Technology Management, Ph.D.

221 University Avenue
Technology Building
Telephone: (203) 576-4379
Fax: (203) 576-4750

Program Overview

The Ph.D. in Technology Management (TM) is designed to meet an emerging industry and academic need by offering a quality doctoral program to both part-time and fulltime students in two inter-related areas: 1) new technology venture creation (e.g. entrepreneurship and corporate venturing), and 2) select current and emerging technologies. The program will encompass an integrated multi-disciplinary technology and management approach.

The Ph.D.-TM program is specifically designed to develop interdisciplinary skills and competencies in research and management of technology-dependent enterprises, technology-based entrepreneurship and new product, service and venture creation. While the Ph.D.-TM is housed in the School of Engineering, the Ph.D. degree facilitates and encourages interdisciplinary studies across the School of Engineering and the School of Business and utilizes their complementary research facilities, faculty, and lab resources.

The Ph.D. degree is a certification of critical aptitude in scholarship, creativity, knowledge in the discipline, enterprise in research, and proficiency and style in communication. A candidate obtaining a Ph.D. degree must display a thorough understanding in the major areas of Technology Management and must master the necessary tools and techniques so as to be able to make original contributions to the field of Technology Management. An equally important aspect is that of proficiency in oral and written communication skills.

The requirements of the Ph.D. program are: successful completion of preliminary examinations and courses, satisfactory performance in the written comprehensive and oral (proposal defense) examinations, admission to Ph.D. candidacy, successful completion and defense of original work documented as a dissertation, and the satisfaction of additional requirements such as teaching courses, seminars, and publications.

The formal degree to be offered is the Doctor of Philosophy in Technology Management. This will be awarded to candidates who complete all the requirements of the Ph.D. degree described later in this section.

Ph.D. in Technology Management Program-Level Learning Objectives

The Ph.D. in Technology Management Program goals are in line with the mission statement of the School of Engineering of the University of Bridgeport. In this regard, the Ph.D. program is designed to provide comprehensive education and research opportunities to a diverse student population consisting of highly qualified and competent students, scholars, industry professionals and researchers in engineering, sciences, and the application and management of technology. The program aims at preparing these highly-credentialed individuals for leadership and technology positions in industry, government, and academia with significant contribution to the profession and community locally, nationally, and globally. The program offers an application oriented interdisciplinary curricula to provide a distinctive education in fundamental and emerging disciplines through its faculty and institutional partners while ensuring that the graduates possess creative, innovative, and analytical skills with a strong commitment to research and technical excellence, ethical conduct, and cultural, societal, and global well-being.

Program Goals

• To prepare highly qualified and competent Ph.D. level scholars, industry professionals and researchers in the advance and interdisciplinary field of Technology Management.
• To prepare Ph.D. level scholars, industry professionals and researchers who are able to conduct research and develop strategies and plans to identify, develop and implement innovative technological based solutions while championing and sustaining innovation initiatives and environments.
• To prepare Ph.D. level scholars, industry professionals and researchers who are able to manage the effective planning and execution of those technology based initiatives and the integration of their impact into the mainstream of an enterprises’ strategy, processes and operations.
• To prepare Ph.D. level scholars, industry professionals and researchers who are able to manage the application of technology to create wealth and economic development as in successful entrepreneurship and/or intrapreneurship or corporate venturing initiatives.
• To develop future leader and managers in technology or technology dependent organizations that are able to lead and motivate high-performance and diversified global teams.

Outcomes Assessment

There are two types of outcomes that need to be monitored: Institutional Outcomes and Student Outcomes.

