Business success in the 21st century is increasingly dependent on the strategic development and utilization of technology. This is a complex challenge since the solutions to many business problems rely on the convergence of a number of technologies and their proper alignment with customer requirements and various other business elements.
In order to meet this challenge, The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens has designed a unique undergraduate program, specifically created to teach students both business and technology in an integrated fashion. The Business and Technology program combines a traditional business curriculum with the most recent elements of technology to satisfy the growing corporate demand for professionals who are effective as liaisons between business and technology units. The innovative "corporate-defined" curriculum of this bachelor’s degree program has a strong, broad base of computer science, sciences, economics, finance, marketing, and mathematics, plus a business plan spine.
Since this is a lock-step program, all courses for the business program need to be taken in the proper sequence. In addition, it is anticipated that students participate in an internship, thus aligning the learning they do at the company, with the subject matters they currently study. These internships typically form the basis for their final business plan, required for BT 402 for example the knowledge acquired during their work experience in the marketing department of a company is utilized when writing about their marketing strategy in their business plan. Furthermore in an ideal scenario, the student will have completed several internships in different departments of the same company, making them an invaluable, all round asset to the company, and a fully trained, new employee after graduation.
During this first-year course, students gain a fundamental understanding of how businesses are organized, key functions within a company, and how companies operate, using a Business Plan model as the teaching tool. Students start their exposure to a group of companies to assist them in determining what company, product, or service they will choose for their Business Plan.
This course introduces students to innovation and creativity. Included are techniques to stimulate creativity in groups and individuals. The course utilizes individual and team projects to develop an intrinsic understanding of the environment, humans’ interactions with it, and innovations to improve that interaction. Students report the results of their innovation efforts through written and oral presentations. This course is open only to Business and Technology majors.
This course is designed for undergraduate students in Business and Liberal Arts majors. It includes the following basic topics in calculus: the definition of functions, their graphs, limits and continuity; derivatives and differentiation of functions; applications of derivatives; and definite and indefinite integrals. Properties of some elementary functions, such as the power functions, exponential functions, and logarithmic functions, will be discussed as examples. The course also covers methods of solving the first-order linear differential equations and separable equations, and some basic concepts in multi-variable calculus, such as partial derivatives, double integrals, and optimization of functions.
Using an applied and experiential format, this course exposes students to theory, methods and research in organizational behavior and social psychology. Topics relating to individual differences and group dynamics in organizational settings are stressed. Learning occurs through discussion, group activities, and the completion of assessment instruments. Emphasis is on helping st
udents understand and improve their skills in key areas, including decision-making, leadership, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
The behavior of and interactions between individual participants in the economic system are covered. In addition to providing a theoretical basis for the analysis of these economic questions, the course also develops applications of these theories to a number of current problems. Topics include: the nature of economic decisions, the theory of market processes, models of imperfect competition, public policy towards competition, and the allocation of factors of production.
This is a first course in computer programming for students with no prior experience. Students will learn the core process of programming: given a problem statement, how does one design an algorithm to solve that particular problem and then implement the algorithm in a computer program? The course will also introduce elementary programming concepts like basic control concepts (such as conditional statements and loops) and a few essential data types (e.g., integers and doubles). Exposure to programming will be through a self-contained user-friendly programming environment, widely used by the scientific and engineering communities, such as Matlab. The course will cover problems from all fields of science, engineering, and business.
This is an introductory programming course using the Java language. The topics include: basic facts about object-oriented programming and Java through inheritance and exceptions; recursion; UML diagrams and how to read class diagrams; ethics in computer science; and some basic understanding about computer systems: the compile/link/interpret/execute cycle and data representation. Close
During this first-year course, students develop skills in conducting an in-depth internal analysis of a company, to include the type of questions and information needed for a situational diagnosis of a company’s product or service, R&D efforts, operations, organization and management, and financial capabilities. Students continue their in-depth analysis of three selected companies, using the research and analysis learned in this course and BT 101.
