Victor H. Gutierrez-Velez never expected his work to lead him to the topic of public health. His expertise lies in remote sensing science, analyzing data such as satellite images. “Every day, numerous satellite images are taken,” says Gutierrez-Velez. And the information drawn from these images has both academic and commercial applications.
For example, satellite images can help prescribe management, fertilization, irrigation, and other activities in precision agriculture, according to Gutierrez-Velez. They can help the insurance industry assess risks related to flooding or other natural disasters, or to verify crop insurance complains. Satellite imagery can allow energy companies to pinpoint the ideal location for solar panels. And this kind of data, it turns out, can even come in handy when it comes to fighting certain diseases.
To that end, partnering with colleagues with expertise in biology and public health, Gutierrez-Velez, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts, has recently been drawn to an unlikely research subject: mosquitoes. Specifically, the tiger mosquito (scientific name: aedes albopictus). What’s so interesting about this tiny, blood-sucking bug?
“It’s worrisome. They can spread the Zika virus and other dangerous diseases,” says Gutierrez-Velez.
In 2016 when the Zika pandemic caught his interest, mosquitoes dominated the headlines. Once thought to be limited to tropical and subtropical regions, the tiger mosquito had expanded its territory into most continents. Climate change plays a role, but these mosquitoes are also particularly aggressive. They’re among the 100 most invasive species in the world. In the 1980s, they were first spotted in the U.S. in Texas. Today, they reach as far north as Connecticut. Their presence in Pennsylvania remains an ongoing public health concern.
For his project, a recipient of the Office for the Vice President of Research‘s Targeted Grant Program and supported by the Data Science Institute housed at the Fox School, Gutierrez-Velez decided to look at multiple datasets, including climate data, information gathered from sampling for the presence of the tiger mosquito, land cover data, and census information. Gutierrez-Velez believes that with these and other datasets as inputs, machine learning and advanced algorithms can be used to predict the locations of tiger mosquito populations in advance of the season.
One of the most interesting possible findings of this research is that the tiger mosquito is less of a rural dweller than previously thought. “What we’re finding contradicts conventional wisdom about where these mosquitoes live. They are becoming domesticated animals. They prefer to be where lots of humans are living closely together—in cities. Because they love our blood,” says Gutierrez-Velez.
Scientific curiosity led Gutierrez-Velez to census data, which is not necessarily an obvious source of information to predict the presence or absence of a small flying bug. “If they feed on humans, human behavior should have something to do with it,” he says. And it does seem like including this data makes for a more accurate prediction about where the mosquitoes will go next.
Gutierrez-Velez’s ultimate goal for the project is to perfect a reliable working model that can be used to predict the upcoming mosquito season. Knowing that a particularly bad mosquito season is about to start will give officials the opportunity to plan in advance.
For example, the most affected areas can be targeted for treatment before the problem becomes unmanageable. Residents could be strongly cautioned in advance of the season to deal with housing-related conditions, such as places that collect standing water, which act as mosquito breeding areas. In the event that mosquitoes are spreading Zika or another virus, these protections could even save lives.
“There’s a lot we can do if we have a model that can say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be a bad year for mosquitoes, get ready,’” says Gutierrez-Velez.
This story was originally published in On the Verge, the Fox School’s flagship research magazine. For more stories, visit www.fox.temple.edu/ontheverge.
In the Winter 2018 issue of Fox Focus, readers were introduced to a group of Fox students who were among the first to participate in the school’s new and improved Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Core Curriculum. The curriculum was redesigned with innovation in mind and focuses on topics such as critical thinking, communication and quantitative reasoning skills.
Fox undergraduate students use these skills every day. The editorial team checked in with Nasir Mack, Meredith Orme and Robert Zurzolo to see what has changed for each of them in the last year.
Nasir Mack, a business management major, has taken on more leadership roles in his extracurricular activities. He is now the strategic partnership coordinator of the Fox Student Philanthropic Society, and he is involved with the Dean’s Student Advisory Council, which is a diverse group of students working shape the school’s culture. He is also starting to explore whether he wants to major or minor in something that will build upon his creative, artistic side, such as Marketing.
“Last year, I was constantly grinding away and pushing for more and more. Now that I am more comfortable in myself and my education, I am learning to stride and pace myself,” Mack says.
Meredith Orme, now double majoring in accounting and legal studies, is involved with student professional organizations (SPOs) on campus and is an intern for the Philadelphia Flyers. Since her freshman year, Orme discovered that she is interested in a career in forensic accounting.
“While my classes have taught me a lot, I think the most important skill I have learned is how to present myself,” Orme says. “I am much more sure of myself and confident in who I am and what I want. I am not only more confident in how I present myself, but in my set of skills. I’ve also learned how to communicate effectively and how to be much more straightforward.”
Robert Zurzolo, after changing his major a few times over the course of the last year, decided on double majoring in finance and accounting in order to pursue a career in investment banking or private equity. Currently, Zurzolo is studying abroad at Temple University’s campus in Rome, Italy. In addition to attending classes and exploring Europe, he has gotten back to his hobby of playing soccer.
“I feel that I have grown as a student; I take more pride in my assignments,” he says. “During my time abroad I have become more appreciative of the opportunities that I have been given, both here and back at home, and it has also reaffirmed my desire to travel as much as possible in the future.”
This story was originally published in Fox Focus, the Fox School’s alumni magazine.