Student Outcomes

• Familiarity with principles of new venture creation, entrepreneurship, corporate venturing, innovation, and related issues including management, finance, legal issues, new product development, and product commercialization.
• Familiarity with advanced concepts of methodologies in technology management.
• Possessing a strong background in one or more engineering and technology area offered in the Ph.D. program.
• Possessing a strong background in implementing new technology based businesses and ventures.
• Being able to critically analyze problems and evaluate the benefits of alternative solutions in new technology-based international opportunities and corporate ventures.
• Being able to work in a development team to address specific issues and problems.
• Being able to interact and communicate both verbally and in writing with people whose expertise is in different domains and who are located across the globe.
• Being able to effectively teach in a higher education institution.
• Being able to write quality research papers for inclusion in prominent journals, and research proposals for submission to funding agencies.
• Being prepared to become a future leader, professional, academic and researcher with interdisciplinary skills, to join the faculty of leading academic institutions or take high level research, consulting and management positions in industry, non-profit organizations, government or start their own ventures.

Admission Requirements

The Ph.D. in Technology Management program is an advanced level program. Students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of fundamental concepts in management and technology gained through appropriate undergraduate and graduate (master) education. Students who are accepted into the Ph.D. program but lack some of those fundamental concepts will be required to remedy their deficiencies through completing satisfactory undergraduate or graduate courses (without graduate credit).

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program should have a business or management degree as well as an engineering, computer science or technology degree. To be more specific, a student should have either an (1) undergraduate Engineering or Technology (STEM* category) and an MBA or MS in Technology Management or Engineering Management or Management of Technology or equivalent degree; or (2) an undergraduate Business or Management or TM or MOT or equivalent and a Master’s degree in Engineering, Technology or STEM category, with at least a 3.3 GPA. Three+ years of industry experience or equivalent is desired. Students admitted from non-English speaking countries, having a Masters degree in engineering and an undergraduate in business or viceversa will also be required to have a TOEFL score of at least 550 or equivalent (IBT = 80, IELTS = 6.5). The GRE exam is required for admission. Students with an undergraduate and graduate degree in engineering or a STEM category, with three or more years of business experience, may also be accepted into the Ph.D. program. The applicant must submit two letters of reference and a personal statement (containing such information as background; experience, motivation for pursuing the Ph.D. in TM areas and suggested topics for potential dissertation research, etc.)

Interested students in the Ph.D. program without a master’s degree must apply and may be admitted into a master’s program first, and then upon satisfactorily completing the master’s degree, they would be eligible to apply for the Ph.D. program. This route assumes an appropriate Bachelor’s degree (see above).

*STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering or Math; MOT= Management of Technology.

Please refer to both the General Admissions Information and the Ph.D. TM for detailed requirements. (http://www.bridgeport.edu/admissions and http://www.bridgeport.edu/PhD-TM)

Academic Requirements

The requirements for Ph.D. in TM students include the following:

The Ph.D. in TM is an interdisciplinary degree for which all Ph.D. students must take a common core of five (5) required courses and choose from elective courses from Area 1 (New Technology Venture Creation) and Area 2 (Current and Emerging Technologies - Technology Specializations). Each student can choose elective courses from three study options (see below and Appendix 1). A list and short description of core and elective courses by specialization is provided in Appendix 2.

• Focus on Area 1 - New Technology Venture Creation (e.g. Entrepreneurship and Corporate Venturing): Number of courses to be taken in Area 1 is three courses each from Area 1 and two courses each from Area 2 (in one of the Technology Specializations).
• Focus on Area 2 - Current and Emerging Technologies - (Technology Specializations) Number of courses to be taken in Area 2 is four from Area 2 from one of the following Technology Specialization areas and one from Area 1. The Technology Specialization areas focus on one of the following:
  • Bio-Tech and Bio-Medical Technology, Systems and Processes
  • Information Analytics, Technology and Decision Support Systems
  • Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Logistics Technology, Systems and Processes
• Combination of Areas 1 and 2 - Number of courses to be taken is two each from Area 1 and three each from Area 2. In Area 2, the students must pick courses from one Technology Specialization area for depth coverage.

