Denning T&M Executive Summary (2022 – 2023)

Executive Summary

The Steven A. Denning Technology & Management (T&M) Program helps create cross-functional leaders in technology and business-related fields by building upon Georgia Tech’s outstanding programs and curriculum. Classes emphasize experiential learning and include hands-on elements, allowing Denning T&M students the opportunity to offer interdisciplinary-team solutions to real-world problems faced by the program’s corporate affiliates.

The Denning T&M Program is open to all Georgia Tech undergraduate students, including the Scheller College of Business, the College of Computing, the College of Engineering, the College of Design, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Sciences.

Business and Engineering students who complete the program earn a 22-credit minor in Engineering & Business. Computer Science and IT Management students earn a minor in Computing & Business. Students from all other colleges earn a minor in Technology & Business.

Vision: To develop a generation of collaborative, professionally adept, ethical, and successful business leaders with an openness to seeking and learning from alternative points of view and with the capability to leverage technology to improve the state of the world.

Mission: To be the flagship interdisciplinary program at Georgia Tech, offering minors at the intersections of technology and business, involving rigorous academic and professional training in collaboration with world-class faculty and corporate partners across a breadth of industries.

There are two sides to the program: students and corporate affiliates, and the five-member T&M faculty/staff team, with the support of our exceptional professors, bridge these two sides. Additionally, as the alumni base expands, the team strives to incorporate them into the program whenever possible.

When it comes to supporting our students, we offer rigorous academic challenges paired with events to encourage their growth as individuals and team members. We categorize our events as career development, corporate partnerships, academic, international, alumni-centered, community building, and administrative

When it comes to establishing and nurturing our corporate partnerships, the T&M Program team works closely with each affiliate to meet their specific innovation and hiring needs. From on-site visits by our Administrative Director and Senior Manager, Corporate Relations & Student Counseling to office takeovers, the T&M career fair, and capstone project development, mentoring, and execution, we listen intently and execute process improvement to benefit affiliates and students alike.

This report includes our curriculum and information on our events to create a broad view of the T&M Program’s opportunities. In addition, it will touch on students, alumni, and corporate affiliates to show the unique ecosystem known across Georgia Tech as one of the exceptional offerings available to undergraduate students.

Leadership Update

Dr. Han Zhang has completed the seventh year of his nine-year term as the Faculty Director of the Steven A. Denning Technology & Management Program. He is a Professor in Information Technology Management (ITM) and the Steven A. Denning Professor of Technology & Management.

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on the economics of information technology, online trust and reputation, online word-of-mouth, and the evolution of electronic markets. His research on the institutional setup to help small businesses grow in the digital economy has been used as the basis for testimony before the Congressional House Committee on Small Business. He currently serves as a senior editor for MIS Quarterly, a toptier journal in the information systems field and the Editor-in-Chief for Information & Management.

“It is commonly believed and repeatedly shown that human employees can express positive emotion to improve customers’ service evaluations,” said Han Zhang, the Steven A. Denning Professor in Technology & Management. “Our findings suggest that the likelihood of AI’s expression of positive emotion to benefit or hurt service evaluations depends on the type of relationship that customers expect from the service agent.”

The researchers presented their findings in the paper, “Bots With Feelings: Should AI Agents Express Positive Emotion in Customer Service?” in Information Systems Research in December 2022.

Dr. Zhang’s research was also featured in print in The Wall Street Journal.

Faculty and Staff

The T&M Program staff have been working together under the guidance of Faculty Director Han Zhang for seven years and Administrative Director Bob Burgess for nine years. Sheena Brown (Academic Program Manager) handles all events, student recruiting and attrition, scholarships, and finances. Anne Lynch (Communications Manager) and John Stanford (Senior Manager, Industry Engagement & Student Counseling) partner to coach the students for career success. After offering career guidance, John passes the students back to Anne for writing advice. Between the two of them, the students receive the oneon-one attention needed to excel. John also coordinates all corporate engagement to nurture industry partnerships, while Anne maintains alumni engagement.

T&M Faculty and Staff: Sheena Brown, Anne Lynch, John Stanford, Han Zhang, and Bob Burgess

Admissions and Program Statistics

Fifty-five students from the T&M Program Class of 2023 completed minors in either Computing & Business, Engineering & Business, or Technology & Business. In Fall 2023, 60 students in the Class of 2024 will begin the Pre-Capstone class, and 68 students in the newly admitted Class of 2025 will begin classes. The Class of 2025 of 68 students has an average GPA of 3.77 and spans 15 Georgia Tech majors.

