About me

I am an interdisciplinary management scholar and tenured professor in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. I am interested in how people and organizations solve wicked problems. My work sits at the intersection of several fields:

• Management/Business Research is concerned with allocating scarce resources for achieving organizational goals. This requires knowledge about planning, organizing teams and workflows, leading and motivating people, and monitoring results - under real world conditions, when people and technology interact. Management researchers are frequently interested in profit-related goals but their insights extend to other resource allocation problems, e.g. in government, non-profits, and natural resource management. My work creates bridges to these domains, while always keeping a foot in management research on innovation and new product development.

• System Modeling represents complex and dynamic systems (business environments, ecosystems, cities, etc.) as simplified models. They allow us to explore system behavior and "test drive" different ideas and solutions through simulation. Simulation replaces real-world experiments that would be too costly, time-consuming or unethical. My work contributes to this field by applying and extending Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping.

• Engineering Research results in technical systems for solving problems, as well as the fundamental knowledge for creating and improving these systems. Topics are extremely wide and can range from manufacturing, to transportation, and communication. My work does not result in new technology but investigates what technologies are emergent, how they can be developed and deployed, and how they will impact organizations and individuals.