Temple SODS

Last week, we proudly hosted the SODS Celebration of Excellence, an evening dedicated to honoring the continued excellence of our faculty and students. With over 80 attendees, the event brought together members of our community to recognize achievement, leadership, and impact across the department. We were honored to hear remarks from Dean Chip Hunter and Department Chair Dr. Edoardo Airoldi, and to have an award presentation led by Dr. Lauren (Spirko) Burns. As part of this year’s program, we introduced our awards ceremony for the first time, recognizing 18 awardees: • 9 faculty awards spanning research, teaching, and service • 1 staff award • 5 student awards across undergraduate and graduate levels • 3 legacy awards honoring retired and retiring faculty We were especially proud to celebrate the remarkable careers and lasting impact of Dr. Edward Rosenthal and Dr. Roman Szewczuk, and to recognize Dr. Misty Blessley, Ph.D., for her contributions to the department. The evening reflected the strength, dedication, and spirit of the SODS community. Congratulations to all of our awardees, and thank you to everyone who helped make this inaugural celebration such a meaningful success. - Photos by Darren Minto

Join us for this week’s Friday at SODS Seminar! 📅 Date: May 1 🕚 Time: 11:00 AM 📍 Location: Alter Hall, Room 746 Seminar Topic: A National–Provincial Stochastic Mortality Model for China: Methods, Innovations, and Policy Applications Speaker: Dr. Wai-Sum Chan, School of Decision Sciences, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong As China’s population continues to age rapidly, accurate mortality forecasting is more important than ever for planning across pensions, healthcare, and insurance. In this seminar, Wai-Sum Chan will present a novel stochastic mortality model that jointly analyzes national and provincial trends. The talk highlights key innovations in modeling structure, data utilization, and Bayesian estimation, along with real-world applications such as measuring regional inequality in pension outcomes. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore how advanced statistical modeling can inform critical policy decisions!

💯 Fox School of Business at Temple University Doctoral programs achieve a publication milestone!! A question that is often asked in business schools - can #PhD and executive #DBA students collaborate and publish together in a top tier academic journal? Do scholarly rigor and practitioner expertise always compete — or can they combine to produce research that meets the highest academic standards on a topic with immediate real-world significance? A team of PhD (Guohou (Jack) Shan) and DBA students (Dr. Pawan Anand) (now both alums) along with Prof Subodha Kumar at Fox and Michael Rivera Lehigh University College of Business just had their paper accepted at @Journal of Management Information Systems #JMIS, a Financial Times FT50 journal. Their paper — "The Mind and the Machine: How Does Generative AI Usage Affect the Coding Performance of Developers?" — addresses a question that every technology leader is grappling with right now. This research explores how generative AI tools impact developer productivity, finding that while AI can boost coding quantity, its greatest value emerges when used as an ideation and debugging tool to enhance code quality. Congratulations to all the authors! 🎉You've opened a door we hope many others will walk through. Temple University Temple University Graduate School Operations Management and Supply Chain Group at Temple University Fox School of Business Temple SODS #FoxSchoolOfBusiness #TempleUniversity #Research #JMIS #GenerativeAI #PhD #DBA #AIResearch #HigherEducation

#TBT to our February 13 SODS Seminar! We had the pleasure of hosting Professor Xiaosong (David) Peng from Lehigh University, who shared insightful research on telemedicine and patient behavior. His study explored how waiting times in asynchronous telemedicine impact whether patients return for future care. Interestingly, while initial wait time had little effect, longer and more inconsistent response times during consultations significantly reduced the likelihood of follow-up visits. These findings highlight the importance of responsiveness in improving patient engagement and continuity of care. A great reminder of how data-driven insights can directly shape better healthcare experiences!

Join us for an informal conversation with Fox MSBA alumna Gauri Kulkarni, now a Business Analyst at Amazon’s Cycle Reverse Logistics team. She’ll share her journey from Fox to Amazon — navigating scale, ambiguity, and real-world operational challenges — and how analytics drives decision-making across reverse logistics. Expect practical insights on: • Transitioning from classroom to industry • Building early-career analytics skills • Working across Operations, Supply Chain, and Reverse Logistics • Delivering impact through dashboards, data infrastructure, & site analytics A great opportunity for students to hear what analytics looks like in practice — inside one of the world’s most complex operations. #BusinessAnalytics | #MSBA | #AnalyticsInAction | #DataToDecisions | #ReverseLogistics | #SupplyChain | #LifeAfterMSBA Fox School of Business at Temple University Temple SODS Operations Management and Supply Chain Group at Temple University Fox School of Business FOX MS Business Analytics https://lnkd.in/ejrFwaY8 FOX MS Supply Chain Management https://lnkd.in/eAu__X_9 #FoxFuelsPhilly Philly Roots Global Reach

The workshop (https://lnkd.in/e2yFzFWt) ended. The conversation didn’t. After Temple University’s inaugural AI Workshop, we gathered at Lee How Fook, Philly Chinatown - bringing together business analytics students, Fox MBAs, and health informatics PhDs. Different disciplines. One conversation: careers, AI’s next wave, and real-world impact. The best ideas often emerge after hours. Džana Badnjević, Mrudula Ghute, Elisa Nikola Mata, Leslie Lei, Fatima Ayllon Ayllon, MSHI, Thanh Phan, Atleen Jose, Sasha Shukeylo, Ravan Sharifov, Musinu Zakari, Prince Malach Nkomo, Quudus Oladosu, Abey John, Alexander O'Leary, Anand Shyamlal, Wei-Jing Lei, M.S. SAFe5 (photo courtesy) #AI | #DataScience | #BusinessAnalytics | #FutureOfWork | #Innovation | #NextGenLeaders | #IdeasInMotion Fox School of Business at Temple University Temple University Barnett College of Public Health  Temple SODS FOX MS Business Analytics https://lnkd.in/ejrFwaY8 FOX MS Supply Chain Management https://lnkd.in/eAu__X_9 #FoxFuelsPhilly. Philly Roots Global Reach

Congratulations to SODS faculty Edoardo Airoldi and Subodha Kumar on being featured at the inaugural Data Science & AI @Temple Symposium in Alter Hall 👏 Professor Airoldi joined a panel discussion on Temple’s research computing resources, covering how infrastructure, storage, and access can support the scaling of AI-enabled research across campus. Professor Kumar also participated in the Faculty Research Lightning Talks, sharing perspectives on current research and innovation. Proud to see the Statistics, Operations, and Data Science (SODS) department contributing to important conversations around the future of data science and AI at Temple.

How are you using AI? 🧐 I’m excited to announce that we’re bringing the ChatGPT Lab to Temple University on March 19th. This will be an open conversation about how students are using AI for school, work, and everyday life. Expect real discussion, new perspectives, and a few big questions about what the future of AI might look like for students. We’re encouraging students from universities across Philadelphia to attend. Whether you love AI, hate it, or don’t even know what’s going on yet, we want to hear from you. 🚨All attendees will receive a copy of “100 Chats for College Students” and will have the chance to win one of 3 ChatGPT Plus memberships (3 months each).🚨 You can register for the event here: https://luma.com/49zaglvq Special thanks to Ana omana and Temple SODS for helping us make this possible. Excited to see you there ✨