The purpose of this course is to provide the conceptual frameworks and decision-making tools required for success in both technology-based and non-technology-based markets: the student learns to define and select specific customer segments, to monitor the business environment for both opportunities and threats, with particular attention to the ever-changing technological and global context, and to develop marketing strategies for serving each targeted customer segment profitably. Although this course introduces the student to the basic theory and analytical methods characterizing modern marketing practice, there is an emphasis on both the marketing of technology products/services as well as the impact of technology on the general practice of marketing. Students are required to present both a detailed marketing plan and several rigorous case analyses.
This course deals with the methods and principles of financial accounting. It focuses on the recording and measurement of the business activities and the preparation of financial reports. The emphasis is on summarizing activities for persons external to the business. Topics include: financial statements, principles of accrual accounting, the measurement and reporting of detailed balance sheet items, and the analysis of financial reports.
The recent developments in Information Technology (IT) and e-business have brought dramatic changes in the way companies operate, compete, and conduct business. During this course, students are introduced to the organizational structure of e-business and are provided with a solid theoretical foundation for understanding applications from a managerial orientation. The focus is on how new technology is conducted and managed, in addition to its opportunities, limitations, issues, and risks. The goals for the course are to encourage students to develop skills in two areas: IT fundamentals and business applications. Specific topics include: architecture of IT, e-business and the Internet, future trends in IT, and understanding business applications as they relate to IT. This course requires in-class use of a laptop computer in the current Stevens configuration with Stevens wireless and TCP/IP access.
This course is designed only for undergraduate students in Business and Liberal Arts majors. It introduces basic concepts and methods in probability. Topics includes the definition of sample spaces, events, and their probabilities; elementary combinatorics and counting techniques; and conditional probability, the total probability, and Bayes' Theorem. The course also deals with concepts of discrete and continuous random variables and probability distributions; multi-random variables and their joint distributions; the mean, variance, and covariance of random variables; and the Central Limit Theorem and t-distributions.
This course is designed for undergraduate students in Business and Liberal Arts majors. It includes the following basic topics in calculus: the definition of functions, their graphs, limits and continuity; derivatives and differentiation of functions; applications of derivatives; and definite and indefinite integrals. Properties of some elementary functions, such as the power functions, exponential functions, and logarithmic functions, will be discussed as examples. The course also covers methods of solving the first-order linear differential equations and separable equations, and some basic concepts in multi-variable calculus, such as partial derivatives, double integrals, and optimization of functions. Close
During this second-year course, students learn how to perform an external customer analysis on a company they have selected. Students will present their findings at the end of the semester, summarizing their customer satisfaction analysis. Students gain an understanding and appreciation of the issues that must be addressed to initiate a Customer Satisfaction Measurement (CSM) program, the issues involved in the development and implementation of CSM, and, finally, managerial considerations involved in CSM. Topics include: customer satisfaction, "Customer Value Model," and collecting and analyzing demographic and psychographic data.
This course provides students with an understanding of the use of statistical methods as applied to business problems, in general, and to marketing research applications in particular. Topics include: descriptive statistics; probability theory; discrete and continuous probability distributions; sampling theory and sampling distributions; interval estimation; hypothesis testing; statistical inference about means, proportions, and variances; tests of goodness-of-fit and independence; analysis of variance and experimental design; simple and multiple regression; correlation analysis. This course has been developed with particular attention to the specific statistical foundation required by students enrolling in BT 214 Marketing Research the next term. A statistical package (SPSS) is used throughout the term.
This course covers contemporary decision support models of simulation and forecasting for business activity. Students learn how to identify and conceptualize stochastic problems, choose the appropriate methods, collect and process the data (data mining), and create stochastic simulations. Analytical methodologies are based on statistical simulation, operations research optimization, and statistical forecasting. Computer simulations are performed on PCs equipped with a user-friendly graphical interface with multimedia reports generation for visualization. Students conduct business game simulations for group decision support. EM 345 may be taken as an alternative. This course requires in-class use of a laptop computer
in the current Stevens configuration with Stevens wireless and TCP/IP access.
This course deals with the methods and principles of managerial accounting. It is concerned with the use of accounting data by individuals within a business in order to enhance managerial decision-making and control. Topics covered include cost estimation and management, cost accounting systems, cost allocation, decision analysis, budgets, variances, and responsibility accounting.
