UMd business school cracks top 10 rankings

Entrepreneur programs help in U.S. News survey

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, known as MTech, have helped boost the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business to a No. 9 ranking in the business specialty category for Entrepreneurship in the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

The school had a No. 11 ranking last year, according to university officials, but has now moved past the University of California-Berkeley and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The magazine's America's Best Colleges 2009 issue hit the newsstands Monday and is available online at: colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-entrepreneur.

The Dingman Center and Mtech, which is part of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, are centers for entrepreneurship learning which offer varied programs, competitions and business community links for students, faculty and alumni focused on innovation.

"We are excited to see the university's entrepreneurship efforts recognized on a national scale," said Dr. James V. Green, director of Mtech's Hinman CEOs Program and associate director of entrepreneurship Education, in a statement. "Technology creators who comprehend entrepreneurial concepts will help weave innovation into the fabric of industry. That means new companies that create new jobs, stimulate the economy, and bring life-saving, life-changing and life-enhancing technologies to consumers."

Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, said, "The Dingman Center — with its network of resources and experience growing firms from the back of a napkin to the first million dollars — serves as a great catalyst to many Mtech ventures and vice versa."

The Hinman CEOs program is comprised of an equal number of business and engineering undergraduates. MTech's goal is to educate the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, help them create successful ventures and connect Maryland companies with university resources to develop new products and to help them succeed.