Ramanathan Urges Academic Community to Learn, Embrace Appropriate Use of Technologies
Canadian Institute for Knowledge Development (CIKD) is holding the 3rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operation Research in Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey, on February 11, 2020.
IE conference will host two prominent professors in the fields of Operations Management, Information Systems, and Supply Chain Management Ram Ramanathan and Vikas Kumar.
CIKD’s marketing department has conducted exclusive interviews with them, on a different range of issues. Here you can read Ram Ramanathan’s comments and ideas.
In previous posts, you can read interviews made with Prof. Luis Alberiko Gil-Alaña and Prof. Luigi Guiso, two prominent keynote speakers of CIKD’s ICNDBM conference.
Expressing his appreciation for CIKD’s prominent contribution in organizing special events to form a platform for communication, networking, and knowledge transfer, Ram Ramanathan said the conferences held by the Canadian Institute for Knowledge Development (CIKD) provide great experiences and opportunities for attendees.
“I followed the first two editions of the conference in Tbilisi and Ankara with excellent keynote speakers at the second conference. CIKD is doing an excellent job in organizing what is becoming a great conference,” he added.
As a keynote speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operation Research, Ram Ramanathan worked at the division of Operations Management and Information Systems at Nottingham University Business School, where he was an associate professor and divisional research director, and successfully completed a research project aimed at understanding how environmental regulations and other pressures force UK manufacturing firms to improve their environmental performance.
On the importance of holding a conference on Industrial Engineering today, Ramanathan noted that Industrial Engineering helps organizations optimize the use of their resources through systematical analysis of industrial processes.
He expressed his consent to the topic of CIKD’s IE conference, saying it is very relevant as both industrial engineering and operational research are important not only to help improve the financial bottom-line for industries but also the triple bottom-line to improve sustainability.
Ram’s comments are very apt, to the point, and are worth considering because he works extensively on various facets of operations management including management of logistics and supply chains. He has interests in approaching operations management activities from an environmental sustainability point of view. He has worked in the field of e-commerce, especially in understanding how electronic technologies have helped firms in improving not only their operations but also their marketability (customer loyalty).
Ramanathan highlighted that students’ (the audiences’) understanding of the context of the lecture and following the lecture as it progresses, is the key to the successful delivery of lectures.
He underlined that “a couple of minutes to allow students to think about the topic and get their expectations will help set the tone.”
As the lecture progresses, Ramanathan added, a number of examples should be used to illustrate the concepts and students should be encouraged to share their experiences.
“Sometimes, even seemingly simple experience of a student can fit the context of the lecture very well,” he noted.
Ramanathan highly regarded the need for increasing the level of interactivity with all students to improve lectures further, adding “I would try to; this will not only ensure that students are engaged but also helps me to learn more from my students.”
Regarding the role of current and new technological methods or information in improving his job, Ramanathan said “the academic community, like other counterparts, should be willing to learn and embrace appropriate use of technologies.”
He highlighted the need for learning new technologies as they are developed, understanding the pros and cons, and using them effectively to support lectures and other research projects.
“Our REAMIT project (www.reamit.eu), on which I shall be delivering my Key Note at the conference, is an apt example as we try to use new big data and IoT technologies to help reduce food waste along supply chains,” he added.
What crucial and important scientific research questions do you suggest for young scholars and researchers to study in the current situation in your field of study? How do you think the upcoming IE conference can help resolve these problems and questions?
Pointing out that Industrial Engineering, Operations Management and Operations Research essentially deal with supporting industries and organizations in being more efficient in their operations, Ramanathan suggested young scholars and researchers in these areas look for ways to improve operations and make them more efficient and develop research questions along these lines.
Pointing to the CIKD’s IE conference, he said it is interesting to note that the upcoming conference has a number of relevant themes that address lots of cutting edge research in industry-relevant areas.
“It has themes around several application domains (e.g., transportation, warehouse, manufacturing, operations, and service), several tools of analysis (MCDM, optimization, DEA, and Game Theory) and also facilitating elements (e.g., technology, ergonomics, and innovation),” he further explained.
In response to the most important factors for an organizer to attract the audience and help the conference guarantee its popularity in general and at its next editions, he said “in the era of significant number of global conferences, it is important that organizers identify a niche area and target the correct population to guarantee success.”
Regarding the different factors to achieve success in organizing an event, he named the following items:
Working with an established society in the relevant field (e.g., CIKD)
Developing attractive topical themes (e.g., big data, IoT, innovation) that would attract budding researchers
Choosing attractive locations
Arranging keynote speeches with well-known established leading researchers that have a good following
As a practical suggestion to enhance the popularity of IE conference in the next editions, he said “if some of the sessions (e.g., workshops) in the conference are CPD accredited, that may attract more audience.”