Message from the Area Coordinator
We have completed a record 2015-2016 academic year in the Information Technology and Systems (ITS) programs in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas. Our student enrollment grew substantially, with the totals in the MS in Information Technology and Management (ITM) program rising to 1,055 students and our BS in Information Technology and Systems program increasing to 450. Graduates of our programs are in high demand, with placement rates of our MS in ITM alumni exceeding 95 percent within three months of graduation. The MS in ITM program is ranked No. 16 in the recent 2017 U.S. News & World Report nationwide rankings of information systems programs. Our MS in Business Analytics program, which was launched in fall 2014, has more than 200 students, with the first class of approximately 35 students graduating this spring. This program was recently ranked No. 5 by Value Colleges and No. 7 by the Financial Engineer. Our faculty research is ranked No. 1 based on research productivity in the two leading information systems journals as reported in the 2016 UT Dallas Top 100 Research Rankings™. We have significantly expanded offerings to include new courses in high-performance analytics, big data and IT infrastructure management to our undergraduate and graduate programs. We look forward to your continued support as we launch new initiatives to enhance our students’ experiences.
Dr. Indranil R. Bardhan
Professor of Information Systems
Area Coordinator, Information Systems
Naveen Jindal School of Management
Recent Happenings
The Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS) marked its 25th anniversary Dec. 12-13, 2015, at UT Dallas. In sessions devoted to cloud-computing management, researchers addressed complex business problems and societal issues using current and emerging information technologies. Dr. Varghese Jacob, Jindal School vice dean and Lars Magnus Ericsson Distinguished Professor, served as the JSOM co-chair for WITS, while Dr. Syam Menon, associate professor of information systems, was the program co-chair. Approximately 150 attendees, including distinguished scholars from universities in the United States and abroad, attended.
The industry keynote speaker was John Donovan, chief strategy officer and group president of Technology and Operations, AT&T. The academic keynote speaker was Dr. Michael Wellman, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan.
WITS also initiated a doctoral dissertation proposal award to provide students with an opportunity to present their dissertations and receive feedback from senior scholars.
| Names | University | Article | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmed Abbasi | University of Virginia | Don’t Mention It? Analyzing User-Generated Content Signals for Early Adverse Drug-Event Warnings | Best Paper |
| Jingjing Li | University of Virginia | ||
| Sohaib Abbasi | Virginia Commonwealth University | ||
| Donald Adjeroh | West Virginia University | ||
| Marie Abate | West Virginia University | ||
| Wanhong Zheng | West Virginia University | ||
| Hasan B. Kartal | University of Massachusetts, Lowell | Protecting Privacy Against Multiple Record Linkage Attacks | Best Paper |
| Xiaobai Li | University of Massachusetts, Lowell | ||
| Zhen Sun | The University of Texas at Dallas | Prescriptive Analytics for Novel Operational and Strategic Challenges | Best Dissertation |
| Seoungwoo Lee | University of Maryland | Free, Paid or Freemium: Dynamic Versioning Decisions for Mobile Apps | Best Dissertation Runner-Up |
| Tianshu Sun | University of Maryland | Engineering Digital Sharing Platforms to Create Social Contagion: Evidence From Three Large-Scale Randomized Field Experiments | Best Dissertation Runner-Up |
The Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE) is the premier academic research forum for the discussion of information systems issues through the lens of economics. Approximately 225 leading scholars and researchers from around the world participated and presented their cutting-edge research on the role of IT and its impact on important business and societal questions. Dr. Gary Bolton, O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair and professor of managerial economics, was the keynote speaker at WISE on Dec. 13 at the Jindal School. His keynote speech was on designing better Internet reputation systems, a topic that resonated with the WISE audience.
