EMTM Profiles by Industry:
Energy/Environment

Oil and water don’t mix — but they now share center stage in the world’s attention. EMTM is a strong fit for students in the energy and environment sphere. Knowledge of emerging technologies, coupled with the ability to create sustainable economic models and lead across multidisciplinary teams, can play a crucial role in developing appropriate solutions to complex problems.

EMTM technology and management courses help develop the knowledge and analytical skills needed to assess and capitalize on new technologies. In addition, particular attention to energy and the environment are addressed through special lectures and workshops such as:

• An annual two-day energy workshop devoted to “Energy Technology and Its Impacts on Sustainable Development.”
• The ongoing Emerging Technologies Seminar (ETS) — which in 2008-09 included a lecture on “Energy and Global Warming” and an executive panel discussion on “Why Are Technology and Business Aligning with the Power of Green Energy?”

EMTM students and graduates are harnessing the power of both management expertise and new technologies to improve environmental stewardship and energy conservation.

Working directly with the building industry, Brian Uher, MS, EMTM’07, has used his EMTM training in two companies he recently launched. Amicus is a capacity design consulting firm catering to residential and mixed-use developers looking for high-performance sustainability solutions. Access Green is a green auditing and verification business for residential and commercial properties.

With his EMTM degree, Brian found himself uniquely positioned to offer these services. “What I found in the sustainability industry was a complete lack of people who really understood how the financial world worked,” he says. “In the absence of an integrated approach you could make ‘green’ changes but they wouldn’t really affect your bottom line. People are looking for significant savings and unless you can perform a rational analysis of the factors involved it’s difficult to give people proper guidance to make changes.”

Mikhail Malamud, EMTM‘10, Vice President of Middleware for Freedom Open Source Solutions, works with clients in the healthcare, finance and energy industries to become more agile and flexible in their computing and new solutions are helping them to reduce their costs as well as their carbon output.

As a current student, Mikhail has found that EMTM has given him the capability to understand business solutions and customer needs and make sense of the innovation cycle — all of which help him provide better solutions for his clients. “Just recently I attended the energy workshop on campus and studied energy markets,” he says. “I’m now able to take that information and triangulate it for my clients. At the same time I have a better grasp on the process of innovation so I can distinguish between transitional technologies and determine which ones can give companies long term, substantial benefits.”

Milen Petkov Tzvetanov, EMTM’05, a Senior Managing Consultant at IBM, recently worked on an internally commissioned global study of industrial impacts on climate change. He was particularly focused on the relationship between the banking industry and climate change. “Banks are really the backbone of the economy but they need to start to consider the operational risks of giving credit to companies in many other industries who are having an even greater impact on climate change,” he says.

Milen says EMTM has prepared him for this work in honing his ability to gather and analyze large amounts of data. “When you’re talking about green business, you’re often talking about where technology and business merge and the program has helped me speak both languages. And we know we’ll only see more demand for green solutions in the future.”

For many students, EMTM provides new career direction as well as career momentum. This was the case for Wyatt Smith, EMTM’07, who came to EMTM as he was transitioning out of the military. While in the program, he gained interest in the growing field of alternative energy. After graduating, he landed a job as Field Engineer at GE Wind Energy, where he is gaining hands-on experience in how the field operations work in this industry before moving into a more traditional management position.

EMTM’s core business classes and its broad range of technology electives helped Wyatt round out his prior education and experience and narrow his interest in potential careers. In addition to developing his personal management style through EMTM’s Leadership class, for example, the technical knowledge gained through courses such as a Networking class has been useful in his day-to-day work. “I’m often troubleshooting extensive Local Area Networks and find that having a deeper understanding of routing theory is crucial to success.”

Wyatt feels that both the program and the degree have helped prepare him for the challenges ahead. “It’s not just about getting a degree — it’s about gaining the skills to apply your knowledge. The very specific nature of EMTM sets you apart from other candidates and opens doors.”

Related Links
> Being Smarter about Being Green

Representative Organizations
Companies and organizations where EMTM students and graduates have worked include:

If you are interested in EMTM and would like to speak with a graduate or current student in this career field, please contact us.