Students continue to build upon the market research and situational analysis techniques from prior courses by evaluating the external factors that can significantly impact a company’s performance. Topics include: identifying key market-related forces and their impact on the company’s marketing strategy; the impact of technological and socioeconomic developments; analyzing and understanding the impact of economic development on a company’s financial strategy; and understanding the impact of legislative and regulatory actions. Students complete an externally-focused analysis of a company’s operations and use the results of the analysi
s to identify threats and opportunities related to that company’s performance.
This course exposes students to the entire marketing research process, from the problem formulation stage (at the very beginning) to the research findings report (at the very end). This objective is achieved in two ways: in the classroom and in the field, where students are required to work closely with an actual business client on a marketing research project concerning an actual product or service. (The instructor assists the students in securing a business client.) During the course, the topics covered include the marketing research process and problem formulation, research design, primary data collection, data collection forms, attitude measurement, sampling procedures, sample size, collecting the data, data analysis, interpretation of results, and the final research report. The course builds heavily on the statistical foundation laid down during BT 221 Statistics. A statistical package (SPSS) is used during the analysis stage of the research process.
The forces which govern the overall performance of the national economy are covered. Areas discussed include: supply and demand analysis, national income theory, monetary systems, alternative approaches to economic policy, current macroeconomic problems, and international economies.
Students learn how to set preliminary goals, objectives, and strategies. They begin to develop the specific aspects of their business plan, including an actual sales/revenue plan. Topics covered also include preparing an research and development plan and the use of historical information to prepare sales, revenues, and marketing expense estimates. Students work independently and in class, individually and in teams.
The course is the third in a four-course sequence for the business and technology program students, designed to provide students with an overview of modern sciences and technologies, as well as scientific and engineering methodologies. This course presents an introduction to chemistry, functional and structural materials, and modern physics.
This course covers capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy, mergers and acquisitions, and aspects of international finance. The impact of and techniques for web-based finance are also covered.
A technical and managerial perspective that considers the management of Information Technology (IT). Topics include hardware, software, data/information, networks, applications, organization considerations, and frameworks for managing. Students assess applications, analyze case studies, and explore important aspects of a company’s IT environment. This course requires in-class use of a laptop computer in the current Stevens configuration with Stevens wireless and TCP/IP access.
This course focuses on the analysis and development of systems to meet the increasing need for information within organizations. It presents and analyzes various topics such as the systems development life-cycle, analysis and design techniques, information systems planning and project identification and selection, requi
rements collection and structuring, process modeling, data modeling, design of interface and data management, system implementation and operation, system maintenance, and change management implications of systems. Close
Students learn about planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the production of goods and providing service functions of an organization. Main stages of production cycle and components will include raw materials, personnel, machines, and buildings. Specific topics covered will include forecasting, product design and process planning, allocation of scarce resources, capacity planning and facility location, materials management, scheduling, office layout, and total quality management.
Prerequisite: Requires junior or senior standing and EM 457 or BT 223 or EM 605.
This course covers the basic managerial components of planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling with selected study and discussion of important and sometimes controversial topics including global management, social and ethical responsibility, human resources, change, leadership, and communication. By term-end, students are expected to complete the ‘Managerial’ portion of their Business Plan.
This course will introduce the student to the basic principles of managing technology and innovation in the corporate environment and the critical role technology plays as a strategic resource to achieve an organization's business objectives. Topics will include the evolution of technology and the technology lifecycle, understanding technological innovation in industry and organizational contexts, intellectual property, and the new product/service development process.
Biological principles and their physical and chemical aspects are explored at the cellular and molecular level. Major emphasis is placed on cell structure, the processes of energy conversion by plant and animal cells, genetics and evolution, and applications to biotechnology.
An introductory laboratory illustrating basic techniques and principles of modern biology by means of laboratory experiments and simulated experiments. This laboratory does not satisfy medical school admission requirements. Corequisites: CH 281
Biology and Biotechnology (3-0-6)
(Lecture-Lab-Study Hours)
Biological principles and their physical and chemical aspects are explored at the cellular and molecular level. Major emphasis is placed on cell structure, the processes of energy conversion by plant and animal cells, genetics and evolution, and applications to biotechnology. Close
Students learn how to use their business plan, deal with problems encountered, update, and get funding. They are exposed to the issues of law, ethics, and negotiation as applied to business implementation. Students are required to make their first full-plan presentation to peers and faculty. Topics include type of capital and alternative sources, venture capital, and building the organizational infrastructure for plan support.
