Revised: Jan 23, 2015
Stevens Institute of Technology
Howe School of Technology Management
Syllabus
MIS 699
Managing Emerging Technologies
Fall 2014
Professor Michael Frank
mafrank@verizon.net
Wed, 6.15-8.45PM, Babbio 320
Office Hours:
Before –After class and by Appointment
Schedule appointments via email:
mafrank@verizon.net
Course Room/Web Address:
http://www.stevens.edu/moodle
Overview
The opportunities to introduce new and exciting technology into our businesses and lives
have never been greater. Using industry forecasts, current events and parallel historical
introductions of disruptive technology; we will explore the Who, What, Where, When and
Why’s of Emerging Technologies.
By the end of the course, students will better understand how to identify new technologies
and assess the applications and benefits to be derived from such technologies.
We will examine tools such as the Gartner Hyper Cycle, Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic
Quadrant analyses to understand the “typical” life cycles of how new technologies are
discovered, perfected and brought into common use.
Using case studies, lectures, individual student presentations and a final group project, this
course provides the student with the tools necessary to identify a potential business
opportunity and to provide a feasibility analysis of such an opportunity. Students will select
one emerging technology and provide an individual assessment of the potential of this
technology on its own and features which can be enhanced by integrating that technology
with other technologies.
We will cover dozens of emerging technologies including 3D Printing, the “Internet of
Things,” Sensory technologies, the Semantic Web, Massively Open Online Courses
(MOOCs), Big Data, and Virtual Economies.
Students will learn techniques leading to break-through ideas. They also will become
sensitive to the importance and impact of industry technology standards and methods for
making the business case for trying new technologies.
Prerequisites
Admission requirements for the BI&A program.
Course Objectives
The learning goals of this course are ordered according to Bloom’s Taxonomy:
 Knowledge: They will learn about emerging technologies and the latest design trends
in data and knowledge, networks and applications in terms of what issues they
address and in particular, how organizations can exploit them for competitive
advantage. .
 Comprehension: Students will be able to separate the “hype” of new technology
from the underlying business opportunities and technical challenges for introducing
such technologies into organizations and into the marketplace.
 Application: Students will present a full business case related to one particular
project, utilizing one or more emerging technologies.
 Analysis: Students will be able to identify the requirements for a specific information
system and express these requirements in a form usable by Information Technology
professionals.
 Synthesis: Students will be able to apply the concepts learned during the lectures and
cases in their final project.
 Evaluation: Students will be able to determine the advantages and disadvantages of
different technology, information systems and business structures for a specific
application.
 Students will improve their ability to communicate in group and presentation
settings.
Relationship of Course to Rest of Curriculum
MIS 699 is a core course in the MS in System curriculum. Prerequisite course: MIS501 or
equivalent.
List of Course Outcomes:
By the end of this course, the students will be able to:
1.
Understand the foundations of statistical learning algorithms
2.
Apply statistical models and analytical methods to several business domains using
a statistical language.
3.
Recognize the value and also the limits of statistical learning algorithms to solve
business problems.
Additional learning objectives include the development of:
1.
Written and oral communications skills: students are required to communicate
properly during the class discussions and project class presentations. Homeworks and
project report should be presented “as if” they were submitted to a senior manager of a
major corporation.
2.
Solve a major analytical problem using large and heterogeneous datasets in a
group project and communicate its results in a professional way.
Pedagogy
Students will hav
will be used in th
 Lectures
 Case Studies
 Guest speakers from industry (if available)
 Student individual assessment of an emerging technology they select
 Student must read publications to stay abreast of emerging technologies/events
 Student contribution to discussions related to current events and other course materials
 Final team project providing an in-depth analysis of an emerging technology
Readings from texts and selected relevant articles and publications
Readings
 Required: Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm. HarperCollins Publishers. (Paperback)
 Required: Peter Schwartz, The Art of the Long View, Random House LLC. (Kindle or Paperback)
 Recommended: The Back of the Napkin (Expanded Edition): Solving Problems and Selling Ideas
with Pictures by Dan Roam (Kindle or Paperback)
 Recommended: Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And
Small Paperback – December 1, 2006 by Barry Nalebuff (Author), Ian Ayres (only 18
copies available on Prime)
 Readings are merely representative and may be replaced, updated or supplemented by
newer material.
 Example Gartner and Forrester analytic material as well other representative surveys and
studies.
 Professor’s slides (will be updated throughout the semester)
 TED Talks – specific, short (10-15 minute) videos will be assigned in advance of classes
Current event articles presented by the professor or introduced by the students.
Software
– Microsoft Office: Excel, PowerPoint, Word
– Firefox or Chrome Web Browser
Assignments
Assignments
Individual Emerg.Tech. Review
Midterm
Final Project – Group Project using one or more expansive emerging technology
Due
Throughout First Part of
Course
Week 8
Week 15,16
Grades
Grading for each deliverable will be done on a scale from 0-100. The final grade will be computed
based on the weighting of the deliverables according to the following resolution:
Points (100 scale)
95-100
90-94
85-89
80-84
Grade
A
AB+
B
Types of Assignments
Individual Assignments
Midterm
Final Project
Reliability and Participation
Final Grade Weight
20
10
40
30
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
50-59
0-49
BC+
C
CD
F
Total Grade
100
Software
Microsoft Office: Excel, PowerPoint, Word
Firefox or Chrome Web Browser
Class policy
Late Policy: 1 point lost for each day late. No assignments accepted after 3 days.
Cooperation: You are allowed to discuss lecture and textbook materials, and how to
approach assignments.
You cannot share ideas in any written form: code, pseudocode or solutions. You cannot
submit someone else's work found through internet or any other source, or a modification
of that work, with or without that person's knowledge, regardless of the circumstances
under which it was obtained, copied, or modified. Of course, no cooperation is allowed
during exams.
Re-grades: If you dispute the grade received for an assignment, you must submit, in
writing, your detailed and clearly stated argument for what you believe is incorrect and
why. This must be submitted by the beginning of the next class after the assignment was
returned. Requests for re-grade after the beginning of class will not be accepted. A
written response will be provided by the next class indicating your final score. Be aware
that requests of re-grade of a specific problem can result in a regrade of the entire
assignment. This re-grade and written response is final; no additional re-grades or debate
for that assignment.
Ethical Conduct
The following statement is printed in the Stevens Graduate Catalog and applies to all
students taking Stevens courses, on and off campus.
“Cheating during in-class tests or take-home examinations or homework is, of course,
illegal and immoral. A Graduate Academic Evaluation Board exists to investigate
academic improprieties, conduct hearings, and determine any necessary actions. The
term ‘academic impropriety’ is meant to include, but is not limited to, cheating on
homework, during in-class or take home examinations and plagiarism.“
Consequences of academic impropriety are severe, ranging from receiving an “F” in a
course, to a warning from the Dean of the Graduate School, which becomes a part of the
permanent student record, to expulsion.
Reference:
The Graduate Student Handbook, Academic Year 2003-2004 Stevens
Institute of Technology, page 10.
Consistent with the above statements, all homework exercises, tests and exams that are
designated as individual assignments MUST contain the following signed statement
before they can be accepted for grading.
____________________________________________________________________
I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on
this assignment/examination. I further pledge that I have not copied any material from a
book, article, the Internet or any other source except where I have expressly cited the
source.
Signature _________________________
Date: _____________
Please note that assignments in this class may be submitted to www.turnitin.com, a webbased anti-plagiarism system, for an evaluation of their originality.
Course/Teacher Evaluation
Continuous improvement can only occur with feedback based on comprehensive and
appropriate surveys. Your feedback is an important contributor to decisions to modify
course content/pedagogy which is why we strive for 100% class participation in the
survey.
All course teacher evaluations are conducted on-line. You will receive an e-mail one
week prior to the end of the course informing you that the survey site
(https://www.stevens.edu/assess) is open along with instructions for accessing the
site. Login using your Campus (email) username and password. This is the same
username and password you use for access to Moodle. Simply click on the course that
you wish to evaluate and enter the information. All responses are strictly
anonymous. We especially encourage you to clarify your position on any of the
questions and give explicit feedbacks on your overall evaluations in the section at the end
of the formal survey which allows for written comments. We ask that you submit your
survey prior to end of the examination period.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Lecture/
Lab
Title
Description
Assignment
Due
Reading
Lecture/
Lab
Title
Week 1
08/27/14
Lecture
Introduction
Week 2
09/03/13
Lecture
"Objects you View
Through Your
Windshield May Appear
Further than they
Actual Are" or
Are we there yet?
Week 3
09/10/13
Lecture
Week 4
09/17/14
Lecture
“Try it … You’ll Like It”
“You say “Potato,” I say
“Potaaato” – let’s call
the whole thing off”
09/24
Week 5
10/01/14
Lecture
Reschedule
for Tuesday
“It’s a Generational
thing”
Week 6
10/08/14
Lecture
“Dave, I’m afraid I can’t
do that”
Week 7
10/15/13
Lecture
If it doesn’t work, is
there a Plan B? or Plan
C?
Description
Assignment
Due
Reading
What will you learn?
 Introduction
 Overview history of change and disruptive
technologies
 "The Victorian Internet"
How do I spot emerging Trends?
When is the right time to invest in new technology?
What is your appetite for taking risk?
Which firms/products should I examine?
 Gartner Hype Cycle
 Forrester Wave
 Frost & Sullivan Emerging Technology Survey
 Gartner Magic Quadrant
 Moore's Crossing the Chasm adoption mode