Fox Commits to a Future Rooted in Our Community
May 15, 2019 //
The 2018-2019 academic year was a transformative one. It saw the establishment of programs including a flexible 30-credit Master of Science in Statistics and Data Science, and the opening of centers like the Fischer-Shain Center for Financial Services. The school also embarked on a journey of strategic reinvention in order to set the stage for the future of the Fox School.
Since the strategic planning process began, the Fox School community has been part of the process. The Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF) engaged students, faculty and staff via in-person activities and events and alumni via virtual town halls. All of these groups were surveyed and participated in focus groups in order to share their ideas and expectations for the mission, vision, culture, values and goals for the school.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
“It’s really an exciting time to be a part of Fox,” says Meredith Okenquist, director of the alumni career and professional development for the Center for Student Professional Development (CSPD). Okenquist is also a member of the SPTF and a part-time MBA alumna. “There has been a tremendous effort to really assess where we have been in the past as a school, where we are currently and how we are going to move forward.”
“These declarations are a cornerstone in the foundation we are building for the future of our school,” says Interim Dean Ronald Anderson. “This process of identifying the important qualities of an institution allows us to build our future from the ground up. With a defined vision and mission guided by our culture and values, we can create a significant and substantial set of goals to pursue in our next five to seven years.”
It is the culmination of all of these activities that serve as the basis for the Fox School’s Strategic Declarations:
VISION
To transform students’ lives, develop leaders and impact our local and global communities through excellence and innovation in education and research.
MISSION
The Fox School of Business transforms our students into socially responsible professionals and leaders, through engagement with Fox communities committed to lifelong learning, service and the advancement of management practice.
CULTURE
The Fox School of Business is home to a community focused on excellence in the creation, application and dissemination of knowledge. The Fox School thrives on collegiality, collaboration and competition, guided by a strong sense of ethics and trust. We foster transparency, open communication and inclusion. Grounded in the power of our values, we combine thought leadership with an entrepreneurial spirit to develop future leaders. We reward innovation and encourage everyone to be forward-thinking, entrepreneurial, action-oriented and empowered. Our community is strong, diverse, connected and proud.
VALUES
Values define the principles that guide expected behavior in an organization. Our shared values guide our actions and describe how we behave in the world.
These values are the underpinning of our culture and the essence of our mission.
- Collaboration: We work together to achieve common objectives, and we recognize, reward and encourage cross-disciplinary efforts.
- Diversity and Inclusion: We encourage and respect diversity in all forms and perspectives, and we create an inclusive, welcoming environment where everyone is emboldened to reach their full potential.
- Empowerment: We support, recognize and reward people by providing them with the tools and resources they need to learn, develop and succeed. In so doing, we challenge and encourage one another to persevere and excel in these pursuits.
- Ethics and Integrity: We create an atmosphere where trust, honesty and transparency are expected, valued and recognized.
- Innovation: We embrace innovative thinking, unique action and challenging norms while seeking solutions that solve problems and have a positive impact on our community.
More information about the strategic plan will be unveiled this summer. Stay tuned!
A personalized touch can make all the difference.
When you log into Amazon, Netflix, or Facebook, one of the first things you see are recommendations for products, shows, or friends you may know—all based on things you have already bought, watched, or liked.
Recommender systems have eliminated the time-consuming effort of understanding and anticipating what exactly users want, sometimes before they know they want it. Using vast collections of detailed data points, data scientists can create a trail of digital breadcrumbs, which follows Internet users as each sale, search, and interaction becomes part of an algorithm for new suggestions. These platforms can predict and encourage your next shopping sprees, binges, and bucket lists.
In the private sector, companies have long been using technology-enhanced learning in order to proactively suggest and anticipate their consumers’ choices. But how can these mechanisms be most effectively applied to academia?
“We have to learn something new every day,” says Dr. Konstantin Bauman, assistant professor in the Management Information Systems (MIS) Department at the Fox School of Business. “With the traditional path, we go to university, take some courses, meet with the instructor once a week, and go to lectures. But today, there are many different types of tools and materials available online that are able to educate large groups in a personalized and direct way.”
Educational companies like Coursera, Lynda.com and the Khan Academy already use recommender systems to suggest courses their users may like, based on their history. Bauman, however, wanted to know whether personalized e-learning can help students struggling to comprehend a particular subject.
“Education is one important application of recommender systems for society to target materials for specific learning paths,” says Bauman.
Bauman, along with co-author Alexander Tuzhilin of New York University’s Stern School of Business, examined the personalized e-learning systems approach with the help of a tuition-free online university. By using curricula from 42 classes and test results from 910 students over three semesters, the researchers created a system to pinpoint—and address—specific areas within a student’s comprehension that needed improvement.
The team reported their findings in the paper, “Recommending Remedial Learning Materials to Students by Filling Their Knowledge Gaps,” which was published in MIS Quarterly in 2018.
In this real-life experiment throughout the 2014-2015 academic year, Bauman’s team identified where students’ knowledge waned and provided materials to supplement these gaps. “Instead of revising the entire lesson, we provided catered lessons to fill those gaps,” says Bauman.
The students had diverse backgrounds, from both the United States and developing countries, and studied in a variety of programs, from business to computer science to art history. The researchers split the students into three groups: a control group that received no recommendations, a group that received non-personalized recommendations, and a group that received recommendations tailored to the individual student.
