TMP Student Spotlight: Harshitha Chidananda

TMP Student Spotlight: Harshitha Chidananda Murthy

Harshitha Chidananda Murthy is graduating from UCSB with a Masters in Computer Science, along with her Graduate Program in Management Practice (GPMP) certificate.

Her hometown is Bangalore, India, and she was inspired to found Help Women Lead. She is also the co-president of Women in Computer Science. She enjoys programming, writing, watching movies, and playing games of all sorts.

Your Learning Experiences in TMP

How did you hear about TMP and why did you decide to join the program? During Orientation hosted by the Computer Science department, one of my friends at the table spoke about TMP. The class he described sounded interesting and I went to a few classes to decide if I should get the GPMP certificate. I ended up attending all of the classes because they were so interesting and am now getting my GPMP certificate.

What are some of your influential learning experiences going through TMP? Any challenging but rewarding TMP courses? Taking classes for Computer Science and TMP was slightly challenging, but I liked the coding and management courses. So I guess if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like “working” but something you look forward to each day.

Did you have any key mentors or people who deeply influenced you while you were in TMP? All the professors deeply influenced me. I thank Professors Dave Seibold, Gary Hansen, Karen Bogart, Sheetal Gavankar, and Lynn Chen for making the classes so interesting and motivating.

What were the benefits of a program like Technology Management on campus to you, which is a combination of business and management education, and entrepreneurship? Taking TMP courses helped broadened my perception on technology and management. Right now, when I look at a company, I try to analyze how it grew, the management practices they employed, the structural changes the company might have undergone, their key strengths, how they can make themselves better, their main threats and how they can overcome them, and their financial models. All this was possible because of the classes I took that will help me in the real world.

Your advice to students/parents about UCSB’s TMP

What advice would you give to students about UCSB’s Technology Management certificate program? That students will definitely learn a lot from TMP classes and that they can apply in the real world. Whether they want to be entrepreneurs or work at an already established firm, TMP helps you look at things differently and definitely help you grow.

Your Goals after UCSB and TMP

Where are you going after graduation and what are your plans? (e.g. job, grad school, etc.) I am going to be working at Microsoft as a Program Manager

What do you see yourself doing in the next 5-10 years? Continue doing my bit to make this world a better place!

Anything else you want to share with us?! Thank you for all the great courses and lectures. They make it so much more interesting and make us want to attend the classes. The lecturers know what they are capable of and always push to make their classes better.

Photos courtesy of Harshitha Chidananda Murthy