Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology

What is MIST? The undergraduate major in Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology (MIST) combines fundamental coursework in leadership, organizations, entrepreneurship, finance, policy, data analytics, technology management, and sustainable innovation. The resulting multi-dimensional “T-shaped” skillset integrates core management skills with a broad understanding of how to design sustainable and equitable solutions by way of teamwork and technology.

Why combine these different perspectives? Have you ever had a great idea and wondered what it would take to bring that idea to market? If it were easy, then people would be starting their own companies left and right. In fact, to some degree they do - according to a recent survey, around 16% of the US workforce are self-employed entrepreneurs17.

To this end, this program will provide a multi-dimensional skillset that enables students to understand where and why entrepreneurial opportunities exist, what are the constraints that define them, how to identify candidate solutions that are in principle marketable, and also how to develop an action plan that is grounded in the Triple Bottom Line of ethical treatment of workers and environmental sustainability, in addition to the traditional bottom line of value generation – i.e., identifying solutions that are well-balanced across people, planet, profit (PPP) considerations.

How is the major designed? The program curriculum will comprehensively develop fundamentals skills of management with emphasis on the integrated roles of innovation, sustainability, and technology. Students will learn how modern day problems - from climate change across global environmental systems, to other challenges associated with designing and managing social, food, and energy systems – require various different ways of understanding these problems and their candidate solutions.

In particular, students will develop a systems thinking mindset for understanding where and why global crises emerge; a technology management mindset for understanding how to design scalable and equitable solutions; and a digital mindset for harnessing the modern data analytics paradigm that is critical to decision-support, effective communication and inspiring action.

This set of management and entrepreneurship fundamentals combine with applied skills in data analysis, operations, planning, communication and leadership to equip MIST graduates with a valuable array of skills for pursuing a wide range of careers in profit and not-for-profit organizations and public and private enterprises.

Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology Program Learning Outcomes

The overall educational objective is for students to develop basic competence in management of innovation, sustainability and technology as it relates to a range of real-world problems confronted by inflexible constraints imposed by sustainable objective criteria, and for students to be ready to engage in lifelong learning and continuing education. There are five MIST PLOs:

1. Critical Thinking. Students will identify and use appropriate analytical, quantitative, and qualitative methods from multiple disciplines in order to develop innovative solutions that leverage technology to support the management of complex systems.
2. Technology Management. Students will learn the foundations of organizations and principles of effective teamwork in the context of developing technology-oriented solutions.
3. Sustainable and Ethical Innovation. Students will develop candidate solutions that account for the constraints imposed by sustainability and ethics principles. Students will identify real-world ethical, legal, and social issues that characterize responsible approaches to the management of coupled human and natural systems.
4. Communication and Leadership. Students will integrate various communication frameworks (verbal, oral, graphical) and gain leadership experience in effectively engaging and inspiring diverse audiences comprised of experts and non-experts. Students will develop and apply these frameworks in classroom and project settings.
5. Applications. Students will synthesize theory and practice of innovation, sustainability and technology management to design innovative solutions that tackle strategic, organizational, and technical challenges and also satisfy boundary conditions associated with feasibility, ethics and sustainability.

Programs

• Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology, Custom Emphasis, B.A.
• Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology, Innovation Management Emphasis, B.A.
• Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology, Sustainability Management Emphasis, B.A.
• Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology, Technology Management Emphasis, B.A.