How do I Spot the Emerging Technologies.
When is the right to utilize this technology
 Moore's
Crossing the
Chasm
 Moore's
Crossing the
Chasm adoption
mode
 "The
Who & Which organizations are willing to try new
technologies?
Breakthrough thinking - applied science versus the ”aha”
moment?
Can you formalize the innovation process and effective use
of new technologies/ways of doing business?
How much money? How much risk?
Standards wars - who sets the standards?
How are standards set? – What is the process?
“DeJure” (Formal) vs DeFacto Standards?
 Historical/Current Standards Wars (AC/DC, Bar Code,
Monolithic (control all) systems vs Heterogeneous
(linked) systems
 Examination of standards behind some key emerging
technologies
 Standards in Financial Systems (authentication),
Transportation Systems (EZ-Pass) and Unicef (using
standards in a non-standard way)
 Protocols
NO CLASS – I WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ON
WEDNESDAY – 9/24
What is the organization of the future going to look like?
How will that effect how new technologies are brought
into the organization?
The psyche of the generations (ex. Millenials vs others)
Handling change
 The mobile mentality
 Different communication/collaboration models
 Privacy attitudes
The introduction of automated technology?
Reliability and “Trust” in automation technology?
The age of Semantic Technologies and Thinking machines
 Autonomous transportation (Airtrain, Google cars,
 Robots/Drones
 IBM Watson
Planning for the unexpected?
 Scenario Planning
 Big bang versus incremental strategy
 Social Networks and Network Data
 Micro-blogging and its application
Innovator's
Dilemma"

