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Sumit Sarkar

Sumit Sarkar

Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair
Ashbel Smith Professor - Management
 
972-883-6854
SOM3422
Sumit Sarkar's Webpage
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Professional Preparation

Ph.D. - Business Administration
University of Rochester - 1991
M.S. - Management Science
The University of Rochester - 1986
MBA - Management Information Systems
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India - 1982
B.Tech. - Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India - 1979

Research Areas

Research Interests

My research focuses on the management of data and knowledge in business environments. My early research centered on the representation of uncertainty, and reasoning under uncertainty, for decision making in automated and semi-automated environments. This included, in the context of databases, the representation of uncertainty in relational databases using probability calculus and reasoning mechanisms to deal with such uncertainty in the data. In the context of knowledge-based systems, I have worked on efficient representations of uncertainty (again using probability measures), as well as learning knowledge-based structures from data. That work has led to several research streams. In one stream, I examine the impact of information quality on decision making, developing mechanisms to estimate the quality of information derived from imperfect data. Another stream looks at ways to reconcile information originating from diverse imperfect data sources. A third stream looks at ways to minimize data privacy concerns that arise when organizations share data with each other. More recently, I have been working in the area of personalization, studying how patterns of user behavior can be used to learn customer profiles and to improve recommendations in online commerce. Another area of research examines software release policies.

Publications

Impact of the Relational Operations Union and Difference on the Quality of Information Products. With V.S. Jacob, and A. Parssian. Information Systems Research. Forthcoming. forthcoming - Publication
P. Atahan and S. Sarkar “Accelerated Learning of User Profiles” Management Science, pp. 215-239, vol. 57, No. 2, February 2011. 2011 - Publication
Z. Jiang and S. Sarkar “Speed Matters: The Role of Free Software Offer in Software Diffusion,” Journal of Management Information Systems, pp. 207-240, Vol 26, No. 3, Winter 2009-2010.  2010 - Publication
D. Liu, S. Sarkar and C. Sriskandarajah “An Optimal Resource Allocation Policy for Personalization in Content Delivery Sites” Information Systems Research, June 2010; 21: pp. 227 - 248. 2010 - Publication
B. Mai, N. Menon and S. Sarkar “No Free Lunch: Price Premium for Privacy Seal-Bearing Vendors,” JMIS, Vol. 27, no. 2, Fall 2010. 2010 - Publication
Minimizing Information Loss and Preserving Privacy. With S. Menon. Management Science. 53. 1. (2007): 102-116. 2007 - Publication
Optimal Linkage of Web Pages. With A. Bagchi, and R. Gupta. INFORMS Journal on Computing. 19. 1. (2007): 127-136. 2007 - Publication
A Probabilistic Approach to Learning Profiles from Website Traversals. The Twelfth INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technologies. Seattle, Washington: November 2-3, 2007. 2007 - Publication

Appointments

Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair
[2011–Present]
Ashbel Smith Professor
University of Texas at Dallas [2006–2011]
Visiting Adjunct Professor
National University of Singapore, Singapore [2005–2005]
Visiting Adjunct Professor
Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad [2002–2004]
Professor
University of Texas at Dallas [2001–2006]
Associate Professor
University of Texas at Dallas [1997–2001]
Instructor/Assistant Professor/ Associate Professor
Louisiana State University [1990–1997]
Systems and Management Consultant
Tata Consultancy Services, New Delhi, India [1982–1984]
Production Engineer
Ruston and Hornsby (India) Ltd., Pune, India [1979–1980]

Projects

Lying on the Web: Implications for Cost Effective Information Gathering
2001–2001 V. S. Mookerjee and S. Sarkar, at the Eleventh Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, Jeffrey Parsons and Olivia Sheng, New Orleans
Privacy Rights and the Valuation and Selling of Personal Information
2002–2002 N. Menon, S. Sarkar, and B. Mai, at the Thirteenth Annual Workshop on Information Systems Economics, Barcelona, Spain
Assessing Information Quality for Composite Relational Operation Join
2002–2002 A. Parssian, S. Sarkar, and V.S. Jacob, Seventh International Conference on Information Quality, MIT, Massachusetts, Craig Fisher and Bruce Davidson
Optimal Linkage of Web Pages for Wireless Devices
2002–2002 R. Gupta, A. Bagchi, and S. Sarkar, at the Twelfth Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, Barcelona, Spain
Incentives for Intra-organizational Knowledge Sharing
2000–2000 S. Ravindran and S. Sarkar, at the Tenth Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, Brisbane, Australia