 Aerospace Engineering (AE)

 Business Administration (BA)

 IT Management

 Finance

 Marketing

 Strategy & Innovation

 Biomedical Engineering (BME)

 Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CHBE)

 Computer Engineering (CMPE)

 Computational Media (CM)

 Computer Science (CS)

 Economics

 Industrial Design (ID)

 Industrial Engineering (IE)

 International Affairs & Chinese

 Mechanical Engineering (ME)

 Materials Science Engineering (MSE)

 Physics

 Public Policy

Women students represent 51% of this class, Latino students represent 7%., African American students represent 18%, and students identifying as two or more races represent 15%. We continue to reach out to all Diversity & Inclusion offices across campus to recruit a diverse cohort.

There have been 2,956 applications received up through the Class of 2025, with 919 students accepted into the program.

There have been 799 students accepted through the Class of 2023, with 723 earning one of the three T&M minors.

Enrollment Growth by College through Class of 2025

Corporate Statistics

The 2022-23 AY marked the official beginning of the T&M Program’s partnership with MarkeTeam, Novelis, and risk3sixty. We also continued our partnerships with the Atlanta Braves, Boeing, Caterpillar, Equifax, Georgia-Pacific, The Home Depot, Navy Nuclear Labs (NNL), NCR, Siemens, Southwire, and Steelcase for a total of 14 corporate affiliates and 14 capstone projects for the Class of 2023.

Corporate Affiliate History

Salary Statistics

Across the board, students who graduate from Georgia Tech with one of our three minors realize a financial benefit in their starting salary. The graph below illustrates the differences across the five colleges for alumni starting full-time jobs in the summer of 2022. We used a two-year average median to account for anomalies in salary data. Also, the average hourly rate for T&M students interning during the summer of 2023 was $31/hour.

Class of 2023 Capstone Projects

The backbone of the Denning T&M Program is the capstone project. Each year, our second-year students carefully weigh their options and select five projects (ranking them 1 – 5) where they believe they will be able to contribute significantly and learn the most. Then the T&M Program faculty and staff carefully form the teams using a wide array of criteria. This academic year we had 13 projects split between our 55 Class of 2023 cohort members.

Rob Stoker delivering the Boeing pitch to the Class of 2023

Commencement

On Monday, April 24, 2023, all Class of 2023 T&M students met at the Academy of Medicine for their Commencement ceremony. The Class of 2023 nominated two Class Speakers, and Bob Burgess announced awards for students of the year and best capstone project as well as best capstone presentation. All other award winners are listed in the “Denning Awards” section.

Corporate Advisory Panel Meeting

We held our Corporate Advisory Panel Meeting at Top Golf so that affiliates could meet with each other as well as the T&M faculty and staff. At this end-of-year meeting, affiliates looked back over the year and offered advice on continuing to improve the program. They were also joined by T&M alumnus

D’Andre Waller (T&M 2017, mechanical engineering) who got to chat with his capstone sponsor Tony Agusti from CAT.

Dr. Han Zhang with class speakers Lauren Gordon (marketing) and Aboubacar Barrie (marketing).

John Stanford, D’Andre Waller, and Tony Agusti Corporate affiliates with T&M faculty and staff.

International Events

After a four-year hiatus, we reinstated our International Experience in March 2023. Our trip was based in Brussels, Belgium, and we traveled with four staff and 38 students to Bruges, Belgium, Paris, France, Amsterdam, The Netherlands to study energy and energy policy. We conducted a similar trip in 2015, so it was eye-opening to learn how the political climate has changed the world’s approach to energy.

Day One - Brussels, Belgium (home base for the week)

T&M students in Brussels.

Day Two - Bruges, Belgium (culture)

Jacob Keenan (finance) and Tyler Smith (civil engineering) | Lekha Gowda (IT management), Shumraze Fawad (industrial engineering), Meah Konstanzer (IT management), and Lauren Gordon (marketing).

Day Three - Brussels, Belgium (EU Energy Agency)

Day Five - Port of Antwerp-Bruges’s (Sustainable operations and supply chain strategies).

Nicolas de la Vega and Anna Spoden from EUREC –The Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centres

Day Four – Paris, France (EDF nuclear energy talk + culture)

Herve de Tremiolles (French Nuclear Supply-Chain Development) spoke to T&M students at EDF.

T&M at the Eiffel Tower.

Port Authority building designed by the world-renowned Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid where we had a view of the wind turbines, shipping containers, and port activity.

Day Six – Amsterdam (E.ON Drive)

"Our discussion with Parsia Tayyebi, the global head of digital & CX at E.ON Drive Germany was an incredible experience as we delved deep into the intricacies of the company's cutting-edge digital strategy development and the revolutionary reorganization of its hierarchical structure. The insightful conversation was truly enlightening, and we were amazed by the innovative approaches employed by E.ON Drive to stay ahead in the ever-evolving tech and energy landscape." - Haley

Gruensfelder

Port of Antwerp-Bruges | Students enjoying the view from the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.

