
Engineering x Business
By Grant Currin
Engineering and business have been deeply intertwined since the dawn of trade and commerce. While these pursuits have been two of the most powerful forces shaping today’s prosperous and technologically advanced world, solving our most pressing challenges requires that relationship to become even more profound.
“Many of the most serious crises that our society is facing today— climate change, dramatic demographic change across the world, and the erosion of truth— are potentially civilization-ending,” says Harry West, professor of practice at Columbia Engineering. “Those problems are going to require deep-tech solutions. They aren’t going to be solved with an app.”
That conviction motivated Columbia Engineering and Columbia Business School to develop the MBAxMS, a dual-degree designed to prepare students to serve as tomorrow’s technically proficient business leaders. “We need more people who can do both because the problems we’re facing right now require surprising technical solutions that have to be scaled quickly,” says West, who is engineering director for the program. “We aim to train leaders in a different way, one in which you are capable of making both business and technical decisions at the same time. That’s the group of students we’re trying to develop.”
Columbia MBAxMS Program: Robotics Challenge
What happens when you mix business students with little to no hands-on engineering experience in a robotics-forward course? Video Credit: Jane Nisselson
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