IBM, B-School Launch $2M Training Program

The Business School and IBM have started a four-year, $2-million project to train scholars to understand the way business can use computers to handle large amounts of information, the B-School announced yesterday.

"There is a huge need in industry and schools for people who can talk effectively about these issues," said Professor of Business Administration F. Warren McFarlan, who is in charge of the project at the the B-School. "The field has grown enormously in the last several years."

With the project, IBM "hopes to help remedy a severe faculty shortage in the area of information systems," said IBM spokesman Peter W. Thonis. IBM and the B-School will each contribute $1 million toward the program.

The field of information management includes everything from personal computers to complicated networks like an airline reservation system.

The project will provide support for three programs, B-School officials said:

* Three fellowships in each of the next three years for information management doctoral students. During each of these three years, the project will also fund a visiting professor and a postdoctoral scholar. Both of these aspects of the program will continue after the three-year funding period expires, McFarlan said.

* An annual program lasting 15 months training 3 or 4 experts to become adjunct professors or lecturers on information management. This program will also continue into the indefinite future, according to McFarlan.

* A one-year research project to determine the most useful direction for future investigation in information management. Four information systems professors will be brought to Harvard for the project, which will begin in 1988.