Dr. Indranil Bardhan, coordinator of the JSOM Information Systems Area, and Dr. Huseyin Cavusoglu, associate professor of information systems, served as co-chairs for WISE, along with Professors Anitesh Barua (UT Austin), Hasan Cavusoglu (University of British Columbia) and Barrie Nault (University of Calgary).
| Names | University | Article | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wen Wen | The University of Texas at Austin | Standards, Intellectual Property Rights and Strategic Patenting: Evidence from the IETF | Best Paper |
| Chris Forman | Georgia Institute of Technology | ||
| Sirkka Jarvenpaa | The University of Texas at Austin | ||
| Debabrata Dey | University of Washington | Combating Online Piracy: Make Pirated Products Less Available or Less Attractive? | Best Paper Runner-Up |
| Antino Kim | University of Washington | ||
| Atanu Lahiri | The University of Texas at Dallas | ||
| Arslan Aziz | Carnegie Mellon University | What is a Digital Cookie Worth? | Best Student Paper |
| Rahul Telang | Carnegie Mellon University | ||
| Uttara Ananthakrishnan | Carnegie Mellon University | All World’s a Home — Estimating Hotel Latent Quality Under Airbnb Entry | Best Student Paper Runner-Up |
| Beibei Li | Carnegie Mellon University | ||
| Michael Smith | Carnegie Mellon University |
Upcoming Events
ITS Academy– Jun 20-24, 9a.m.-5 p.m. daily, JSOM I, Atrium
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Jun 22, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Jul 20, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Aug 17, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Sep 21, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Oct 19, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Nov 16, noon-1 p.m.
MS in Information Technology and Management Online Information Session – Dec 14, noon-1 p.m.
Student Spotlight
Student Leader of the Year Award Presented to MS ITM Student
Annual awards highlighting UT Dallas’ commitment to help students develop leadership skills and gain community service experience were presented this spring through Student Leadership Programs. MS ITM student Pavan Kumar Kanteti received the Student Leader of the Year Award. One of his nomination letters said that Pavan “has impressed me with his leadership, hard work, ability to organize and encourage students, and his contributions to effect positive change in the University community.”
ITS Team Finishes Fourth at CoMIS Case Competition
Contributed by Luis Garcia Fuentes, Barron Fuentes, Libni Wheeler and Dr. Kelly Slaughter
Naveen Jindal School of Management undergraduate students Barron Fuentes, Luis Garcia Fuentes and Libni Wheeler placed fourth out of 11 teams in the annual CoMIS Case Competition, held March 30 to April 2 at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis. Competing against teams from other U.S. universities, the UT Dallas team presented its case to a panel of industry judges.
Coached by Dr. Kelly Slaughter, clinical associate professor of information systems, the team learned from “a body-language expert who taught us how to present confidently,” Fuentes said. They also delivered practice presentations to industry professionals to prepare themselves.
Wheeler said she enjoyed networking with executives from local companies such as Target, Optum and Travelers.
Garcia Fuentes noted that in addition to the networking opportunities, he was able to “make lasting friendships with other IS majors from around the country.”
Fuentes encouraged fellow students to make the most of their time at UT Dallas. “Sprint out of your comfort zone and get involved in activities that are difficult,” he said. “You will be rewarded with amazing experiences and will meet other outstanding students along the way.”
All agreed it was the best experience of their academic careers, and they thanked Slaughter and the ITS program for making it possible.
First IAS Analytics Challenge Held
Contributed by Vinay Acharya, MS ITM student
The Intelligence Analytics Society on April 2 conducted its flagship event of the year, the IAS Analytics Challenge. All Jindal School students were eligible to participate, and 10 of 61 participating teams continued to the second round. Teams were provided a large data set and allowed to use any software application to analyze and present their insights using a PowerPoint presentation. Prize money of $1,500 was split among the top three teams.
| First Place Team | Second Place Team | Third Place Team |
|---|---|---|
| Shantanoo Bhandge | Eswar Sai Santosh Bandaru | Havish Garimella |
| Mohit Purswani | Chaitanya Krishna Reddy Charabuddi | Srinivas Devineni |
| Tanu Kalra | Pingali Venkata Praveen | Ameesha Chhabra |
| Viral Shah | Harshavardhan Vardhappagari Reddy | Shobhit Gupta |
| Jania Kesarwani | Lavakumar Bada Reddy | Dinesh Kumar Muthusamy |
The team’s presentations were assessed by a panel of judges that included industry experts and JSOM professors. Ted Ingram, Robert Lockwood, Dhiren Parbhoo and Barry Lovalvo, all from Armeta Solutions, were some of the industry representatives. Ingram and Lovalvo served as judges.