Excerpt from
AC/DC: The
Savage Tale of the
First Standards
War


Pew Research
Pew Internet and
American Life
Project
 Art of the Long
View
Lecture/
Lab
Week 8
10/22/14
Lecture
Week 09
10/29/14
Lecture
Week 10
11/05/14
Lecture
Week 12
11/12/2014
Lecture
Week 13
11/19/14
Lecture
Week 14
12/03/14
Lecture
Week 15
12/10/14
Exam
Week 16
12/17/14
Title
Description
“The whole is greater
than the sum of its
parts”
“Everything makes
SENSE”
“Opinions DO count!”
Or
“I Know What You Did
Last Summer”
“Look Ma, no hands”
“I’ll have my phone
give your PC a call and
make all the
arrangements”
“Now you see it – now
you don’t!”
and visa-versa
How do Information Systems support Business Processes?

CRM, SCM, and PLM Processes

Workflow Systems

Big Data

Structured Data / Unstructured Data

Case examples – Amazon, Otis Elevator, Zipcar
Sensory systems – measuring the world around us

Sight, sound, motion, heat, touch, taste, smell

Our multi-instrumented devices – our phones

Wearable Technology
Assignment
Due
Midterm
The mobile worker/consumer? Wireless technologies
impact on systems.

Mobile systems and infrastructure

The BYOD challenge

Software development models

Requirements Engineering

Software re-use
How does the Age of Machines and machine to machine
communications change the world

The Internet of Things

Scada Systems

RFID and NFC

GPS / Micro GPS

Automobile technology

Authentication Technologies
How will a virtual world change our understanding of
value – opportunities out of Thin Air”

Artificial Currencies (Bitcoin)

Avatars

The Compressed design, prototyping and
production cycle

3D Printing

Virtualization of Servers and Desktops
Your team will make its case for their emerging
technology.
Final Project
Presentations
This week will probably be needed because of class size.

 Selections from
Eric Siegal’s
Predictive
Analytics: The
Power to
Predict Who
Will Click, Buy,
Lie, or Die
 Selections from
Nate Silver’s
ww.fivethirtyeig
ht.com blog
How have Information Systems been used in political
campaigns?

Data Mining

E-mail marketing

Micro-targeting

Social networking/media

Business Analytics
Final Project
Presentations
Reading
Final Project
Presentation
(In Class)
Final Project
Presentation
(In Class)
All assignments are due as noted on Moodle.
In fairness to others, late work will be penalized 10% per day overdue.