tech resources and capabilities, leveraging technology to grow, and managing technology-driven disruption. We will also cover current regulatory and social issues related to technology, such as data privacy.

Organizational Effectiveness: Leadership, Teamwork, & Negotiations

This course explores the foundational principles of organizational behavior and leadership, equipping students with the skills to foster collaboration and drive effectiveness in professional settings. The course focuses on key concepts in organizational behavior, including team dynamics, communication, motivation, and decision-making, as well as the principles of leadership, with an emphasis on practical application in business contexts. Through experiential exercises, case studies, and simulations, students will analyze group dynamics, enhance their ability to lead in diverse environments, and strengthen their negotiation and problem-solving skills.

Product Management: Operations and Marketing

This course combines two important concepts for project management: operational processes and marketing. Students are exposed to the process view of the firm and focuses on questions related to the design, management, and execution of processes in service and manufacturing organizations. Topics covered include operations strategy, process analysis and design, project management, queueing theory, supply chain management, and lean operations. This course is also designed to introduce students to basic marketing principles and concepts, which requires knowledge of key relationships between internal (company) and external (competitors and customers) environments and how they are influenced by the marketing mix (product management, pricing, distribution channels and promotion strategy). This course explores quantitative marketing research methods, including techniques of data collection and data analysis, to enable understanding of consumers and market demand.

Students will also take 12 credit hours of graduate-level engineering courses taught by faculty from Vanderbilt's School of Engineering, including:

Data Analytics and AI

Programming, analysis, and visualization of real data for the purposes of informing decision making in engineering problems. Statistical modeling in a practical and applied perspective; application of data analytics to bridge the gap between data and decisions; fundamentals of design of experiments.

Probabilistic Methods in Engineering Design

Applications of probabilistic methods in the analysis and synthesis of engineering systems. Review of basic probability concepts, random variables and distributions, modeling and quantification of uncertainty, testing the validity of assumed models, linear regression and correlation analyses, Monte Carlo simulation, reliability analysis and reliability-based design. Prerequisite: undergraduate course in probability/statistics.

Program and Project Management Strategies

Management of small to medium sized projects ($10K to $10M), and introduction to the management of very large and complex projects. The engineering design process, design tools, software assisted decision making, and professional management skills.

Intellectual Property in Technology and Business

This course offers an assessment of intellectual property law for a technical, non-legal audience. It will cover different forms of IP protection (e.g., trademark, copyright, patents), with a primary focus on patents. The course will discuss the use of intellectual property on business strategy and how the available forms of IP affect business and technology development decisions. The course also discusses open source software and its impact, and IP valuation.

Business and Technology Project

The Business and Technology Project course is a capstone internship project where students address real-world challenges while connecting with New York City's professional ecosystem. The course acts as an immersive capstone experiential learning opportunity for students to apply lessons learned from the curriculum to challenges faced by the workforce partners.