IS launches new labs

The Department of Information Systems introduces two new initiatives to solve real-world problems and address questions of strategic importance to the digital society.

A trio of researchers from the Department of Information Systems quantified the "Uber effect" by completing the first study to prove that when the ride-hailing service enters an urban market, it reduces traffic congestion. From left, Assistant Professor of Information Systems Yili (Kevin) Hong; front left, Associate Professor of Information Systems Zhongju Zhang; and back, the principal investigator and PhD student Ziru Li. This study is one of several that have addressed questions through academic and applied research in the Digital Society Initiative lab. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.

Innovations, especially in research contexts, need focus in-depth and immersed effort into the research topic is a necessary first step to success. More and more researchers in the business domain have begun to embrace the need to take a deep-dive into stakeholder problems firsthand to champion use-inspired research. Faculty at the W. P. Carey School are at the forefront of this emerging trend. The Department of Information Systems faculty value the relevance of their research as highly as they persevere to bring a rigorous approach to their research projects.

To develop an even sharper focus into our research, we have launched two initiatives:

Actionable Analytics Lab

The Actionable Analytics Lab’s mission is to bridge the gap between academic research and applied execution. The focus is placed on solving real-world problems of high business impact and practicality. Professors Zhongju (John) Zhang and Victor Benjamin are co-directors of this new lab. Also, the lab has enlisted some researchers from across the business school to bring an interdisciplinary expertise to the research conducted under the lab’s mission including deep data analytics, machine learning, statistical modeling, econometric modeling, computational linguistics, social network analysis, stochastic modeling, and experimental economics.

Digital Society Initiative

The Digital Society Initiative is born out of the recognition that future societal prosperity will be defined by how we creatively use, deploy, and assimilate digital technologies in all the sectors of the economy and by how our culture is shaped by this paradigm shift. The initiative focuses on some related, high-impact research questions, including:

• What are the impacts of digital technologies on consumers, businesses, and the society?
• How does one measure these effects?
• How should digital technologies and systems be designed toward the common goal of the society?

Professors Benjamin Shao and Yili (Kevin) Hong are co-directors of this initiative. Also, the Digital Society Initiative has enlisted some researchers from across the business school for developing an interdisciplinary perspective to investigate the opportunities and challenges we face in designing the digital society.

These initiatives create new ways to engage with the Department of Information Systems and the W. P. Carey School of Business on the research front. I encourage KnowIT readers to peruse the offerings from the two new initiatives. We are actively looking for new industry partners to collaborate and develop our ideas. We look forward to working with you in defining new problems and developing innovative solutions.