Time and Load Guidelines

The program will admit both full and parttime students. For all students, the program must be completed within a maximum of seven calendar years. If a student requires more than seven years, he/she must file a letter of appeal requesting a time extension to the Dean of the SOE and the Ph.D. program coordinator. A Ph.D. student (parttime or full-time) is expected to devote the necessary time to courses and research in order to make satisfactory progress toward the degree. Satisfactory progress includes active personal participation in the research and teaching environment of the School of Engineering. The student advisor and dissertation committee should advise the student as to his/her progress in the program. Full time students are required to register for at least nine credit hours each semester while part-time students are required to register for at least six credit hours per academic year (spring and fall semesters).

Time Limits

All requirements for the doctoral degree must be completed within the seven-year period (accumulating to 21 Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters) following admission to the doctoral program.

Time Limit Extension Request

Under compelling circumstances beyond the student’s control, a student may petition for a one-semester extension of the seven-year time limit. If the one-semester extension is recommended by the Ph.D. in Technology Management Program Director and approved by the Dean, the student has one additional semester to complete work on the dissertation. If the student fails to complete all degree requirements within the time for the student’s doctoral program or within a one-semester extension approved as noted above, the student will be dismissed from the doctoral program. To complete the doctoral degree, the student must reapply for admission. Policies do not provide the option to revalidate courses completed more than six years prior to the date of admission. A readmitted student therefore would be able to apply to the new admission only those courses approved by the department and Graduate School and complete within the prior six years (accumulating to 18 Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters).

Course Work

A Ph.D. candidate must complete at least 30 credit hours of course work, not including the dissertation, beyond the Masters degree. Upper level undergraduate remedial courses cannot be used to fulfill the coursework requirement. The Ph.D. dissertation will require a minimum of 15 credit hours to complete.

Courses must be selected as follows:

• Five Core Courses of three credit hours each.
• Additional five (three credit hours each) courses in specific areas**
• A one-semester teaching practicum requirement (no credit hours).

Course Grade Point Average

A Ph.D. student is expected to maintain a G.P.A. of 3.0. If the cumulative G.P.A. falls below 3.0, the student is automatically placed on probation. (Note:grades for transferred courses are not included in the calculation of the University of Bridgeport GPA). Continued probationary status for two semesters will lead to dismissal of the student from the program.

*Students admitted to the Ph.D. program should have a business or management degree as well as an engineering, computer science or technology degree. To be more specific, a student should have either: (1) An undergraduate Engineering or Technology (STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics category) degree and an MBA or MS in Technology Management or Engineering Management or Management of Technology (MOT) or equivalent graduate degree; or (2) an undergraduate Business or Management or TM or MOT or equivalent degree and a Master’s degree in Engineering, Technology or STEM.

** Area 1 - New Technology Venture Creation and Area 2 - Select Current & Emerging Technologies (see Ph.D. Program Structure for additional requirements and areas) No grade less than C is acceptable towards course work requirements.

Ph.D. Program Director

The Dean of the School of Engineering will appoint a director for the doctoral program. The director supervises the implementation of the Ph.D. program. S/he is responsible for coordinating administrative functions related to the Ph.D. program including admission, marketing, appointment of advisors, and formation of dissertation committees, for each doctoral student. In addition, the director is charged with preparing and administering the preliminary and the comprehensive examinations. The director is also responsible for recommending courses for students who may not have the proper prerequisites for certain courses.

Advisor

Each Ph.D. candidate, in her/his first semester, will be assigned a program advisor by the Ph.D. program director. The advisor will develop a program of study for the student and monitor his/her progress until a dissertation committee is formed for the student. A dissertation advisor will be appointed for each student after he/she passes the comprehensive exams and perform all subsequent advising. The program advisor and dissertation advisor may be the same person or two different people. A student is required to form a dissertation committee in conjunction with the Ph.D. program director after finishing the core Ph.D. courses (and passing the candidacy examinations), so that a better understanding of the various topics and research interests in the department will, by then, have been achieved.

