New School of Thought
By Elena Malykhina
Feb 14 , 2005
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Universities are reaching a new generation with innovative programs that marry IT and other disciplines, including art, business, and biology

Declining enrollment in traditional computer-science and computer-engineering courses is a legitimate concern, but not a cause for hand-wringing despair. The next generation of IT professionals may be better prepared than any preceding one to balance the demands of being both a businessperson and a technologist, thanks to a growing number of innovative programs at prestigious schools that combine IT studies with business courses and high-demand skills, such as game design.

Such a program was exactly what Josh Froelich wanted. Froelich--now a junior partner at Megaputer Intelligence Inc., a developer of data- and text-mining tools and E-commerce personalization--found the right mix at Indiana University's School of Informatics, which blends computer science and liberal arts. School of Informatics students "are more specialized than business majors in technology, but not overly specialized in only computer programming," says Froelich, who graduated in May 2002.

The effects of the dot-com bust and the increasing popularity of offshore outsourcing have taken a toll on the IT industry, which in turn has hurt computer-science and computer-engineering programs nationwide, according to the Computing Research Association's Taulbee Survey. The annual study, which documents trends in student enrollment and employment of graduates, found that undergraduate enrollment in programs for computer science and computer engineering nationwide dropped significantly between 2002 and 2003, from 23,033 to 17,706.

Last year, the tech sector--which includes telecommunications, computers, electronics, and E-commerce--announced 176,113 job cuts, according to a report released last month by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The computer industry alone disclosed 56,955 job cuts, and more are expected. "Many people are leaving the technology sector entirely, and the nation's universities are having difficulty filling tech-related classrooms," CEO John Challenger wrote in the report.

Businesses today are looking for employees with skills beyond traditional programming and IT expertise. "People that can bridge the communication gap between IT people and business partners--they're valuable but rare to find," says Tracey Nakakura, senior manager of IT at Gap Inc., who recruited IU's School of Informatics student Neil Bahri two years ago to work with the retailer's business-capabilities team, which provides functional and technical consulting to the retailer's business group. Bahri was one of Gap's stronger interviewees because he not only showed a solid technological background but also a good understanding of the business, says Nakakura.

Gap hired Bahri and put him to work on a $15 million project that involved making lease payments for more than 4,000 stores and relaying information between business partners and Gap's IT team. "Most of my daily tasks involved taking requirements, problems, and ideas from the business and translating them into a technical spec," Bahri says. Good communication skills are a must, and Bahri has them, Nakakura says.

The demand for this new breed of IT professional is growing, says Dion DeLoof, president of Anteo Group LLC, an IT staffing firm. The gaming industry has plenty of artists, computer engineers, and designers, but mastering all three skills typically is something that takes years to do. The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon, which marries IT and interactive digital media, is designed to instill all three skills in students to prepare them for leadership positions, says Jon-Paul Dumont, a graduate of the university's Entertainment Technology Center. Dumont is a game designer at Electronic Arts Inc. working on the next version of a James Bond video game.

"He thinks outside of the box and takes the development of games and the interactive entertainment process to the next level," says Colleen McCreary, university relations manager at Electronic Arts. As part of the Carnegie Mellon program, Dumont designed real projects at companies, so he graduated with a better understanding of customers' needs and expectations and can give them the product that they want and will be excited about. "That skill is invaluable in terms of taking it into a corporate workplace," McCreary says.

Problem solving, innovation, communication, and teamwork all embody these new computer-education programs. But what makes them unique is the unconventional hands-on environment they've created for students. For example, Indiana University's program requires that each student complete a senior-year project before graduation. The project can involve anything from building an online survey system designed to improve dorm life for incoming freshmen to working with a local business to build its Web site. Students not only get hands-on experience in coding Web sites, they also better understand the business objectives of a company and can translate those objectives into Web pages.

School of Informatics graduates come out with a blend of computer science and liberal arts, says the school's dean, Michael Dunn, who also is a computer-science professor at the university. "They're problem solvers who understand the broader context of learning and how it applies in a world beyond IT," Dunn says.

Craig Birchler, another former School of Informatics student, says he learned how to create one moment and teach the next, and now he's applying that expertise to his current job as the instructional designer for Kimball Office, a division of furniture and cabinet maker Kimball International Inc. Birchler works with subject-matter experts to create computer-based instructional modules for Kimball's sales staff.

The use of digital media is growing, and there can no longer be a separation between the technologist and the storyteller, says Donald Marinelli, co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. Every company, from interactive gaming to post-production houses to amusement parks, is looking for people to fill creative positions, he says.

In Carnegie Mellon's program, students work in teams for a semester on projects that find new uses for existing technology. "When you first walk in the door at [the Entertainment Technology Center], you have a feeling that cool things happen there," Dumont says. And often they do. For example, Dumont and his team worked with a hip-hop music company in New York to develop the Music Vending Machine, an interactive kiosk that people who don't have high-speed Internet access can use to legally download digital music. Consumers can burn CDs or download songs to an MP3 player from the kiosks, which were designed to be installed in various music stores in the New York area.

Student Shanna Tellerman is working with the New York City Fire Department to develop video-game technology for training first responders to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction or hazardous materials. She's a producer for the HazMat Game, an educational-simulation technology that Carnegie Mellon is building for the fire department. Tellerman's background in art brought her to the program to pursue a career in digital media, and she hopes one day to find a job in the game industry. "Opportunities for interdisciplinary teamwork in new technologies are just beginning to take off," she says.

Other universities offer such interdisciplinary programs, as well. The Harvard-MIT division of Health Sciences and Technology was established by the two schools to develop professionals who can take a multidisciplinary approach to solving complex health and medical problems. "These students are computer scientists who understand the biological process, are able to talk easily with clinical research, and are also able to ask the biological questions themselves," says Isaac Kohane, the program's professor and director of the Health Sciences and Technology Informatics Program at Children's Hospital.

Another example is Stanford University's Technology Ventures Program, which focuses on high-technology entrepreneurship education. Throughout the nine-month fellowship, students get to work with 20 or more entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in class. They also pair up with mentors from companies where they'll work over the summer. This helps students better understand the company's business objectives and allows them to develop an early relationship with potential employers.

"Having the classroom and real-world experience with business and management, in addition to the technical side of the computer-science degree, means that there are a lot more options [for] jobs," says student Steve Garrity, who spent the summer working as product manager for software security startup Fortify Software Inc. The Stanford program is essentially an MBA crash course that covers everything from venture-capital term sheets and organizational politics to negotiation and partnerships to company culture and ethical issues. It encourages students to seek less-technical jobs in areas such as business and product development, says another student, Clara Shih.

The courses within the Stanford Technology Ventures Program are open to all Stanford students, though most are engineering students since the courses are hosted by the department of Management Science and Engineering. So technical training remains a strong focus of the program, says Tina Seelig, executive director of Stanford's program. "What's different now than in the past is the fact that the divide between technology graduates and business graduates has become blurred and now IT students can just as easily walk into management roles," Seelig says.

That opens up a host of new opportunities for anyone seeking a career in IT. Says the Anteo Group's DeLoof, "I would say to a young person going to a university today to make sure and get the technical, the business, and the communications skills, which makes for a bright future." Fortunately, now there are a number of universities making that possible.