BGSU’s Business Analytics Program Makes Global Impact; Presents Symposia in China Featuring World-Class Speakers

Bowling Green State University’s highly regarded business analytics and intelligence program is making a positive global impact and the chair of the BGSU Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research, Dr. Arthur Yeh, has earned the reputation as one of the leading university experts in business analytics in the U.S. For these reasons, Dr. Yeh has continued to be called upon by universities overseas to help organize and present business analytics symposia for global audiences.

In June, BGSU’s College of Business and the School of Management at Tianjin Polytechnic University (TPU) in China jointly held the second annual Business Analytics Symposium at TPU and added another symposium with a panel discussion at Beijing Information Science and Technology University (BISTU). “The Present and the Future of Analytics” was this year’s theme of the two symposia featuring world-class experts in the field of business analytics.

Dr. Xiaowei Shen, director of IBM Research – China and Chief Technology Officer of IBM Greater China Group, gave the keynote entitled “From Big Data to Cognitive Computing.” Dr. Shen spoke about cognitive computing, especially with regards to what IBM Watson may hold for the future of cognitive computing.

Prior to his IBM China assignment, Dr. Shen worked as a researcher at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.  He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

“The State of Business Analytics in China” was presented by two professors from Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in China.  Professor Chen Jian is the Lenovo Chair Professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering School of Economics and Management. Professor Jian was awarded the title of Changjiang Scholar by the Chinese Ministry of Education and he also received the Outstanding Scholar award from the National Science Foundation, among his prestigious honors.  Professor Jian is the author and co-author of more than 170 articles in Chinese and international publications.

The other presenting professor was Dr. Kaibo Wang from the Department of Industrial Engineering. He is also the deputy head of the Department of Industrial Engineering and vice executive director of the Institute for Quality and Reliability at Tsinghua University. Professor Wang has published more than 30 papers in SCI-index journals.

BGSU Professor Yeh delivered a presentation entitled “The State of Business Analytics in the United States” about the educational outlook in analytics related programs in the world.  His expertise lies in industrial statistics, particularly statistical quality control for manufacturing and non-manufacturing applications. He is currently working on a unique project that involves development and application of statistical quality control methodologies for health care and health surveillance-related problems.

Also representing BGSU at the symposia were College of Business Dean Ray Braun and Associate Dean Dr. Zubair Mohamed.

Besides co-hosting the China symposia, BGSU’s College of Business also established an innovative “3 + 1” partnership with TPU, an exchange of faculty and students. Last year four TPU faculty took seats in BGSU classrooms as “students” to learn how we teach statistics, operations research and MIS and then adopt similar teaching methods in their classrooms.  Over the summer, three BGSU faculty members went to TPU to teach classes in finance, statistics, and economics.

As part of the partnership, two cohorts of TPU students will arrive at BGSU in 2017 to complete their dual undergraduate business degrees.  They spent their first three years taking classes at TPU, some of which were taught by the BGSU faculty who went overseas this summer. For their fourth year of classes, TPU students will come to BGSU to earn a degree in business analytics and TPU will apply their credits toward a degree in management information systems.