Bauman and his team created taxonomies that mapped all the topics covered within a specific course, built a library of remedial learning materials, and matched test questions with course topics. After analyzing test scores, the researchers identified the students’ weaknesses. The students in the non-personalized group received generic recommendations for the course, while students in the personalized group received remedial materials for specific topics that were identified via testing.
“First, we showed that most of the students who received our recommendations found them relevant and helpful,” says Bauman. Second, the “average” students, who received a test score between 70 and 90 in previously taken courses, were most affected by personalized recommendations. “These students improved their performance on the final exams significantly more, in comparison to their prior performance before they received personalized recommendations than the students from the control group.” For this subset of students, the personalized group received an average grade of 83.22 in their final exams, while the control group scored an average of 79.39.
The study received limited interactions with students who were classified as “falling behind” (those whose previous grade averages were below 70) as only six students who received personalized recommendations actually clicked on the materials. Similarly, students who were “excellent” (with average grades above 90) were less likely to need remedial lessons.
Bauman found that, by determining specific materials needed to supplement their understanding, students saved time and energy in preparation for their exams.
“Learning systems have the capability of picking up patterns and behaviors that can clearly predict necessary methods that are worthwhile and timely,” says Bauman. For students and professors, time that may be used to teach a specific lesson can be accomplished through recommender systems, saving more time for interactions that encourage new ideas and understandings.
One thing is for sure—when it’s time to come back for more, a new suggestion will be waiting.
This story was originally published in On the Verge, the Fox School’s flagship research magazine. For more stories, visit www.fox.temple.edu/ontheverge.
In the early ’80s, John Milligan, BBA ’75, faced a choice: remain in a dead-end job or set out on his own. Milligan decided to move on, build his own diverse accounting firm and create opportunities for minorities. over 30 years later, his business Milligan & Company LLC is the largest minority-owned CPA firm in the Philadelphia region and a champion for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
As a teen in Norristown, PA, Milligan never thought about owning a business or attending college. He dropped out of high school after 10th grade and joined the Navy, serving for four years. After two years of junior college in California, Milligan returned to the Philadelphia area. On the recommendation of a friend, he enrolled at Temple University.
Being one of the few students of color in his classes, he felt out of place at school but he received support and guidance from his professors. They encouraged him to consider public accounting, connected him with employers and coached him through interviews. Milligan graduated magna cum laude with an offer from Coopers & Lybrand, the largest accounting firm in the city at that time.
Milligan left Coopers & Lybrand after nine years when it became apparent that leadership was not ready to make an African American a partner at the firm. However, his experiences there were formative. Not only did he learn the basics of public accounting and auditing, but he also learned about entrepreneurship and running small businesses.
“I had a mentor [Bruce Cohen] at Coopers & Lybrand who really helped me focus not only on becoming a good auditor but also being a good entrepreneur,” says Milligan. “So when I made my decision to leave, that experience and that mentoring really helped me prepare to start my own CPA firm.”
With his staffing choices, business practices and outside endeavors, Milligan has surpassed his initial goal to establish a more diverse accounting firm. Today, approximately 50 percent of Milligan & Company’s employees are minorities and 75 percent of the employees are women. He has made a commitment to support minority-owned businesses in his personal and professional life.
One of the most important decisions he made was to get involved in government programs for small businesses and work with government agencies. Milligan & Company was, for a number of years, a member of the Small Business Administration’s 8(A) Business Development Program. This program offers a broad scope of assistance to firms that are owned and controlled at least 51 percent by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. After outgrowing the program, Milligan’s company now provides assistance to other businesses seeking 8(A) certification.
Milligan & Company managed the Philadelphia Minority Business Development Center for eighteen years. “That was very rewarding,” he says. “We helped literally hundreds of businesses with their business and marketing plans, and get bank loans.”
Milligan also created a nonprofit, the Greater Philadelphia Minority Business Strategic Alliance (GPMBA), a network of twenty organizations dedicated to promoting the growth of minority business enterprises with shared resources and collaboration. While GPMBA is no longer operational, one of their most important partnerships remains; Milligan sponsors SCORE, a network of expert business mentors, by providing them with office space in Center City.
Milligan’s interest in community service isn’t limited to his work with entrepreneurs and small businesses. He has served on the boards of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Norristown Area School District Education Foundation, and Montgomery Hospital in Norristown. He is currently the president of the Greater Norristown NAACP. The Fox School Department of Accounting will honor John Milligan with the Community Service Award at the 2019 Accounting Achievement Awards.
“It’s rewarding to be able to have an impact on people and their lives and know somehow you helped other people reach their full potential.”
“For me, this is not just an opportunity to flesh out a business venture,” says graduating senior Daniel Couser. “I’m working to really find a solution to a problem that I’ve seen so many people struggle with.”
The problem: Anxiety. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults ages 18 and older. Couser, an entrepreneurship and innovation management major, is currently developing a device that has the potential to provide relief for 18.1% of the population every year.
“A friend I grew up with had terrible anxiety. It was then that I realized what an interruption this disorder can be in someone’s life—the physical manifestations, the emotional toll,” he says. “I found that there weren’t really options on the market to combat anxiety other than medication and breathing techniques.”