The club thanks these industry experts and all faculty members who served as judges as well as all students who assisted with the event. In addition, the club recognizes the IS faculty member contributions of Drs. Kelly Slaughter, Russell Torres, Srinivasan Raghunathan, Sumit Sarkar, Indranil Bardhan, Ravishankar Narayan and Zhiqiang Zheng and staff member Marjorie Wu for helping to make this event a success.
ITS/Global Business Undergrad Studies in Vienna
Ann Mathew, a sophomore double-majoring in information technology and systems, and global business, participated this spring semester in an international study program in Vienna.
Studying abroad has been the highlight of her college career, she said.
“I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity to spend a semester abroad because my experiences here and the knowledge I’ve gained are eye-opening and life-changing,” Mathew said. “Not only has my understanding and appreciation for the world and its many differences increased, but the opportunity has opened the doors to some of the most wonderful people I have met.”
Mathew started her freshman year of college knowing she wanted to be a global business major but had little to no knowledge of the ITS degree and program. By the end of her freshman year, she had changed her plans to include both degrees.
“What appealed most about ITS to me was its duality not just as a technical degree but also as a business degree,” she said. “In addition, being able to work in a problem-solving and decision-making environment that is so essential to an organization’s infrastructure made me even more eager to pursue an ITS degree. The increasing demand by companies for ITS graduates was also a convincing factor for me.”
Mathew also said she appreciates the JSOM ITS program’s flexibility and versatility.
“Coming into the ITS program at UT Dallas, I realized that regardless of your background in MIS/ITS, UT Dallas will train and provide everyone in the program with the right skill sets to ensure a successful career in the field,” Mathew said. “Moreover, the unique electives and the option to specialize in a particular area of information systems makes the ITS program one of the most appealing.”
During the school year, Mathew uses much of her free time to work with organizations like UT Dallas’ Women in Technology, attend leadership seminars and volunteer. As a double major, she believes that the fields of ITS and global business will open up even more career opportunities for her because information technology is a field with international demand.
Women in Technology is a student organization at UT Dallas that aims to create a network of men and women in the technology field and attract more women to careers within technology. UT Dallas students interested in joining can contact Dr. Dawn Owens, faculty advisor and BS in ITS program director.
MS ITM/MBA Graduate Intern Designs Her Future
Fei Cen started working on double degrees — a master’s in information technology and management and an MBA — at the Jindal School in fall 2015 and plans to graduate in spring 2017. She received her bachelor’s degree in industrial design from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China.
“I found the ITM program at UT Dallas to be excellent, not only because of its plentiful, high-quality technology-management courses and its increasing ranking in recent years, but also because it is suitable for my professional interest and career plan,” Cen said. “With more and more companies moving to Dallas, UT Dallas students can find plenty of job opportunities.”
Cen will join Southwest Airlines this summer as a digital marketing intern. She serves as the media and communications team lead of the Project Management Club at UT Dallas.
She noted that various professional clubs founded by ITM students regularly host programing training sessions and speaker workshops, which has helped her build programing skills and expand her network. She also has used workshops provided by the JSOM Career Management Center to prepare for job interviews.
Cen joined Microsoft’s Bing multimedia team in July 2014 in Beijing as a UX designer intern and continued there until she graduated from Zhejiang University the next spring with her master’s degree in design studies.
“I was responsible for the Bing Videos search page and watch page design,” Cen said. “I also initiated a user study investigating the strength and weakness of Bing Videos to guide future product development. During my internship, I participated in four different projects and worked with five project managers. I would regularly discuss my proposals with project managers and developers, online conference with colleagues in the U.S., and conduct user tests on different design versions.”
Excel Lab Conducts Certification Training Info Sessions
To keep students informed of the constant changes in Microsoft Excel, the Management Information Systems Lab (also known as the Excel Lab) conducted information sessions on April 8 and 9. The lab operates under the supervision of Dr. Mark Thouin, director of the MS in ITM program, and the information sessions were held in collaboration with the MIS Club.
