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The building that houses the M&T program on Penn's campus in Philadelphia

The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (known as "M&T") is a joint-degree program offered at the University of Pennsylvania for undergraduates.

About the program

M&T is known for its high selectivity and rigorous academic curriculum at the undergraduate level, integrating aspects of both the business and the technical worlds. The majority of program graduates choose careers in either investment banking or management consulting upon graduation, though a number follow other career paths in the technology, nonprofit, entrepreneurial and medical professions.

Applicants are asked to submit an additional essay as part of their application package to the University of Pennsylvania, and acceptance rates for the program are among the lowest of any department or program at the university. The current target freshman class size for the program is approximately 50 to 55 students with five slots available annually for Wharton and Engineering students wishing to transfer into the program at the end of their freshman years. Transfers from other universities into the program are not possible.

The majority of M&T students complete the program in four years. Students generally take five or six classes per semester, whereas the average Penn student takes four or five. Many alumni return to graduate school at Wharton or elsewhere to pursue MBA degrees after gaining work experience.

Degrees

All M&T students, upon graduation, receive a Bachelor of Science in Economics (BSEcon) degree from the Wharton School (rated as the #1 undergraduate business school in the nation by U.S. News and World Reports in 2009. Students gain fundamental business knowledge over the course of their four years at M&T; in addition, they must specialize in one of several fields: accounting, operations and information management, entrepreneurship, finance, management, marketing, real estate, or other areas.

On the engineering side, students will receive either a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) or a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) from University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences). A Bachelor of Science degree is a traditional engineering degree; Penn's program provides intensive study in nine major cirricula: Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Digital Media and Design, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Materials Science and Engineering, and Systems Science and Engineering. M&T students must choose one in which to major. As an alternative, students can pursue a Bachelor of Applied Science. This degree is generally selected by students who have interest in math and science, but do not necessarily want to pursue a career in a field of engineering. BAS candidates select a field of specialization in either biomedical science, cognitive science, computer science, computational biology, or electrical and systems engineering.

History

The program was started in 1977 as the Management and Technology Program. It was modeled after a quotation from founder Dr. William F. Hamilton: "If I had it to do over again, I would try to find a college which gives a program in business administration along with a thorough knowledge of engineering." As such, it is the university's oldest undergraduate joint-degree program (the University of Pennsylvania is known for its emphasis on interdisciplinary instruction). The impetus for its creation was a report by the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering, which commented that the understanding of the fundamentals of engineering and technology is as essential to the background of future leaders in business and industry as is a sound knowledge of management principles. They pointed to the growing need for people who can bridge the management and technical disciplines. Dr. Hamilton, the Ralph Landau Professorship of Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, was the founding director of the program and continues to lead it today.

In 1995, Jerome Fisher, a Wharton School alumnus (Class of 1953) and founder/chairman of the Nine West Group, donated $5.5 million to support the Management and Technology Program. The Program celebrated its 25th Anniversary (based on the graduation class) in November 2004.

Alumni

M&T alumni have founded companies including Stubhub, Flixster, Traffic.com, Register.com, Intellifit, ComVentures, Money Saver, Athleague, Edusoft, Velocity Investment Group, Dropps, Innova Materials, Half.com, Crederity, and AQR Capital Management.

Garrett Reisman, an astronaut who traveled to the International Space Station, is an M&T graduate.

In 2007, M&T alumnus Kunal Bahl co-founded Money Saver, a collection of savings and discount opportunities enabling users to save money on their purchases. Bahl founded Money Saver with his old high school friend Rohit Bansal, and the company has garnered over 50 corporate partners since its conception. In September 2008, Money Saver was nominated as a TATA NEN Hottest Startup, and shortly thereafter it received enough votes to win the award. As of 2007, Money Saver had 26-50 employees.

In 2009, Alex Mittal was named by BusinessWeek as one of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs for his work with Engineers Without Borders on microbial technology. Mittal started the company Innova Materials in 2007 after graduating from M&T with a dual degree.

On January 6, 2009, Internet Capital Group Inc. announced that it had promoted M&T '83 graduate Doug Alexander to the position of president. Alexander had previously served as ICG's managing director, working with portfolio companies and analyzing potential investment opportunities Alexander joined ICG in 1997 and served on the original advisory board. Before joining ICG, Alexander co-founded Reality Online in 1989, a company developing financial planning tools and online services for investors. In February 1994, Alexander sold Reality Online to Reuters.

M&TSI

Each year, M&T hosts a for-credit summer program (Management and Technology Summer Institute) for about 50 rising high school seniors (and a select few rising juniors) who want to learn about the integration of technological concepts and management principles. Held on Penn's campus and taught by business and engineering faculty, the program also incorporates field trips to companies and R&D facilities. A large component of the program is the group project. Over the course of the three-week program, students (in groups of five) work on conceiving a product idea in consumer electronics, making a "looks-like" model, writing a comprehensive business plan and executive summary, and giving a 10-minute presentation of their product idea. M&TSI culminates with a product fair, in which students (in groups of five) display their product ideas on poster boards and give pitches to viewers. Viewers of this public fair have the opportunity to vote for the best product in three categories: Most Innovative Product, People's Choice, and Best Overall Product.

In 2009, the award winners were:

• Most Innovative Product: MouthP3, a small, minimally invasive plastic mouthpiece designed for swimmers to listen to music while in the water. The device molds to the user's mouth and bypasses the need for earphones or other external apparatus by sending vibrations through the teeth to the inner ear, which perceives the vibrations as music.
• People's Choice Product: PerfectPaper, a hybrid of a binder and a laptop. The product allows students to take notes quickly and easily, but is not as highly priced as a conventional tablet PC.
• Best Overall Product: Pulsound, a workout companion device for the iPod which monitors the user's heartrate to select appropriate music automatically. If the user's heartrate is too low, the device will select a song with high beats per minute to increase the tempo of the workout. Conversely, if the user's heartrate is too high, the device will select a song with lower beats per minute to calm the user, allowing him or her to reach the target heart rate for the most effective workout.

Another key component of the program is lab work. Students are exposed to several types of engineering, listening to lectures and participating in relevant labs. Under the guidance of SEAS professor Sid Deliwala (ESE Lab Director), students gain exposure to mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, bioengineering, materials science, computer science, and electrical engineering. The schedule features lectures by professors from each discipline, as well as corresponding hands-on labs to reinforce the concepts covered in the lectures. On the business side, Jeffrey Babin, Director of Engineering Entrepreneurship, instructs the group in business and management concepts in daily lectures and activities. After the first week, M&TSI students participate in a business simulation involving the manufacture of cardboard car racers, reinforcing the values of cost structure, early innovation, competitive advantage, and team dynamics.

In 2009, M&TSI featured field trips to Neat Co., Navteq, Bresslergroup, Morgan Stanley, NYSE, and Synthes.

Related links

• University of Pennsylvania
• Wharton School
• Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business (another joint-degree program with a Wharton component)
• Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management (another joint-degree program with a Wharton component)

External links

• Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology Homepage
• Wharton Alumni Magazine Article about the program
• Weiss Tech House - UPenn Resource center for Innovation associated with M&T
• Wharton Alumni Magazine article from Fall 2000