Couser is the CEO and founder of Kovarvic LLC, a medical technology company that designs tools to manage cognitive disorders like anxiety. The company’s flagship product is CALM, a handheld device that uses a series of vibrations to relieve anxiety. After learning about research that explored the potential of using vibrations, electrotherapy or light can stimulate the brain to thwart fight-or-flight impulses.
Over the course of about 18 months, Couser began working with business advisors, medical technology companies and a consumer device company to discuss the feasibility of his new idea. He also partnered with the Blackstone LaunchPad at Temple, an organization that helps students get their inventions and companies off the ground, and CALM began to take shape.
Then, in 2018, his pitch for CALM won the undergraduate track of the Be Your Own Boss Bowl®, an annual business-plan competition hosted at the Fox School of Business. The process of working with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI) was tremendously helpful for Couser. He explains that the IEI team helped him deconstruct his ideas to build them up bigger and better, and exposed him to a vast and lively entrepreneurial network.
“On top of the prize money, it added credibility to my company and help to legitimize my idea,” he says.
After graduation, Couser will work on Kovarvic LLC and CALM full-time. The team is in the middle of a clinical trial for CALM, and he is continuing to research and beta test the technical as well as the usability of the product.
“I plan to continue the long, full, rewarding days building out CALM,” says Couser.
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
The Class of 2019 from the Fox School is full of high achievers. Jonathan Huynh is one of them, but he took a path unique to undergraduate students—a deep dive into research.
“I have always been purpose-driven,” says Huynh. “The education I’ve received at Fox has constantly challenged me to delve deeper into concepts and ideas and look at them from an out-of-the-box perspective.”
Huynh is a part of the first graduating class of undergraduate students with a Statistical Science and Data Analytics (SSDA) major at the Fox School. Looking back at his journey, “I actually started out in actuarial science, but ultimately got drawn to [this program],” says Huynh. “I liked the idea of being able to gain quantitative and analytics skills to translate large data sets into meaningful solutions.”
Dr. Pallavi Chitturi, deputy chair of the Statistical Science Department, says that the new undergraduate major in Statistical Science and Data Analytics is highly rigorous. “Students get a solid foundation in statistical methods, programming languages and statistical computing, which is why the major is gaining popularity among students and employers alike,” says Chitturi.
It is rare to see an undergraduate student so deeply involved in high-quality research. “My first exposure to research was through Dr. Robert Pred, the academic director of the Fox Business Honors program,” says Huynh. ”My friend and I did an independent research project over the summer of 2017 and Dr. Pred helped set us up with an advisor to oversee our research.”
Since then, Huynh became involved with data science research projects at Temple’s College of Public Health. One of the ongoing projects that Huynh is working on compares the difference between the cost to patients and their outcomes at the Temple University Hospital versus other hospitals in the area. “Dr. Michael Halpern, an associate professor in the College of Public Health, reached out to us as they were looking for a research assistant with strong statistical skills and Jonathan was a perfect fit,” says Chitturi, who presented Huynh with this opportunity. “Dr. Halpern was so impressed by the quality of his work that he later hired another student from the SSDA major.”
Huynh largely attributes his early success to the well-designed and differentiated curriculum at the Fox School. “I’ve seen how beneficial it is to have technical skills backed by an understanding of business for courses in data science,” Huynh says. “It allows you to be at the intersection of knowing how to comfortably work with data to drive business decisions–a skill that recruiters highly value.”
Huynh plans on pursuing a master’s degree in the near future and is looking at specialized fields of data science such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. When asked if a doctorate in data science is in the cards, Huynh says he believes education is a matter of continuous learning. “Even if I don’t pursue formal education [like a PhD], I will always be self-learning… and keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies,” says Huynh.
Huynh‘s ultimate goal is to run a startup that uses data science to solve important problems that have the potential to improve the world. “I have always had entrepreneurial aspirations,” says Huynh. “The connections that I have made at Fox and the experiential learning opportunities I’ve had here have really shaped my perspectives and prepared me to achieve these goals.” He has already started on this journey, having participated in 2019 Be Your Own Boss Bowl ® pitch competition and winning the “Crowd Favorite” award.
As of now, Huynh is all set to begin his foray into the corporate world as a Business Technology Analyst at Deloitte in the Government and Public Sector practice. Huynh says, “The thing I am most excited about is to be able to make a real impact in the everyday lives of people, as I will be working on projects with government agencies to make the lives of people easier.”
Learn more about programs in the Department of Statistical Science.
Graduating from college is a time of excitement, anticipation and anxiety for many. Completing a degree is an achievement to celebrate, and the Class of 2019 will do just that at commencement on May 9 in the Liacouras Center. They will be surrounded by their friends, family, classmates and professors that helped make success a possibility for each of them.
Hundreds of undergraduate students will be receiving BBA’s from the Fox School. To get in the spirit of the season, we caught up with a few graduating seniors to discuss their experiences at the Fox School and what’s next.
Brooke Schisler
Major: Marketing and Supply Chain Management
SPO: Temple University’s Supply Chain Management Association (TU-SCA)
New job: Associate Business Consultant for JDA Software in Dallas, TX
What’s next for Brooke: After graduation, Brooke will be traveling a bit before starting her new job. In June, she will visit Portland with her family. Then, Brooke plans to take a road trip down to her new home in Dallas, exploring the U.S. on her way.
