Business + Tech – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Business + Tech

Grace Aretakis

Grace Aretakis

Pronouns: She/ Her

Research Mentor(s): Philip Brabbs, Managing Director
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Ross Digital Business, Ross School of Business
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 4 (2pm-2:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 5
Presenter: 7

Event Link

Abstract

The Ross Business School at the University of Michigan is known for its advanced resources, wide reaching recruitment opportunities and skilled faculty, culminating to provide students with a well rounded education in Business Administration. Where Ross offers many resources for students with an interest in major sectors of business such as finance, consulting, marketing etc., there is a gap in resources offered for students interested in the intersection of business and technology. The Business +Tech Initiative at Ross aims to fill in these gaps through the creation of a centralized hub for currently existing tech opportunities at Ross, and new tech opportunities created by the initiative. Preliminary research began with a mapping of the existing tech ecosystem at Ross. This provided the team with a better understanding of what students to target to gain insights from, and what opportunities and events exist/ should exist at Ross. This research then led to the process of reaching out to students to gain insights. Through over 15 qualitative interviews and a case study of BBA students at Ross, the perspectives gained from students guided the beginning stages of planning for tech events and workshops. Insights yielded from this research highlighted 4 main areas that BBA students feel are lacking regarding tech at Ross. 1) BBAs crave more tech recruitment opportunities across a wider range of tech companies. 2) There is a lack of classes that teach applicable tech skills. 3) It is unclear who professors with tech experience at Ross are to reach out to and learn from. 4) There is a lack of communication about tech at Ross and a lack of a central place to find opportunities. Using these insights, our team has started developing content and opportunities to fill these gaps. Thus far, this research has fueled the creation of a content stream of tech related blog posts and the preliminary planning of tech events and workshops to be brought to students during the 2021-22 school year. This initiative is an ongoing effort that will continue to research larger bodies of students interested in tech, to ultimately provide students with an interest in tech the resources they need to succeed in the industry.

Authors: Amirah Aziz
Research Method: Library/Archival/Internet Research

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