Dr. B, what exactly do you do on your job?
Most people think that my job, as a business analytics & information systems professor, is to teach classes. In reality, that is less than half of what I actually do. My job, as a professor, is three-fold: creating knowledge ("research"), disseminating knowledge ("teaching"), and managing the knowledge creation/dissemination process ("service"), with approximately 50:45:5 workload between the three roles. On the teaching front, I teach a Ph.D/DBA class on research methods and MS classes on statistical data modeling, text analytics, and machine learning. On the service side, I serve on the editorial and review boards of academic journals in information systems, am a chair or member of several committees at USF, and was the Ph.D. director for USF School of Information Systems & Management for three years.
So what do you research?
For outsiders, research is the most "mysterious" part of my work! Well, I don't write programs in C++ or Java or Python, I don't design Oracle databases or data warehouses, and I don't write e-business plans for companies (though these are things I sometimes teach!). My primary area of research consists of understanding human behaviors related to using technologies in the workplace. I study the design and management of technological innovations, healthcare informatics, and dysfunctional use of social media. For instance, one of my projects examine why industry-leading firms like Nokia and American Airlines fail in some of their multi-million dollar IS projects (see this ComputerWorld article for some examples of such failures) and can't replicate their prior successes. The "usual suspects" commonly blamed for such failures, such as unclear specifications, lack of management support, inexperienced staff, bad project management, etc. do not apply to these companies, nor do they lack technological or financial resources. More examples of my research are available from my research page.
What do you gain by doing research?
Two benefits. First, research is creative, intellectually stimulating, and personally satisfying. It lets me ask hard questions that most corporate managers and consultants won't venture (because these questions often don't have easy answers and are sometimes unsolvable). I do research because I love doing it. Second, research gives me international acclaim and visibility; many people around the world, who never met me, know me purely by virtue of my research. As a result, I receive invitations to participate in research projects, present research seminars, and even unsolicited job offers!
Do we really need research? Why can't professors just focus on teaching?
You have to first create knowledge before you can teach it in the classroom. Research creates knowledge, which is ultimately channelized into books, classroom lectures, and corporate "best practices!" How can you possibly have a course in electromagnetics if no one researched electromagnetic theory first and figured out practical ways of applying that abstruse theory. However, like most good things in life, research is often misunderstood and unappreciated at the time it is done. For instance, Copernicus was stoned when he said that the earth rotates round the sun, but his research paved the way for today's space programs.
What did you do before you became an IS professor?
My bachelors and masters degrees were in an abstract science called "geophysics," which is a combination of geology, physics, and math, with large doses of computational procedures and electrical measurements, at the Indian Institute of Technology (click here if you wish to know more about IIT). I was trained in seismological data collection and processing techniques, that are used in a wide range of applications from oil exploration to plate tectonics.
Upon graduation, I worked with Citicorp, designing retail banking applications in Sybase and C (don't ask why anyone would hire a geophysicist to write banking software!). In 1990, I came to the USA to work for Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, a research facility in upstate New York, while pursuing graduate studies in marine seismology at Columbia University. At Lamont, I had the opportunity to participate in scientific expeditions to remote parts of the world like Tahiti, where we measured the rate of ocean floor spreading, examined the formation of volcanic islands like Tahiti, and mapped fracture zones on the ocean floor that are prone to seismic activity. Despite the fun and the sun, this seemed like a dead-end career, and given my background in data processing, I decided to try out an academic career in information systems. It was a little strange walking into a business Ph.D. program, with zero knowledge of business. Everyone I know (parents, professors, college deans, etc.) advised me against leaving an elite Ivy League program for a lowly business program. But I took that risk and it worked out well!
What are three interesting things about India?
How did India become an IT powerhouse and what is the future of IT there?
India became an IT powerhouse though a combination of (1) abundant low-cost labor, (2) skilled, English-educated workforce, and (3) inexpensive telecom bandwidth, that made it possible to deliver real-time services from India to the US/Europe. The type of jobs outsourced to India are very routine and structured, such as call center, financial analysis, tax services, radiology transcriptions, and legal services. With robotic process automation, however, many of these services are now being automated. So the IT workforce in India is poised for a major decline.
Dr. B, how do you spend your spare time?
Are you kidding me? Do I have spare time after 36-hour days? When I do have some time, I travel around the world, and play a little guitar. I have visited many different parts of the world: from Bangkok to Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Paris, London, Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Auckland, Stockholm, and even Tahiti, and lived in many scenic places such as New York, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and South Korea. Photos of these places are available at the "Photos" link on the top. I'm also a huge fan of heavy metal/hard rock/alt rock bands such as Def Leppard, Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Metallica, and U2, and I like going to rock/metal concerts. Quick quiz for the rock buffs out there: What was Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's original name?
Lastly, do you have any advice for students?
Certainly. First, to progress in life, you must take risks. Sometimes, such risks lead to failures, but you have to accept those failures, learn from them, and move on. Every failure in life is an opportunity to learn something new; people who have never failed have learnt very little. Second, life is tough and unfair, but that's the way it has been for most of us and that is the way that it will be for most of you! There's no point complaining about it; we just have to make the best of what we got. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Third, it is important to give back to society for all that we have received in return. It doesn't have to be money; volunteering time or effort for a worthy cause or assisting a person in need is just as good. It's one of those special things that makes us "humans".
Most people think that my job, as a business analytics & information systems professor, is to teach classes. In reality, that is less than half of what I actually do. My job, as a professor, is three-fold: creating knowledge ("research"), disseminating knowledge ("teaching"), and managing the knowledge creation/dissemination process ("service"), with approximately 50:45:5 workload between the three roles. On the teaching front, I teach a Ph.D/DBA class on research methods and MS classes on statistical data modeling, text analytics, and machine learning. On the service side, I serve on the editorial and review boards of academic journals in information systems, am a chair or member of several committees at USF, and was the Ph.D. director for USF School of Information Systems & Management for three years.