In her position as an associate business consultant, she is part of a one and a half year program where she will work on a variety of projects across diverse industries. After that, if she decides that consulting is right for her, her options for relocation are nearly limitless with JDA Software. If not, Brooke will utilize her network and connections to find the right industry for her. Mainly, Brooke plans to continuously learn and grow as a business professional.
Advice for future Fox students: “Get involved early on. Find what you love to do, and always express a passion about it,” she says. “During interviews and networking opportunities, being able to express and articulate passion sets you apart from the rest.”
Andrea Behler
Major: Management Information Systems
SPO: Association for Information Systems (AIS)
New job: Risk Advisory Staff at Ernst & Young
Andrea’s experiences at the Fox School and plans for her future: As a junior, Andrea joined the Events Committee for AIS, where she helped plan a host of social and community service events. She also participated in the Data Analytics Competition and the AIS National Case Competition and was selected as a finalist for both awards.
She later presented her case study at the AIS Student Chapter Leadership Conference at the University of Texas, Dallas and won third place for the competition. This year, Temple is hosting the conference, and she was a member of the committee that planned and selected proposals for workshops and panels at the conference.
After graduation, Andrea accepted a full-time position as a Risk Advisory Staff at Ernst & Young.
“The Center for Student Professional Development (CSPD) has helped me greatly in my professional journey,” she says. “I attended everything I could: Professional workshops, career fairs, leadership panels and coffee chats, to network and learn more about specific careers that were calling to me until I decided I wanted to do consulting.”
Georges Ngayap
Major: Actuarial Science
Volunteer organization: Big Brother Big Sisters of America
New job: Actuarial Associate at Prudential Financial
Georges’s life at the Fox School and the role of social responsibility: The highlight of Georges’s time at Temple University was being a Big Brother through the Big Brother Big Sisters of America program. With his mentee, George explored his aspirations and fears, discovered what he wanted for his future and learned the importance of social responsibility. As George embarks on the next stage of his career as an actuarial associate at Prudential Financial, his Little Brother is in high school working toward his goal of being a writer.
“At the start of my journey at Fox, a degree in Actuarial Science seemed like a bold move because, until then, I had nothing but the Internet and my love for mathematics to guide me through a future in this obscure field,” he says. “At that time, success seemed improbable. Yet, in a few weeks, I will start my career as an actuarial associate in a Fortune 100 company.”
Cesar Martinez
Major: Marketing
SPO: American Marketing Association (AMA)
New job: Marketing Associate at SRS Distribution
Experience Getting CSPD’d: The first in his family to attend college, Cesar was treading new territory as a freshman at the Fox School. He received support from the Fox community and utilized the services provided at CSPD to help with professional development. As a member of AMA, Cesar was able to attend various workshops and guest speaker events that enhanced his knowledge of business.
What’s next for Cesar: By attending Fall Connection, an event hosted by CSPD that links Fox students with business professionals, he was able to meet with his future employer. After graduation, Cesar will start his career at SRS Distribution and is excited to join the ranks of the thriving community of Temple University alumni.
We wish these students and the entire Class of 2019 good luck as they embark on the next phase of their careers or education!
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, especially in education.
For years, academics and business executives alike have questioned whether the insights from business school research conducted are getting into the hands of those who need it. The debate about “rigor versus relevance” is age-old. While the answer may seem simple, the process of getting there is complex.
The Fox School of Business is committed to pushing this conversation forward. On Friday, March 29, the Fox School’s Translational Research Center (TRC) hosted the 2019 Impact Summit, bringing together deans, faculty and students from across disciplines and parts of the world to determine how schools can move the needle of impact in tangible ways.
The attendees sought to answer the question: How can business school leadership change the way research is conceived, produced and implemented to prioritize impact?
These are five lessons business school leaders can apply:
1. Start at the top. “It takes time to re-engineer a school at a systems level,” said Tarun Khanna, a professor at the Harvard Business School. However, a top-down perspective is key to encouraging institutional change.
Jerry Davis, associate dean at the Ross School of Business, highlighted the University of Michigan’s experiments with the promotion process. By making research impact a more significant part of an associate professor’s evaluation, he advised, deans can use promotion structures to affect change in the way their faculty conduct research. Getting top business schools across the country to agree on a new evaluation structure would be even more influential.
2. Instill impact’s importance early. The attendees also discussed tackling the issue of impact from the opposite side—starting with junior faculty and doctoral students. Elizabeth Cowley, deputy dean of the University of Syndey, said that in Australia, “faculty are encouraged to build a narrative of the long-term impact [they] have had on some sector of society.” Attendees agreed, remarking on the importance of letting junior faculty members define for themselves how they would want to make an impact and develop a strategy based on that objective. With doctoral students, the starting point should be their research questions—advisors should ask if it is grounded in a real-life phenomenon and has relevance in the business world.
3. Systematically engage with business. “Business leaders tend to look at our schools primarily as labor markets for sourcing the MBAs and business graduates,” said Joanne Li, dean of the business school at Florida International University. “We need to help them recognize us as knowledge markets as well. We are able to produce expert knowledge vital for their business growth and survival.”
Brent Beardsley, the chief strategy officer at Vanguard, talked about the value of an advisory board made up of executives, entrepreneurs and academics. “That mix is really rich,” he said. “This is a lab outside of the walls of Vanguard’s large institution that can get out in front of market trends and themes.”