Additional Information

PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITIONS & HONORS
2022 Fellow of the Association for Information Systems


2021 Inaugural President’s Service Award, Information Systems Society, INFORMS


2020 Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
 

2013 Distinguished Fellow of the Information Systems Society, INFORMS 


1999-2000 Outstanding Graduate Teacher
 School of Management
 University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080


 1996-1997 Dean's Award for Excellence in Service
 E. J. Ourso College of Business Administration
 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803

TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Dissertations / Thesis Supervised

  • Serving as the Dissertation Committee Chair for Ibrahim Mescioglu and Pelin Atahan.
  • Served as the Dissertation Committee Chair (with Prof. Nirup Menon) for Bin Mai.
  • Served as the Dissertation Committee Chair for Zhengrui Jiang.
  • Served as Dissertation Committee Co-Chair (with Prof. Varghese S. Jacob) for Amir Parssian
  • Served as Dissertation Committee Co-Chair (with Prof. Ye-Sho Chen) for Mysore Ramaswamy at Louisiana State University (December, 1994).
  • Served on the Dissertation Committees for Dengpan Liu, Monica Johar, Hulisi Ogut, Hasan Cavusoglu, Huseyin Cavusoglu, Kursad Asdemir, Yi-Ching Kao, and Didem Demirhan.
Courses Taught

  •  Information Age Enterprise (MBA I MS in e-Commerce)
  •  Information Technology and MIS Fundamentals (MBA)
  •  Database Management Systems (MBA I Advanced MS I Undergraduate)
  •  Decision Support Systems and Expert Systems (MBA I Advanced MS I Ph.D Level)
  •  Advanced Topics in Knowledge Management (PhDIMS)
  •  Information Technology and E-Businesses (Executive MBA program at UT Dallas)
  •  Healthcare Information Systems (Alliance for Medical Management Education: a program jointly offered by UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas)
  •  PhD Seminar in Information Systems
  •  Artificial Intelligence in Business (MBA I Advanced MS / Ph.D Level)
  •  Introduction to Management Information Systems (Undergraduate Level)
  •  Data Structures and their Applications to Management Information Systems (Undergraduate Level)
  •  Probability Theory and Statistics (Core MBA Level)
Other Teaching Activities - Creation of New Classroom Materials/Cases developed:

  •  Decision Support for Vendor Accreditation
  •  The Alumni Database Case
  •  Online Collaboration System
  •  Developing a Journal Database
  •  Underwriting Healthcare Plans at a Health Insurance Organization
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
  •  Serving as Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly
  • Serving as an Associate Editor for ACM Transaction on Management Information Systems
  • Served as a President of the Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems
  • Served as Senior Editor for Information Systems Research.
  •  Serving as an Associate Editor for Management Science.
  •  Serving on the Editorial Board of Information Technology and Management.
  •  Serving on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Information Systems and Management.
  •  Served on the Advisory Board of Social Sciences Research Network-Information Technology and Systems.
  •  Served as Associate Editor for Information Systems Research, 1998-2003.
  •  Served as Guest Associate Editor for Management Information Systems Quarterly
  •  Served as Guest Associate Editor for Management Science.
  •  Served as Guest Associate Editor for Information Systems Research.
  •  Served as Guest Associate Editor for Production and Operations Management.
  •  Served as Guest Editor for a WITS'99 special issue for Information Technology and Management.
  •  Served as the Program Co-Chair for the 22nd Annual International Conference on Information Systems held in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2001.
  •  Served as the Workshop Co-Chair for the Ninth Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems held in Charlotte, North Carolina, December 1999.
  •  Served on the selection committee for the Best Dissertation Award, ICIS 2004.
  •  Serving as Academic Director, International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis (lCDRiA), 2004-present.
  •  Serving as Senior Advisor on the Steering Committee of the Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (2007-2009).
  •  Served on the Steering Committee of the Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (1998-2006).
  •  Serving as the Information Systems Society representative on the INFORMS Subdivisions Council (2005-present).
  •  Serving on the INFORMS CIST conference advisory board.
  •  Served as Secretary, the INFORMS Society on Information Systems, 1999-2005.
  •  Served as the Vice President and Secretary of Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, Inc. (2001- 2003).
  •  Served as Faculty Participant on the ICIS Doctoral Consortium, 2003.
  •  Research partner for the Center for Internet Data and Research Intelligence Analysis (CIDRIS), University of Connecticut.
  •  Serving on the Core Committee for the Winter Information Systems (IS) Conference, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah.
  •  Serving on the Organizing Committee for the 2007 Decision and Risk Analysis Conference, ICDRiA, University of Texas at Dallas.
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the International Conference on Information Systems: 2006 (to be held in Milwaukee, WI), 2004 (Washington, DC), 1999 (Charlotte, NC), 1998 (Helsinki, Finland).
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems: 2006 (to be held in Milwaukee, WI), 2005 (Las Vegas, NV), 2004 (Washington, DC), 2003 (Seattle, WA), 2002 (Barcelona, Spain), 2000 (Brisbane, Australia), 1998 (Helsinki, Finland), 1997 (Atlanta, GA), 1996 (Cleveland, OH).
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technologies: 2006 (to be held in Pittsburgh, PA), 2005 (San Francisco, CA), 1998 (Montreal, Canada), 1997 (San Diego, CA).
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the International Conference on Conceptual Modeling: 2002 (Tampere, Finland), 2001 (Yokohama, Japan), 2000 (Salt Lake City, UT), 1998 (Singapore).
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the First International Symposium on Information Systems (ISIS 2006) held in the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India, December 16-18 2006.
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the Tenth International Database Engineering & Applications Symposium (IDEAS 2006) held in New Delhi, India, December 2006.
  •  Served on the Program Committee for the 9th International Conference on Decision Support Systems in the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India, January 2-4,2007.
  •  Served as Chair for several sessions in WITS, INFORMS Conference on Information Systems, International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER), and other meetings.
  •  Served as ad-hoc referee for 
    •  Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Operations Research, Marketing Science, A CM Transactions on Database Systems, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Decision Support Systems, NSF, NSERC (Canada), LEQSF, Information Systems, European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, DATABASE, Heuristics: The Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Technology, The Computer Journal, The International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), American Accounting Association Meeting (AAA), Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), IEEE-INFO COM, ERConference.
  •  Member of Professional Organizations 
    •  American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Association for Information Systems (A IS), IEEE Computer Society, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), New York Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma (Honor Society)

News Articles

Data Safety Paper Honored at IT Conference
Data Safety Paper Honored at IT Conference A discussion of data-privacy techniques earned three School of Management researchers a nomination for top paper last month at an information technology conference in Montreal. “Preserving Privacy When Sharing Distributed Transactional Data” was one of five papers so nominated at the 2007 Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, held Dec. 8 and 9. The honored researchers were UT Dallas management information systems faculty members Dr. Syam Menon and Dr. Sumit Sarkar, and Ph.D. student Jing Hoa. Also honored at the conference was School of Management alumnus Hasan Cavusoglu, co-author of a paper that also was nominated.
Data Safety Paper Honored at IT Conference
A discussion of data-privacy techniques earned three School of Management researchers a nomination for top paper last month at an information technology conference in Montreal.

“Preserving Privacy When Sharing Distributed Transactional Data” was one of five papers so nominated at the 2007 Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, held Dec. 8 and 9.

Funding

Probabilistic Case-based Reasoning
$4,000 - University Council on Research [1995–1995]
Probabilistic Case-based Reasoning
$2,000 - College of Business, Louisiana State University [1995–1995]
Stochastic Shortest Path Problems with Piecewise-Linear Utility Functions
$54,000 - Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund (LEQSF) [1994–1996]