(industrial design)

Students listening to Parsia Tayyebi, the global head of digital & CX at E.ON Drive Germany

Day Seven - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (student interaction)

Thanks to Dean Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Professor Arnaud Devleeschauwer, and the students from the AMISM - SBS Advanced Master in Innovation & Strategic Management, T&M students had a great day at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. The Dean welcomed us and then we heard a thorough and lively lecture from Professor Devleeschauwer summarizing our European week regarding energy policy and its complexity.

Next, the students split into eight groups, with representatives from both universities in each group. After three hours of diligence, each team delivered presentations on their assigned energy policy topics.

Denning Scholar John Rezabek (industrial engineering) wrote, “We got to work alongside Masters students from Solvay’s School of Economics and Management in teams to research how the EU and US are implementing sustainable practices and policies. From there, we researched future forecasts of the impacts of these developments and policies and ultimately presented our findings at the end of the day. It was an amazing experience to see the unique perspectives that these international students had, and I enjoyed learning about Belgian academic and social culture from a firsthand perspective.”

It was a memorable day of intercultural “speed learning,” thanks to Dean van Pottelsberghe, Professor Devleeschauwer, Sirine Bassalah, Anne Georges, Robert Burgess, Anne Lynch, MFA, Sheena Brown, Adela Kutalkova, and Zuzana Bayerova.

AMISM - SBS Advanced Master in Innovation & Strategic Management and T&M Program students

Alumni Events, Involvement, and Accomplishments

Anne Lynch serves as our alumni engagement manager. She met with several alumni for one-on-one meetings, invited them to student workshops, and facilitated two office takeovers. She also hosted an Atlanta reunion on June 21, 2023, at Torched Hop Brewing. John Stanford, Senior Manager, Industry Engagement & Student Counseling, also maintained open communication with alumni during the past year and focused his efforts on alumni working for corporate affiliates.

Alumni and staff at Summer 2023 Alumni Reunion.

Alumni and guests at Summer 2023 Alumni Reunion including Dr. Eric Overby in the bottom left and Tony Agusti (Caterpillar) in the bottom right.

This year, all capstone teams created midterm presentation videos. We then solicited alumni to critique a subset of these presentations that were approved for sharing by the corporate affiliates. Fifty-three alumni T&M Program alumni gave a total of 62 detailed critiques on the T&M Class of 2023’s midterm presentations. They also offered to meet with current students to expand on their advice. Our Denning Scholars took their projects and presentations to the next level with their expertise. We are continually impressed by our community’s generosity.

T&M Class of 2011: Hari Gopal and Gennadiy Gurevich

T&M Class of 2012: Michael Tribo

T&M Class of 2013: T.J. Capaldi

T&M Class of 2014: Jimmy Micali and Alexandra Staver

T&M Class of 2015: Alexei Nikonovich-Kahn

T&M Class of 2016: James Mateyk

T&M Class of 2017: Marguerite Bernard, Ari Bleemer, Chelsi Cocking, William Courrèges-Clercq, Megan Emery, Chris Healy, Olivia Jagiella-Lodise, Niki Lewis, and Chris Lung

T&M Class of 2018: Amir Bouhafs, Timothy Donohue, Connie Huang, Richard Huckaby, Kesha Kanakiya, Rishi Patel, Sarah Selim, and James Westbrooks

T&M Class of 2019: Christina Darland and Jeremy DiBattista

T&M Class of 2020: Kiran Gite, Pierce Heintzelman, Tina Lu, Mitch McCurry, Connor Meeds, Venkatesh Muppaneni, Lucas Nativio, Nikita Rajput, and Giancarlo Vargas

T&M Class of 2021: Katie Anderson, Miguel Bethancourt, Valeria Boesch Neira, Ross Cefalu, Emily Salmond, and Ashlyn Sasser

Alumni LinkedIn Initiative

In June 2019, we created a Higher Education page on LinkedIn for the Denning Technology & Management Program to post public content about our program, students, corporate affiliates, and alumni. Most importantly, our 723 alumni can add the T&M Program under their LinkedIn Education section to officially list the minor they earned at Georgia Tech. Once added, alumni become searchable in a directory based on location, company, career field, major, and skillset. This directory can also be queried by keyword to find alumni with expertise in anything from machine learning to corporate finance to diversity and inclusion. There are currently 667 registered alumni, a 92% participation rate. We also have 1,866 LinkedIn page followers.

Banner for public LinkedIn group featuring T&M students with Shenzhen University students.

Class Photos