Participants championed the creation of a brokerage platform between companies and universities that could connect those who have real problems to those working on practical solutions. Simple activities like business sabbaticals for faculty, corporate engagement in research projects and programs like Fox Management Consulting can help faculty to better define their research questions.
4. Use teaching as a tool. One speaker suggests a change in vocabulary to underscore the importance of teaching. “We shouldn’t be referring to a ‘teaching load,’ said Gautam Ahuja of SC Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. “It’s not a load, it’s a tool.” Academic leadership can encourage faculty to step into the shoes of learners, focus on practical insights in the classrooms and foster intellectual questions with relevance. Stronger connections to industry, through practitioner conferences, relationships with practice faculty and co-teaching with executives can also benefit classroom outcomes.
5. Be a community hub. Business schools will also benefit from a stronger community connection. “We should be known by the community where they can come to get ideas,” said Will Mitchell, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Attendees brainstormed ways to make research more accessible but noted that faculty will need different reward structures and training to bring that to fruition. Ideas like three-minute presentations or one-page summaries of academic papers can help get ideas out of academia and into the real world.
Ronald Anderson, interim dean of the Fox School, remarked at the end of the day that a lot was learned. “Disruption is going to have to be part of the process,” he said. “Technology and innovation are changing higher education, and research is going to have to address that.”
The event, a follow-up to the 2018 Editors’ Summit, is part of a series of initiatives by the TRC to change how both academics and practitioners view business research. Other activities have included the TRC’s Seminar Series, which invites executives to share their viewpoints on faculty research presentations, and case writing workshops, which encourage faculty members to learn and perfect their skills in writing and submitting teaching cases for publication.
Learn more about the Fox School’s Translational Research Center.
The Center Creates a Financial Services Concentration for Students at the Fox School of Business
PHILADELPHIA, May 1, 2019 — Temple University’s Fox School of Business is adding a new academic program for students interested in banking that will create scholarship opportunities, a case study competition and new research opportunities following an endowment by John Shain, BBA ’73, chair of the school’s board of visitors.
The Fischer-Shain Center for Financial Services opened Monday, April 29 in Alter Hall at the University’s Main Campus with a formal ribbon cutting involving members of the finance department, Shain and his wife, Melanie, and Janice Fischer, widow of Gerald Fischer, a long-time finance professor at the business school. Alyson Fischer-Amsterdam, Janice and Gerald Fischer’s daughter, and other family members were also in attendance at the event.
The Center will fund a concentration on financial services for finance majors, engage speakers and conference participants from the industry and establish a regional and national network in the financial service market. About half of all Fox School undergraduate students majoring in finance work in the financial services industry. The Center will empower them to enter the market with class work, programs and events centered on the financial services sector.
“My hope is that we can create academic programming across the whole Philadelphia region for the banking industry,” says John Shain. “This will get our students prepared so they can start their careers with certification, training and with experienced skills to enter the financial services marketplace.”
“The Center will benefit our students as they look to further their careers in financial
services, but it will do much more than that,” says Jonathan Scott, chair of the Fox School’s Department of Finance. “The center will provide an opportunity for faculty at the Fox School to conduct innovative, thoughtful research that will inform the financial services industry and the business world.”
In addition to research, the endowment funds a financial services advisory board to serve as an interface between industry professionals and students and alumni, and help to evolve the curriculum to match the changes in the industry. The program will also partner with the Conference of State Banking Supervisors to create a community banking case study that gives students an experiential learning component and a networking opportunity.
“Gerald Fischer was really important to me as both a teacher and mentor,” says Shain. “He taught me about banking and introduced me to computers and financial analysis and put me in a position to imagine what might be possible with new technology continuously changing industry.”
Shain was a research assistant for Gerald Fischer, a long-time finance professor at the Fox School in the 1970s as Fischer examined the possibilities for computer use in the financial sector. Fischer passed away in 2006.
“Professor Fischer was an important person in the history of our finance program,” says Ronald Anderson, interim dean of the Fox School of Business and the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. “He was involved in one of the earliest incarnations of advanced computer research at the school. John Shain and Gerald Fischer were at the forefront of what is now a global industry, and now their names are the foundation for the next generation of students entering the financial services market.”
About the Fox School of Business
Temple University’s Fox School of Business is the largest, most comprehensive business school in the Philadelphia region and among the largest in the world, with more than 9,000 students, 220 full-time faculty and 60,000 alumni around the globe. The Fox School has a proud tradition of delivering innovative, entrepreneurial programs for the past 100 years. With facilities that provide access to market-leading technologies, the school fosters a collaborative and creative learning environment. Coupled with its leading student services, the Fox School ensures that its graduates are fully prepared to enter the real-world job market.
Learn more at fox.temple.edu. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Another semester has just about ticked over since the last chair’s message from December. As May begins, there is a great deal of excitement in the air. Seniors are getting ready to graduate, faculty are getting final projects and exams graded (and getting ready for the summer!)—and it is an opportune time to pause and look back over the past academic year, as well as to look ahead at what’s in store for next year.
Foremost in my mind is the incredible achievement by our AMA Student Chapter, which just recently was selected as the number one overall student chapter (out of 390) at the 2019 AMA International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans. Our Chapter won seven awards altogether and was the talk of the conference. Congratulations to everyone in our fabulous AMA Chapter! Also, congratulations and many thanks to Dr. Craig Atwater, our AMA Faculty Advisor, as well as faculty co-advisors Drew Allmond and Jim Thompson.