Students are required to join senior engineering project teams and contribute to the project in terms of helping the group develop a business plan for its design product.
This course covers the fundamentals of contract law, aspects of environmental regulations, lobbying, ethics, and the law and negotiating techniques. Specific discussion includes the legal and ethical aspects of the new web-based economies and businesses internationally.
Students are required to join senior engineering project teams and contribute to the project in terms of helping the group develop a business plan for its design product.
This course introduces students to the managerial analysis and application of network and software applications necessary to develop, maintain, and enhance a business presence in the electronic marketplace. This course builds upon previous courses in Information Technology, including network and software applications from a management and implementation perspective, and introduces advanced concepts in these areas. This course requires in-class use of a laptop computer in the current Stevens configuration with Stevens wireless and TCP/IP access.
This course focuses on the analysis and development of systems to meet the increasing need for information within organizations. It presents and analyzes various topics such as the systems development life-cycle, analysis and design techniques, information systems planning and project identification and selection, requirements collection and structuring, process modeling, data modeling, design of interface and data management, system implementation and operation, system maintenance, and change management implications of systems. Close
This course covers differentiated and contrasted aspects of an entrepreneurial organization. In addition, students are exposed to the latest e-business tools used to expand a business and facilitate entrepreneurial
start-up firms. Included are differences in funding techniques, hiring and practice, and leveraging of supplier resources.
Students enrolled in any undergraduate major at Stevens may qualify for a minor in economics by taking the seven courses indicated below. In addition, students must achieve a GPA of at least 2.6 in the seven minor courses, with no individual course grade lower than a ‘C’.
HHS 123 History of European Society and Culture I HHS 124 History of European Society and Culture II HHS 125 U.S. Social and Economic History I HHS 126 U.S. Social and Economic History II
Electives: One course from among the following:
HSS 377 Cities and the Global Economy HSS 379 International Politics HSS 380 Energy, Politics, and Administration HSS 389 The Economic History of Europe HHS 312 Technology and Society in America HHS 390 History of Credit, Money, and Banking HHS 414 Industrial America HHS 479 Studies in the History of Technology
Engineering/Science Students:
Required: E 355 Engineering Economy MGT 243 Macroeconomics MGT 244 Microeconomics HUM 107 Studies in History/Social Science: Modernization
Plus one course from among the following:
HHS 123 History of European Society and Culture I HHS 124 History of European Society and Culture II HHS 125 U.S. Social and Economic History I HHS 126 U.S. Social and Economic History II
Electives: Two courses from among the following:
TG 401 Entrepreneurship and Business for Engineers and Scientists EM 301 Engineering Cost Estimation HSS 379 International Politics HSS 377 Cities and the Global Economy HSS 380 Energy, Politics, and Administration HSS 389 The Economic History of Europe HHS 479 Studies in the History of Technology HHS 414 Industrial America HHS 390 History of Credit, Money, and Banking HHS 312 Technology and Society in America
Internship/Electives
Business and Technology students are encouraged to seek out internship opportunities from the very start of their degree program. The faculty, in co-operation with the Career Development Department, help provide the necessary tools for students to successfully gain work experience. These efforts include the standard workshops on resume preparation and interview skills, careers fairs, alongside a database of employers and internship contacts. However, this program goes further into setting up networking events and inviting speakers from a number of Fortune 500 companies integrating their pertinent business knowledge directly into the curriculum. Also, through their course program the students are thrust into contact with real companies, through project work and challenging investigative assignments.
The Business and Technology program also constantly evolves including the creation of new business elective courses in response to current market demands. Be it developments in the financial industry, or a response to the crash in the dot com sector. The Business and Technology program aims to stay ahead of the curve, striving to offer their students the skills they will need to successfully find employment in the market current to their graduation.
