News

New webinars are available for the MTM program! No matter your background, UCSB’s Master of Technology Management (MTM) graduate program will give you the essential technology skills, business acumen, and entrepreneurial mindset to accelerate your career and expand your leadership opportunities within technology-driven firms. Attend an upcoming information session with MTM faculty and staff to learn more.

Technology Management is pleased to announce that UC alumni are now able to apply for the Master of Technology Management (MTM) graduate degree program for free! Applicants who have received a degree from any University of California campus or who will complete their degree by Fall 2026 are eligible to apply for application sponsorship–a $135 value for U.S. citizens and permanent residents and a $155 value for international applicants.

Everyone gets tired. But that tiredness can be dangerous when it comes from everyday tools! In his book Digital Exhaustion, out October 7, Paul Leonardi shows how technology is draining our energy, and walks us through how we can replenish it through eight simple rules we can implement today. Lessen your burden and make your digital life healthier!

Our department had the recent pleasure of chatting with Steve Wells, one of our donors, a New Venture Program mentor, and longtime friend of the department. He and his wife Tracy have sponsored a scholarship in their name for students in any major. Read on to learn more about Steve’s background, what brought him and his wife to Technology Management, what he’d like to tell other donors, and more.

Our department is thrilled to introduce the newest addition to our faculty lineup, Assistant Teaching Professor Ting Xiao! She recently joined our team in July of 2025, and will be providing her expertise to our students on innovation and strategy, with a focus on AI.

Our department had the pleasure of chatting with Evan McCall, whose AI-powered, personalized tutoring application RazeMath won the New Venture Competition earlier this year. Read his full interview to learn more about him, the origins of his start-up company, his experience in the New Venture Program, and more.

Happy Fall Quarter! Our department is thrilled to share this retrospective on Spring/Summer 2025. Below, you'll get an exclusive look into what our programs have achieved over the past two quarters, including record numbers for our Certificate program, as well as what's in store for the academic year ahead. For our internal team, the department has also recently welcomed Assistant Teaching Professor Ting Xiao, and a refresh on this very website! 

Our department had the pleasure of sitting down with Tanvi Mehta, one of our MTM students from our 2025 cohort, to chat about what brought her to the program, the skills she’s learned, and what she’ll be taking with her as she dives into her new internship at CrossnoKaye. Tanvi grew up in Bangalore, India, where she received her Bachelor of Design in Product Design from Karnavati University.

As AI tools have become more robust in their capacity for conversation, they’ve also developed a surprising new role as a stand-in for human emotional support. You’ve probably aware of coworkers, friends, and family—or perhaps even yourself—using AI as a counselor. And the research shows that most people who do this find it helpful! However, this seeming replacement gets more complicated, as shown in research by our own Fares Ahmad and Nelson Phillips.

No job exists in a vacuum. For any position, whether moving laterally or climbing the corporate ladder, all employees bring their prior company experience into their new lines of work. This is especially true for founders of new companies— as a large project on Silicon Valley startups by Professor Christine Beckman (Department of Technology Management at UCSB) has demonstrated. 

With a computer science degree and three years at Dell Technologies, Sandesh Shivakumar wanted more than technical expertise: “MTM delivers in nine months what would normally take three to four years of work experience.” Through MTM’s hands-on curriculum, Sandy gained skills in business strategy, digital transformation, and go-to-market planning.

Our department had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Professor Eric Zackrison, one of our incredible lecturers. Read his full interview to learn more about his background, teaching experience and more—as well as to get an in-depth look at a recently developed core course for our Undergraduate Certificate, TMP X111, which he has been teaching.