As many of you are aware, 2019 is a pivotal year for the Fox School. Interim Dean Ronald Anderson has convened a Strategic Planning Task Force to set our priorities and chart our direction for the future of the school. Concordant with that, Dean Anderson has asked me to conduct a similar exercise for our Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department. This effort comes on the heels of an external review that was conducted by faculty and deans from Rutgers, the University of Delaware and the University of Washington. We look forward to receiving the report from the review team and to begin to implement some of their suggestions to strengthen our programs and our impact.
This spring we are in the process of completing a successful hiring campaign: We expect to welcome two new faculty members for Fall 2019, one in operations and supply chain management and one in quantitative marketing. These faculty members will provide a serious boost to those two important areas.
Finally, every year we have arrivals, departures and congratulatory news as well. This month we will host a goodbye reception for former department chair and long-time professor Dr. Michael Smith. We will miss you Mike! We are also sorry to say goodbye to Dr. Angelika Dimoka, who will be joining the University of Houston this summer. On a different note, I would like to congratulate Professor Katie Gerst on her appointment to be the Fox School’s next director of our Honors Program.
I’d like to wish everyone a great summer in whatever you do: Relaxing, traveling, getting sand in your shoes or even getting in some teaching, learning or research. Whatever you get done, let’s look forward to hitting the Fall with some recharged batteries!
Sheri Lambert, assistant professor of practice and the MS Marketing in Marketing Research and Insights program director, launched a new speaker series inviting undergraduate and graduate marketing majors to get up close and personal with industry experts.
Before joining MSCM full-time, Lambert taught as an adjunct in the MIS/MSCM joint MS in Digital Innovation in Marketing program, contributing to the MIS guest lecture webinar series which reaches undergraduate, graduate and alumni students of Marketing and Management Information Systems programs. The MIS and MCSM Departments’ lecture series has earned a nomination for this year’s FOX Impact Award.
Lambert says, “The Industry Guest Lecture Series helps BBA, MBA and MS students prepare to excel in the marketplace and succeed in whichever career path they may choose. Series positively impacts students’ learning and preparedness for entry into the business world.”
Students listened to engaging presentations from professionals in different industries with the following MSCM offerings:
- Nima Gohil, Digital & Creative Research Consumer Evaluation on “Customer centricity & Connected Research” for L’Oreal NA
- Michele Salomon, VP, Consumer Insights on “See What Matters: How Video is Transforming Research” for Big Sofa Technologies
- Molly Hayes-Global, Director of Brand Insights on “The Other Half: Reconnecting Women & Beer” for Anheuser-Busch InBev
- Anthony Pizzuto, Sr. Director, Days Inn Brand on “Hitting Reset: Making a 50-year old Brand Relevant Again” for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
- Eleni McCready, Sr. Dir, Media & Promotions on “Authentic Storytelling” for Lilly Pulitzer
- Lori Bush, Entrepreneur and Retired CEO on “Let’s Get Phygital” for Rodan + Fields
Students see the value from the industry series and actively engage with the professionals at these events.
“As a student at the Fox School of Business, I have directly reaped the benefits of the Industry Guest Lecture Series with my peers. The professionals who have visited Temple University thus far have shared their stories behind cracking the code to some of modern marketing’s biggest challenges. Hearing these speakers helps individuals like myself make connections with business leaders. Another benefit of the speaker series is that it helps students draw parallels to what we are learning in the classroom and brings that content to life. It draws parallels that help bring classroom content to life. The hard work behind the scenes that goes into making this happen creates invaluable opportunities for the Fox community and opens doors to learn, gather advice and advance our careers,” says James Base, BBA ’19, president of the Temple University American Marketing Association.
“Sheri Lambert has completely exceeded and surpassed any expectation I could’ve ever imagined having at Temple University in the Marketing Department. She has brought real life into the classroom and expanded my knowledge by bringing Guest Lecturers to our campus,” says Isabel Paynter, senior, Marketing major.
When we bring experts onto campus, we continuously initiate impactful dialogue with industry professionals, who promote, stimulate and encourage additional conversations relevant to our classroom lessons. Each guest has offered a different perspective for students. They make learning about important issues more meaningful to students, and these discussions sparked excitement, as well as participation,” says Lambert.
MSCM thanks the presenters for their engaging programming and plans to open sessions to marketing alumni in the area, starting this fall. Please contact Nicole Stilianos at nstili@temple.edu to receive invitations.
Temple University American Marketing Association (TU-AMA) was named AMA International Collegiate Chapter of the Year in front of 1,700 marketers on April 13, 2019 at the 2019 AMA International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans, LA. Only two out of 390 collegiate chapters across the globe are awarded this honor each year in recognition of excellence in performance. TU-AMA will be inducted into the “Platinum Circle” for the following two academic years.
This is the first time that the TU-AMA received this award. In addition, Mary Conran, associate professor of practice, Temple University of Rome’s chief academic officer and President of the Marketing SPO in 1979, was named the Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient for her dedication to students and her engagement with AMA.
TU-AMA President James Base says, “Having served as President for the 2018-19 year, the honor to receive this award is a testament to the hard work of our Executive Board and the dedication of our general body members. This wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering support we receive from the Fox School of Business community of faculty, department workers, students and alumni.”
