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More than 50 academic institutions and professional organizations participated in the second annual Academic Summit for Business Analytics at the Naveen Jindal School of Management. The three-day event, held Jan. 30-Feb. 1, featured presentations, panels, and discussions designed to steer attendees into the future of business analytics.
Attendees came from across the United States and as far away as South Korea and Istanbul, Turkey.
“Given the fast pace of advances in technology, it is important for the academic community to get together to discuss the challenges and opportunities it brings,” said Dr. Varghese Jacob, Lars Magnus Chair and vice dean at the Jindal School. “Conferences like ASBA are therefore crucial for the exchange of ideas and solutions to ensure our programs are designed to educate our students to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities presented.”
Co-chairs were the Jindal School’s Dr. Gaurav Shekhar, senior assistant dean of graduate programs and graduate student experience; Dr. Vatsal Maru, an assistant professor of instruction in the Information Systems Area; Dr. Prajakti Akarte, an assistant professor of instruction in the IS Area and director of the BS Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (STEM) program and; Sunela Thomas, director of the Master’s in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Flex program; and Mandar Samant, MBA’21, an associate professor of practice in the IS Area.
The conference program commenced with a presentation from keynote speaker Sridhar Sharma, executive vice president and chief innovation and digital officer for mortgage firm Mr. Cooper. His presentation was on the company’s digital-first strategy, which Sharma leads. It is focused on developing and implementing AI and machine-learning solutions.
“We are hyper-focused on efficiencies,” he said, adding that while the company has grown, it has not increased its headcount by much. “We are invested in the right set of technologies.”
Sharma pointed to some recent innovations that the company has made involving monitoring customer/agent interactions, including how the best ranked agents are identified. He said the company had been generating significant numbers of reports every day. Now they are able to rely on an internal platform that identifies specific areas of improvement and quickly conduct any necessary training in a focused manner.
”Two years ago, we would have taken those employees into a training session,” he said.
He also discussed the things Mr. Cooper looks for when interviewing job applicants.
“Two qualities we look for are math skills and knowing how the company makes money,” he said. “So many applicants cannot answer that question when asked.”
Sharma looks for inspiration as it relates to innovation everywhere in his daily life.
“I wanted to attend this conference, selfishly, to learn,” he said. “Every question I receive is a learning process for me.”
Even driving in traffic has provided inspiration. When he saw that the Tesla he drives was able to recognize a traffic cone in the road, he took one of the company’s engineers for a ride to show him.
“I told him that, if Tesla can do this, I want this for my documents. All innovation is rooted in human experience,” he said.
Panel discussions and presentations focused on a range of business analytics topics, including ethics, what employers are looking for in potential new hires, what academics should teach their students to prepare them for future employment, partnerships between industry and academic programs and the future of analytics programs.
A panel titled “Fireside Chat: The Future of Analytics” was moderated by Shekhar and was comprised of Jacob and Dr. Deepak Khazanchi, Mutual of Omaha Distinguished Chair of Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
During the discussion about the relevance of business analytics in the future, as well as ethics, the panel considered how programs might change.
“We think analytics is new, but if we go back to the hunter-gatherer days, they used it to decide what animal they would hunt that day,” Jacob said.
In response to a question about the use of data collected over the years by artificial intelligence (AI), he pointed to new technology that has improved so much that new things can be done with the data.
“We still want our students to think,” he said. “I look at AI as another tool in our toolbox that will help us recharge our programs.”
Regarding future academic programs, Khazanchi said, “We have so much computation power available. We are not necessarily exposing our students to how computation works.
“In the U.S., we are doing a lot more in technology analytics and we shouldn’t stray away from that.”
In response to a question about teaching ethics in analytics programs, Khazanchi said the question educators should focus on is whether their students would recognize something unethical when they see it.
After the panel concluded, Khazanchi further emphasized the importance of ethics in AI.
“As AI tools become integral to analytics, it is crucial to train graduates on the ethical and fairness challenges of AI/ML models used for analysis and visualization,” he said. “This ensures trust and mitigates the risks of unintended consequences. Additionally, having a critical-thinking human in the loop remains essential for responsible decision-making with AI.”
The value of partnerships between industry and academic programs was taken up by a panel comprised of Kannan Srikanth, MS’92, director of the Center for IT Management at the Jindal School; Dr. Adam Petrie, senior lecturer at the University of Tennessee Knoxville; and Lyndsay Noble, director of Analytics Programs at Rockhurst University. The discussion was moderated by event committee member Akarte.
The panelists agreed that industry partnerships with academia sometimes present challenges but have also proved to be beneficial.
“We have advisory boards at the University of Tennessee Knoxville,” Petrie said. “Time and time again we hear from them that students need better communication skills.”
Challenges to these partners, he added, can include legal obstacles that can sometimes derail a partnership before it gets started.
Noble, who worked in industry before joining Rockhurst University, also stressed the importance of instilling students with strong communication skills.
“What I believe is very important is for them to have the ability to be able to distill a large amount of information into two minutes,” she said. “For me, in the corporate world — that skill was very important.”
In a discussion about emerging technologies and analytics, panelists talked about some of the attributes they look for when interviewing applicants, as well as unique challenges of using analytics in their work.
“Getting all of the data you need on time is always a challenge,” said Gayatri Sirure, director of Engineering for VusionGoup. “Also, there is a lot of tacit knowledge and how do you quantify it?”
Dealing with privacy issues can be difficult, according to Byron Simpson, director of Strategic Business Analysis for Targetbase.
“Different countries have different privacy laws,” he said. Issues can involve things like whether it is legal to use a photo of a customer at a store.
“If you get it wrong, it can create a real public relations nightmare for your client,” he said.
In answer to a question about traits he would like to see in job applicants, Simpson said they should have an idea of how to troubleshoot their work.
“If you’re coming up with a solution, how do you explain what to do and how will that look?” he said. “Finally, concentrate on learning the tools.”
He also suggested students understand what the job they are applying for will require.
“It is easy for people to apply for the wrong job if they don’t know what it involves,” he said.
Dr. Simon Jin, an associate professor and department chair at Metro State University in St. Paul, Minn., was a first-time conference attendee who said he is already making plans for next year.
“The conference has been so fantastic,” he said. “I have learned so much. I want to come back next year and bring my colleagues.”
Dr. Brennan Davis, a professor and academic director for MS Business Analytics at California Polytechnic State University- San Luis Obispo, California, said he came away from the presentations with useful information about AI curriculums and preparing students for jobs.
“The best thing I got was from the keynote speaker,” he said. “He opened my eyes with (one of his) charts. Now I can see how businesses are doing things. I need to learn how to do that.”
After the first day of presentations, conference guests were given a tour of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at The University of Texas at Dallas.
Conference committee chair Shekhar said he was pleased with the response he has seen to the relatively new event.
“Some key things I’m taking from the conference are that even with the speed at which new things are being introduced, such as the new focus on AI, the focus on fundamentals and foundations won’t give out,” he said. “It focuses on the fact we have to keep repackaging and reconfiguring our programs to remain relevant. When things change at the speed they can, partnerships between academics and industry give me reason for confidence. We cannot be successful by competing. We can only grow by collaboration. This collaborative spirit has always underscored academia and this conference reinforces that.”
