The Mitch Daniels School of Business’ Master of Business and Technology (MBT) program educates the next generation of leaders who are well-versed in both business and technology. Students can choose to complete the program in either 12 or 18 months, providing flexibility to accommodate different career paths and allowing students additional time to gain valuable industry experience.
36 Credit Hour
programIn the current era, technology is deeply intertwined with business operations. Decision-makers need to be adept at evaluating technological investments, understanding the implications of new technology trends, and predicting potential challenges and opportunities they might bring. Consequently, businesses require professionals and leaders who understand both business and technology to drive innovation and stay competitive.
Arvind Raman, Dean of Purdue's College of Engineering, says interdisciplinary programs can sometimes compromise on rigor — not so when it comes to the new MBT program. Hear Raman, Daniels School Dean Jim Bullard, and MBT Academic Director Mohammad Rahman discuss the program's curriculum, which includes a thought-leader speaker series.
While an MBA trains business managers for competency across general management domains, the MBT has evolved in response to industries in which technology has an outsized impact on the functions of the organization's products and processes.
Both the MBT and the MBA ensure managers have exceptional accounting, marketing, financial management, communication and leadership skills. The general MBA rounds out a manager's knowledge set with further human resource, business analytics, strategy, operations, economic principles, change management, supply chain and global strategy, providing a high-level competency for graduates. It serves non-technical managerial positions and industries.
In place of broad management courses common to the MBA, the MBT homes in on digital product design, computational business intelligence, technology-driven business, governance and regulations, tech strategies, DevOps and tech solutions, economic analysis of tech markets, and emerging technologies and their business models.
See the curricular differences side-by-side to better understand why engineers and tech specialists across industries choose the MBT. Because of their passion for their field and technologies, technical specialists and engineers value the MBT over the MBA to take on leadership roles that are future forward, extending their expertise and building upon their field of knowledge.
This 36-credit hour program leverages Purdue’s strengths in STEM in partnership with Purdue’s world-class College of Engineering and our vibrant ecosystem of technological ventures.
Our highly capable graduates will express both traditional business acumen and a deep understanding of technology, driven by developments like digital transformation trends, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Computational Business Intelligence
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practices of business intelligence (BI) using computational methods. Students will explore a range of topics from the fundamentals of BI to advanced data manipulation and business applications of machine learning techniques. The course is designed to equip students with the skills necessary to gather, analyze, and visualize data to support strategic business decisions.
Total Required Core Credits: 27
Students may take 9 credits in elective courses from a range of available courses. As such, students have the freedom to tailor their experience to a specific area of interest. Creating an area of focus, customization through electives would deepen a student’s knowledge in a given field. A student may, however, decide not to pursue a specific focus area, but rather blend elective courses.
Total Required Elective Credits: 9
Choose up to 9 credits from the following:
Machine Learning
With the rise in big data, Machine Learning has experienced rapid growth over the last ten years with major advances in its subfields of Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Robotics, and other subfields. The purpose of this course is to provide the students with a systematic introduction to the recent developments in machine learning through the coverage of modern machine learning concepts and practical business applications, as well as hands-on experience with modern machine learning frameworks. The course plans to cover neural nets, convolutional neural networks, recurrent networks, deep generative models, deep reinforcement learning, and the trustworthy AI framework with the properties of safety, robustness, privacy, and fairness.
Visual Analytics
This course equips students with the creative and technical proficiency needed to convert data into insightful visual reports, fostering mutual comprehension. Students will harness software tools to intake, structure, and illustrate data, prioritizing design principles to craft concise and aesthetically pleasing graphs and dashboards. They will delve into both exploratory and explanatory data visualization methods for effective data narration. Collaborative team projects will further hone their skills and facilitate peer learning. Authentic, real-world data sets will form the basis for our classroom activities and group assignments.
Choose up to 9 credits from the following:
Machine Learning
With the rise in big data, Machine Learning has experienced rapid growth over the last ten years with major advances in its subfields of Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Robotics, and other subfields. The purpose of this course is to provide the students with a systematic introduction to the recent developments in machine learning through the coverage of modern machine learning concepts and practical business applications, as well as hands-on experience with modern machine learning frameworks. The course plans to cover neural nets, convolutional neural networks, recurrent networks, deep generative models, deep reinforcement learning, and the trustworthy AI framework with the properties of safety, robustness, privacy, and fairness.
Choose up to 9 credits from the following:
Choose up to 9 credits from the following:
* Students may take other related business courses that do not correspond to or have significant overlap with required courses already taken.
In the Technology Strategy course we did consulting-style presentations on real companies navigating AI and the energy transition — it pushed me to think less like a data person and more like a strategist, which is exactly the kind of shift the MBT program is designed to create.
The experiences that have hit hardest are the ones where the line between classroom and real world gets blurry. That's where the actual learning happens for me."
Akshat Boudh
Master of Business and Technology '26
If you would like to receive more information about the Master of Business and Technology program at Purdue, please fill out the form and a Program Specialist will be in touch.
We also have availability to meet with you virtually to discuss how your goals align with our curriculum, community, student experiences and outcomes to determine if Purdue is the right fit for you!
General questions about the program
Ready to apply and want to talk to someone