From April 11th-13th, the TTU-AMA participated in the 41st Annual International Collegiate Conference held in New Orleans, LA. This year, more than ever, “Temple University” was called for several additional accomplishments, including:
- 1st Place in the Website Competition
- 1st Place in the “Best Social Impact Video” Competition
- 3rd Place in the Wall Street Journal Case Competition
- 3rd Place for the Conference Tee Shirt Design Contest
- John Parkinson, as a Perfect Pitch Competition Finalist
- Alison Wehr & Frank Romean, as Marketing Strategy Competition Finalists
- Tabby Miller, as a Student Research Poster Competition 2nd Place Winner
Department Chairman Dr. Ed Rosenthal says of TU-AMA’s achievements, “Every year we have a great group of kids—enthusiastic, dedicated and skilled—who grow into leadership roles and expend a great deal of time and energy in our Chapter. The activities they plan always enrich and add value to their development as marketers. It is always humbling to me to see the extent of their work ethic and devotion. It is always special to see, and it is not surprising, year after year, that our AMA chapter is always one of the top ones. But this year, [they] went and won the Championship!”
The Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management is proud of our TU-AMA students!
More than 15 million adults struggle with alcohol addiction. In fact, according to the CDC, one in ten deaths of working-age adults in America is linked to alcohol. That’s one reason data on alcohol use has been chosen by researchers for study from the enormous data set from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ ambitious Million Veteran Program (MVP). The VA intends as the project’s name states, to gather data on an astonishing one million service members.
Kuang-Yao Lee, assistant professor of statistical science at the Fox School, sees a world of potential new knowledge in this vast cache of data. This is particularly true of alcohol use because the data from the MVP is longitudinal, which means the same measurements are tracked over time. Alongside the support from the VA, Lee’s project received funding through from Office for the Vice President of Research at Temple University.
Volunteers in the MVP each submit blood samples as well as health surveys, amassing a dataset that comprises both genetic data and behavioral patterns. Beginning in 2016 when he was a researcher at Yale University, Lee and his colleagues have been using this information-rich resource to search for the specific combination of genes that correspond to alcohol and other substance use.
“Previous studies have suggested [these genes exist], but mostly were only limited to small scales or restricted conditions,” says Lee. “We want to use statistical models to find out if this is really a valid assumption. Our results so far suggest a very strong association.”
While ample electronic health records and genetic data have long been available to researchers, only recently has the efficient computing power become available to slice and dice the information into accurate, usable new insights and discoveries. More sophisticated algorithms combined with larger-than-ever computer storage capacity, as well as parallel computation techniques, allow today’s researchers to make meaning from a huge amount of complex data.
How huge? “Depending on the facility, the whole genome sequencing [for one person] can produce hundreds of millions of variants,” says Lee. Questionnaires allow researchers to gather large amounts of information about each subject every time they are administered. Multiply that by one million veterans. “We’re talking about not just billions, but millions of millions of points of data,” he says.
Data with this level of complexity can lead to findings that are more nuanced and reliable than in the past. Previously statistics sometimes led to oversimplified and other not-quite-right conclusions. We’ve all heard the old axiom, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But as so-called big data increases in scope and complexity and the tools used to analyze this data become more sophisticated, statistics are becoming more honest than ever before. From projects such as the Million Veteran Program and other similarly vast datasets, new genetic truths may ultimately emerge.
There are many possible real-world applications for this research. For one thing, determining which specific genes are linked with alcohol and other substance abuse could lead to new and better medicines and treatments for the very veterans who have volunteered their most sensitive personal information for this work. A dialed-in genetic profile that indicates a vulnerability for substance abuse could be used to screen kids and even adults while there is still time for effective early interventions that can keep them on a healthy path. Given the current public health crisis around opioids, alcohol, and other substance use, a breakthrough of this kind could have far-reaching benefits.
Lee says that the knowledge gleaned from the Million Veteran Program about substance abuse may lead to similar projects that could help solve other vexing behavioral, health, and genetic puzzles. He also notes that the innovative statistical models and tools he’s used in this research could be applied in myriad ways to other complex datasets.
For example, online shopping platforms can easily observe huge amounts of individual consumers and, at the same time, collect data across large numbers of variables. “One of the core problems in business analytics is to use statistical models to study the inter-dependency between observed variables, for example, the dependency between decision making and consumer behavior,” Lee says.
“There are a surprising number of similarities between genomics and online shopping.”
This story was originally published in On the Verge, the Fox School’s flagship research magazine. For more stories, visit www.fox.temple.edu/ontheverge.
To honor those who have fueled our first 100 years, Temple University’s Fox School of Business has announced an A-Z list of honorees—entrepreneurs, visionaries, and disruptors—who helped shape the school and the business world since 1918.
The list includes some of the best minds to graduate from or become friends of the Fox School over the last century, such as a feared litigator; a female Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel in World II; a Grammy award-winning producer, writer and musician; and a business executive for Nike. It also includes the inspirational stories of immigrants; candidates for political office; benefactors of education, healthcare and the arts; and many more.
“The Centennial Honorees succeeded over the past century because they were persistent and because they were innovators at heart,” said Ronald Anderson, interim dean, Fox School of Business. “Many of their stories contain consistent themes—including originality, service, and generosity. All of these people have impacted the Fox School in uniquely profound ways—through their involvement, commitment, and a strong belief in innovation.”
Meet the Centennial Honorees, get to know their inspirational stories and read their words of wisdom.