The first day’s session involved basic assumptions, prerequisites and applications of Excel. The second day included advanced applications of Excel. The instructors covered topics on the transformation, extraction, loading and reporting of data. Eighty-five students attended both days.
The sessions aimed to cover advanced topics required for Expert Excel Certification and were presented by MIS Lab Teaching Assistant Udit Mittal and ITM graduate student Arvind Uppaluri.
Testimonials
“It was quite fascinating to see that such deep insights of Excel were provided within a very short span of time.” Shashank Jain, vice president, Enactus
“The session delivered was in synchrony with company standards and expectations from a student and would really help to stand out in a competitive market.” Zulqarnain Sourathia, undergraduate student
“The session was really helpful and should happen every semester. But also need … more examples on difficult topics.” Christine Mankarious, undergraduate student
Alumni Corner
PhD Alumnus Min Chen’s Research Cited
Co-authored by JSOM faculty members Dr. Varghese Jacob, Dr. Suresh Radhakrishnan and Dr. Young Ryu, the study examined the process of identifying click fraud in pay-per-click advertising. In the study, published in the December issue of Information Systems Research, the researchers found that conflict between service providers and advertisers in identifying fraudulent clicks and the lack of information about the technology used by each does not incentivize either to improve their technologies.
“The advertiser wants to verify whether the click is fraudulent or not,” Ryu said. “Even if the click is valid, the advertiser may want to say it’s fraudulent because of the pay-per-click cost.”
The researchers suggested using an independent third-party investigator to identify fraudulent clicks when this conflict arises.
PhD Alumnus Wael Jabr Wins Best Paper Award
Dr. Wael Jabr, assistant professor of computer information systems at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business in Atlanta, won the Best Paper Award at the 2015 International Conference on Computer and Information Science and Technology in Ottawa, Canada, for his paper “The Fallacy of Fraudulent Reviews.” An enhanced version of the paper was accepted and presented at the WISE 2015 conference, which took place at the Jindal School in December. Jabr completed a PhD in management science at UT Dallas in 2011, with a focus on information systems.
PhD Alumni Publications
Ayabakan, Sezgin, I. Bardhan and Z. Zheng, “A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach to Estimate IT-Enabled Production Capability,” 2016, forthcoming in MIS Quarterly
Cezar, Asunur, H. Cavusoglu and S. Raghunathan, “Sourcing Information Security Operations: The Role of Risk Interdependency and Competitive Externality on Outsourcing Decisions,” Production and Operations Management, accepted March 2016.
Cezar, Asunur and H. Öğüt, “Analyzing Conversion Rates in Online Hotel Booking: The Role of Customer Reviews, Recommendations and Rank Order in Search Listings,” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 28, Issue 2, 2016, February 2016: 286-304.
Hann, Il-Horn, B. Koh and Marius F. Niculescu, “The Double-Edged Sword of Backward Compatibility: The Adoption of Multigenerational Platforms in the Presence of Intergenerational Services,” Information Systems Research, Vol. 27, Issue 1, March 2016: 112-130.
Kwark, Young, J. Chen and S. Raghunathan, “Platform or Wholesale? A Strategic Tool for Online Retailers to Benefit from Product Reviews,” MIS Quarterly, accepted March 2016.
Lee, Chul Ho, X. Geng and S. Raghunathan, “Mandatory Standards and Organizational Information Security,” Information Systems Research, Vol. 27, Issue 1, March 2016: 70-86.
Faculty Focus
New IS Faculty for Spring 2016
Dr. Amit Mehra joined UT Dallas as an associate professor of information systems this spring. Previously, he was an associate professor and executive director of the Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He is an associate editor at Information Systems Research, a journal for information systems, and a senior editor in the information systems-operations management interface section of the Production and Operations Management journal. He plays an active role in the organization of several prominent academic conferences, including the Conference on Information Systems and Technology, Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems and Production and Operations Management Society conference. He also is the creator of the ISB Digital Summit, an industry academia interface conference held annually at ISB.
Mehra’s research lies at the exciting intersection of analytics, digital media and technology-driven retailing. He also studies how technology can be used to create high-quality human capital. An underlying theme of his research is how personalization through the use of data can be leveraged to better serve customers or improve learning for students.