So what do you research?
For outsiders, research is the most "mysterious" part of my work! Well, I don't write programs in C++ or Java or Python, I don't design Oracle databases or data warehouses, and I don't write e-business plans for companies (though these are things I sometimes teach!). My primary area of research consists of understanding human behaviors related to using technologies in the workplace. I study the design and management of technological innovations, healthcare informatics, and dysfunctional use of social media. For instance, one of my projects examine why industry-leading firms like Nokia and American Airlines fail in some of their multi-million dollar IS projects (see this ComputerWorld article for some examples of such failures) and can't replicate their prior successes. The "usual suspects" commonly blamed for such failures, such as unclear specifications, lack of management support, inexperienced staff, bad project management, etc. do not apply to these companies, nor do they lack technological or financial resources. More examples of my research are available from my research page.
What do you gain by doing research?
Two benefits. First, research is creative, intellectually stimulating, and personally satisfying. It lets me ask hard questions that most corporate managers and consultants won't venture (because these questions often don't have easy answers and are sometimes unsolvable). I do research because I love doing it. Second, research gives me international acclaim and visibility; many people around the world, who never met me, know me purely by virtue of my research. As a result, I receive invitations to participate in research projects, present research seminars, and even unsolicited job offers!
Do we really need research? Why can't professors just focus on teaching?
You have to first create knowledge before you can teach it in the classroom. Research creates knowledge, which is ultimately channelized into books, classroom lectures, and corporate "best practices!" How can you possibly have a course in electromagnetics if no one researched electromagnetic theory first and figured out practical ways of applying that abstruse theory. However, like most good things in life, research is often misunderstood and unappreciated at the time it is done. For instance, Copernicus was stoned when he said that the earth rotates round the sun, but his research paved the way for today's space programs.
What did you do before you became an IS professor?
My bachelors and masters degrees were in an abstract science called "geophysics," which is a combination of geology, physics, and math, with large doses of computational procedures and electrical measurements, at the Indian Institute of Technology (click here if you wish to know more about IIT). I was trained in seismological data collection and processing techniques, that are used in a wide range of applications from oil exploration to plate tectonics.
Upon graduation, I worked with Citicorp, designing retail banking applications in Sybase and C (don't ask why anyone would hire a geophysicist to write banking software!). In 1990, I came to the USA to work for Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, a research facility in upstate New York, while pursuing graduate studies in marine seismology at Columbia University. At Lamont, I had the opportunity to participate in scientific expeditions to remote parts of the world like Tahiti, where we measured the rate of ocean floor spreading, examined the formation of volcanic islands like Tahiti, and mapped fracture zones on the ocean floor that are prone to seismic activity. Despite the fun and the sun, this seemed like a dead-end career, and given my background in data processing, I decided to try out an academic career in information systems. It was a little strange walking into a business Ph.D. program, with zero knowledge of business. Everyone I know (parents, professors, college deans, etc.) advised me against leaving an elite Ivy League program for a lowly business program. But I took that risk and it worked out well!
What are three interesting things about India?
- The world's first university, Nalanda University, was located in Takshila, India from about 1200 BC to about 1200 AD. Over 10,000 students from all over the world studied here in more than 60 disciplines. It had a library of 800,000 books, mostly hand-written. This Hindu-Buddhist university was destroyed in 1193 AD by Turkic chieftian Bakhtier Khilji.
- The Arabic numeral system (numbers 0-9 that we use today), formally called the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, was actually invented in India. So how did the Arabs get credit for it? They used it to manage their trade and brought it to the rest of the world. Before the Arabic system, we had the Roman numeral system (I, II, III, IV, .. IX, X, C, L, ...). You can imagine how complex that was, and it did not have a zero!
- Sushruta, an Indian health scientist, is the father of modern surgery. He demonstrated 2600 years ago how to do complex surgical procedures such as cesareans, artificial legs, fractures, urinary stones, and even plastic surgery and brain surgery.
How did India become an IT powerhouse and what is the future of IT there?
India became an IT powerhouse though a combination of (1) abundant low-cost labor, (2) skilled, English-educated workforce, and (3) inexpensive telecom bandwidth, that made it possible to deliver real-time services from India to the US/Europe. The type of jobs outsourced to India are very routine and structured, such as call center, financial analysis, tax services, radiology transcriptions, and legal services. With robotic process automation, however, many of these services are now being automated. So the IT workforce in India is poised for a major decline.
Dr. B, how do you spend your spare time?
Are you kidding me? Do I have spare time after 36-hour days? When I do have some time, I travel around the world, and play a little guitar. I have visited many different parts of the world: from Bangkok to Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Paris, London, Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Auckland, Stockholm, and even Tahiti, and lived in many scenic places such as New York, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and South Korea. Photos of these places are available at the "Photos" link on the top. I'm also a huge fan of heavy metal/hard rock/alt rock bands such as Def Leppard, Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Metallica, and U2, and I like going to rock/metal concerts. Quick quiz for the rock buffs out there: What was Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's original name?
Lastly, do you have any advice for students?
Certainly. First, to progress in life, you must take risks. Sometimes, such risks lead to failures, but you have to accept those failures, learn from them, and move on. Every failure in life is an opportunity to learn something new; people who have never failed have learnt very little. Second, life is tough and unfair, but that's the way it has been for most of us and that is the way that it will be for most of you! There's no point complaining about it; we just have to make the best of what we got. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Third, it is important to give back to society for all that we have received in return. It doesn't have to be money; volunteering time or effort for a worthy cause or assisting a person in need is just as good. It's one of those special things that makes us "humans".
