While Harvard's proposed institute of technology is a radical departure for the liberal-arts oriented University, the plan comes on the heels of an earlier project by the proposal's chief architect, Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science Venkatesh Narayanamurti.

And while the details of Harvard's new initiative are largely undeveloped, Narayanamurti's implementation of the previous proposal at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) may provide clues as to what Harvard's similar institute will look like.

By all accounts, Narayanamurti is the driving force behind Harvard's new institute.

And he played a similar role when he served as dean of the College of the Engineering at UCSB.

"He was instrumental in putting the initial framework together," says Tim G. Schwartz, Center for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management (CEEM) co-founder and assistant dean of UCSB School of Engineering. "We couldn't have done it without him. He was a real advocate for the concept."

Like Harvard's new program, CEEM seeks to bring real-world business training to an academic environment.

Technology is the central focus of the program, which officially began operation in the fall of 1998, but some of the program's lessons are tailored to starting any kind of business.

Bringing in the Professionals