He has published his research in such top scholarly journals as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Management Information Systems Quarterly and the Production and Operations Management journal. He works closely with industry for his research. Companies he has worked with include Infosys, Myntra and Jivox.
He taught a graduate course on Web analytics at JSOM in the spring semester.
New IS Program Manager
Courtney Sturges joined the Information Systems Area as the program manager for the MS in ITM program last fall. Sturges earned her master’s degree in business administration at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. As the internship instructor, she coordinates all administrative aspects of the program, including internships and reporting requirements. She also communicates with current, new and prospective students to guide them through program requirements and career prospects, and she directs students to appropriate services offered by JSOM and the University.
Faculty Research Corner
Chen, Jianqing, M. Fan and M. Li, “Advertising Versus Brokerage Model for Online Trading Platforms,” MIS Quarterly, forthcoming.
Choudhary, Vidyanand and Z. Zhang, “Research Note—Patching the Cloud: The Impact of SaaS on Patching Strategy and the Timing of Software Release,” Information Systems Research, Vol. 26, Issue 4, December 2015: 845-858.
Geng, Xianjun and J. D. Shulman, “How Costs and Heterogeneous Consumer Price Sensitivity Interact with Add-On Pricing,”Production and Operations Management, Vol. 24, Issue 12, December 2015: 1870-1882.
Mu, L., M. Dawande, X. Geng and V. Mookerjee, “Milking the Quality Test: Improving the Milk Supply Chain Under Competing Collection Intermediaries,” Management Science, Vol. 62, Issue 5, May 2016: 1259-1277.
Raghunathan, Srinivasan and S. Sarkar, “Competitive Bundling in Information Markets: A Seller-Side Analysis,” MIS Quarterly, Vol. 40, Issue 1, March 2016: 111-131.
Shivendu, Shivendu and Z. Zhang,“Versioning in the Software Industry: Heterogeneous Disutility from Underprovisioning of Functionality,” Information Systems Research, 2015, Vol. 26, Issue 4, December 2015: 731-753.
Corporate Outreach
CITM to Host Big Data Contest
The Center for Information Technology and Management (CITM), in cooperation with Lennox International, will host the CITM Data Science Competition later this year. The competition will focus on using Apache open-source technologies to address big-data opportunities. CITM and Lennox will provide $3,000 in prize money, with Lennox also providing HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) data for analysis to participants in the competition. The prize money will be awarded to the top two teams.
“The students and I appreciate Lennox’s support and the opportunity to our students to work with real-world data to address real-world problems,” said Dr. Kelly Slaughter, the center’s director.
ITS Team Competes at SAP Co-Innovation Event
A UT Dallas team was chosen to compete in the SAP Co-Innovation Event hosted by Deloitte last October. The competition included 16 universities with teams consisting of three members each.
The UT Dallas team — ITS students Aaryamaan Atriwal, Margaret Quintero and Rodolfo Zolezzi — was presented with a case study regarding a global client whose main concerns were month-end closings, manual financial consolidations, multiple interfaces and increased costs of maintaining outdated systems. The client was in search of a global solution for financial consolidation, financial reporting, interfaces and system access via mobile and tablet devices. The teams were given nine hours to build a solution, which included a 20-minute presentation to Deloitte’s senior management along with an implementation strategy.
The UT Dallas team’s solution was to implement SAP ECC for financials, SAP APO for planning and forecasting, SAP PI for interfaces, SAP Fiori for devices and SAP HANA as a reporting solution. Once the solution was built, an implementation strategy was created that called for completion within six years. The UT Dallas team’s implementation strategy was a phased approach that began with Asia, then moved to the Americas and finally to Europe and the Middle East.
The competition gave the teams an opportunity to work as consultants. The solution came out of understanding the client’s needs, existing processes and systems, and the different SAP solutions available. This experience introduced them to SAP applications other than SAP ECC and the SAP Business Suite.
UT Dallas has been invited to participate again in the SAP Co-Innovation Event, in August. Three ITS and ITM students have been selected for the team.
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