Comprehensive Examination

One of the major checkpoints in the Ph.D. program that assesses the breadth and depth of the student’s academic accomplishment and progress is the candidacy examinations and oral dissertation proposal defense examination. The candidacy examinations will test the breadth and depth of knowledge in all aspects of Technology Management related to the body of knowledge required for the Ph.D. in Technology Management, including but not limited to, the core curriculum courses, and the courses in Areas 1 and 2. The candidacy examinations should be taken at the completion of all course work.

The Ph.D. Program Director will organize these candidacy examinations, which will be developed and graded by faculty. The outcome of this examination will be a fail or pass. A student can sit for this examination twice. A student who does not pass the candidacy examinations in two attempts will be dismissed from the program. A student may submit an appeal regarding the potential dismissal from the program.

Dissertation Committee and Oral Defense of Proposed Dissertation Topic in a Public Seminar

After passing the required examinations and selecting a dissertation advisor (or having an advisor appointed), a student is required to define a problem of merit, carry out a literature search and prepare a course of action to solve the selected problem. The candidate is expected to produce a dissertation proposal, which must be orally defended in a public seminar. The Ph.D. director awards a Pass/Fail grade after consultation with the student’s dissertation advisor and committee.

The Ph.D. Program Director, in consultation with the dissertation advisor, recommends a dissertation committee for the student. The dissertation committee contains at least three members in addition to the dissertation advisor. At least four members of the dissertation committee must be from a professorial rank within the School of Engineering and/ or other schools. Additionally, an external examiner is appointed as well. The external examiner is one who is distinguished in the field of Technology Management. The Ph.D. Program Director and the Dean of the School of Engineering must approve the dissertation committee.

Admission to Candidacy

Every student enrolled in the Ph.D. in Technology Management degree program must take a candidacy examination administered by the program director and the graduate faculty. The candidacy exam aims at assessing the capability of the student conducting doctoral research based on evidence of critical thinking, problem solving, conducting original research and other measures viewed as essential functions of a successful doctoral student. When a student passes the candidacy examination and fulfills all other requirements, they will be admitted to Ph.D. candidacy.

Ph.D. Dissertation

The student is expected to work on the accepted topic and original results. They must report the results in the form of a Ph.D. dissertation. The student is encouraged to document the intermediate results in the form of technical reports. They are also encouraged to publish these results as they are discovered, in international professional literature, i.e. refereed conference proceedings and journals. Intermediate results can also be discussed in departmental seminars. The completed dissertation must be distributed to the dissertation committee members at least two weeks before the dissertation defense. The committee will read it and certify that the dissertation is a work of substantial merit and that it can be defended.

It is the responsibility of the student that the final draft of the dissertation addresses all legitimate concerns of the committee members.

Dissertation Defense Examination

After securing approval from the dissertation committee members regarding the worthiness of the dissertation, a student will proceed with a request for the dissertation defense examination. The chair of the dissertation committee will chair the examination. The student will schedule a convenient time for a public defense. It is the responsibility of the student to find a time that is suitable to all the members of the dissertation committee, at least two weeks prior to the defense. At the end of the defense, the decision of the dissertation committee will be pass or fail. It is the responsibility of the dissertation advisor to see that the comments and the criticism of the audience are addressed adequately in the final version of the dissertation. Based on the recommendation of the dissertation committee, the Ph.D. in Technology Management Director and the Dean of the School of Engineering will recommend the Ph.D. degree, subject to the satisfaction of all other formal requirements.

Summary of Milestones

A summary of steps, not necessarily ordered, through which a student will proceed, is as follows:

• Admission to the Ph.D. program of Technology Management;
• Completing prerequisites, if needed;
• Completing the course work requirement for the Ph.D.;
• Passing the written comprehensive examination;
• Admission to ‘Candidacy’;
• Selection of a dissertation advisor;
• Writing a dissertation proposal and its oral defense;
• Formation of the dissertation committee;
• Approval of the dissertation by the dissertation committee;
• Successful completion of the dissertation defense;
• Submission of completed and approved dissertation to the School of Engineering;
• Graduation with a Ph.D. degree in Technology Management.