Fall 2023 Newsletter
A Letter from the Department Chair
Dear colleagues, students and friends,
Happy 2024!
We had a very busy yet rewarding fall semester as we celebrated the achievements of faculty and students, successfully concluded faculty recruitments, and enjoyed a fun Christmas party together.
We began our fall semester by celebrating the acceptance of an elite publication co-authored by our colleagues Minghe Sun and Arka Roy, along with Roy’s postdoc, Kai Sun, to Production and Operations Management. Their research proposed an equitable anesthesiologist scheduling scheme under demand uncertainty using a multi-objective programming method.
Witnessing exciting accomplishments by our current faculty, we expect to welcome additional top talents to the department by successfully concluding two faculty recruitment searches through committees led by Jerry Keating and Minghe Sun. The dedication and excellence of our faculty also directly or indirectly led to significant growth in student enrollment in our degree programs.
Our great efforts will continue as we work closely as a team. I very much look forward to having another productive and rewarding year ahead.
Wenbo Wu, Ph.D.
Department Chair
Management Science and Statistics
Faculty News
Arka Roy Has Been Appointed Coordinator of B.B.A. Business Analytics Program
“I’m happy to serve as Program Coordinator for the B.B.A. in Business Analytics program and look forward to steady growth within the program. With current enrollment at 247 students, we look forward to offering more elective courses in the future with the addition of incoming faculty. We have also had recent graduates join Business Analyst positions in good places such as USAA and Mass General Hospital.”
Roy has been actively involved in teaching undergraduate Business Analytics courses, including MS 4203 Business Analytics Applications, MS 3073 Business Intelligence and Analytics and MS 3043 Business Statistics with Computer Applications II.
Faculty Paper Acceptance
Arka Roy and Minghe Sun have co-authored a paper, “Equitable Anesthesiologist Scheduling Under Demand Uncertainty Using Multi-Objective Programming,” accepted by Production and Operations Management, which is one of the college’s elite journals and a UTD24 journal. Dr. Kai Sun (postdoc) is the first author of this paper under Arka’s supervision.
Hollywood Star Among Us
Max Kilger had a unique experience working with a documentary film crew last fall. He helped tell the story of a famous rock star who had been impersonated online for a number of years by a malicious online actor. Max started by having a chat with the musician over Zoom and then flew out to Los Angeles to spend a whole day filming on a movie set and stayed on as a technical advisor!
Even though he didn't get paid, he got to be mentioned in the credits (which means he'll be on IMDB!), got free food while working (nothing fancy, but still nice) and had his travel costs covered.
The filming is all done now, and after the editing, the documentary produced by Hulu and Disney will be released for everyone to see. It's pretty cool to think we have a celebrity among us!
Lily & Minghe Sun Annual Scholarship in Management Science
Dr. Minghe Sun established a scholarship named the Lily & Minghe Sun Annual Scholarship in Management Science with a requirement for student recipients to have a minimum GPA of 3.5. The recipient for 23-24 is Lauren Hall, a senior in Management Science.
Student Spotlight
MS SDS graduates in Fall 2023
Andrea Bennett, Jay Cooper, Tabytha Donnelly, Peyton Griffiths and Lesly Maldonado.
Tabytha Donnelly was awarded the M.S. SDS Ram Tripathi Best First-Year Student Award in recognition of her exceptional academic performance.
Second-year M.S. SDS student Juan Olazaba introduced the American Statistical Association (ASA) Student Chapter to first year master’s students.
Students from the M.S. SDS program presenting their projects in the Regression Analysis class.
SAS Certificate Exams
Every semester the SAS certificate exam event is held on the main campus of UTSA. The students from STA 4133 (undergraduate) or STA 6033 (graduate) choose between the SAS 9.4 Programming Fundamentals and SAS 9.4 Base Programming -Performance-Based Exams for their certificates. In fall 2023, 31 students passed their chosen exams and obtained the corresponding certificates.
Amir Karimi, Ph.D. - University of Texas at San Antonio, “Procurement of Reproductive Health Commodities in LMICs: The Impact of Female Decision-Makers”- Arka Roy, Ph.D. - University of Texas at San Antonio, “Robust AI-Assisted Radiotherapy Planning”
- Chul Moon, Ph.D. - Southern Methodist University, “Using Persistent Homology Topological Features to Characterize Medical Images: Case Studies on Lung and Brain Cancers”
- Jian Cao, Ph.D. - University of Houston, “Linear-Cost Vecchia Approximation of Multivariate Normal Probabilities”
- Yang (Sophie) Yang, Ph.D. - University of Texas at El Paso, “Consolidate? Diversify? Post-M&A Supply Base Structural Changes and Operational Performance?”
- Muge Yayla-Kullu, Ph.D. - University of Central Florida, “Product Line and Capacity Decisions for the Real Estate Industry Under Willingness-to-pay Uncertainty”
- Kedong Chen, Ph.D. - Old Dominion University, “Efficiency-Innovation Tradeoff in Creative Industries: Team-Level Empirically Grounding Analytics”
- Saidat Sanni, University of Cincinnati, “Machine Learning for Monetary Policy and Equity Market Risk Premia”
- Suvra Pal, Ph.D. - University of Texas at Arlington, “Machine Learning-Based Cure Models and Associated Computationally Efficient Methods”
- Michael Pokojovy, Ph.D. - Old Dominion University, “A Robust Deterministic Affine-Equivariant Algorithm for Multivariate Location and Scatter”
- Jun Li, Ph.D. - University of Michigan, “Competitive Pricing at Scale: Theory and Practices”
Department Events and Activities
ADSA Annual Meeting/Oct. 24-27/UTSA
Sessions:
- Organized by Dr. Min Wang: Novel Statistical Approaches in Health Data Inference, presented by Drs. Min Wang, Keying Ye and Yuexia Zhang
- Organized by Dr. Yuexia Zhang: Advances in Data Science and Statistical Methods for Real-World Problems, presented by Drs. Yeonjoo Park, Dengdeng Yu and Tianhai Zu
Fall Department Meeting
The fall 2023 department meeting was held in the Business Building. Dean Jonathon Halbesleben attended the meeting and provided essential information about the department as well as the college.
MS SDS at Graduate Open House Nov. 1
The Alvarez College of Business hosted a Graduate Open House on the Main Campus. Dr. Keying Ye represented the Master of Science in Statistics and Data Science degree program.
MSS Faculty Cheer on Roadrunners at Alamodome
To support the Roadrunners, many MSS faculty members became cheerleaders for UTSA’s football team at the Alamodome in September.
Holiday Potluck - Dec. 8
Our department held a festive holiday potluck where faculty and Ph.D. students came together and brought a delicious array of dishes from various cultures to share and enjoy. It was a great time for chatting, catching up and relaxing after a busy semester. Emeritus Professor Dr. Ram Tripathi joined us, making this time even more joyful.
Degree Programs
Undergraduate Programs
- B.B.A. in Actuarial Science (Coordinator: Dr. Jerome Keating)
- B.B.A. in Business Analytics (Coordinator: Dr. Arka Roy)
- B.B.A. in Operations and Supply Chain Management (Coordinator: Dr. Maho Sonmez)
- B.S. in Statistics and Data Science (Coordinator: Dr. Jerome Keating)
Undergraduate certificates are also available in business analytics and operations and supply chain management.
Actuarial science uses mathematical and statistical models to solve problems in insurance and finance, including mathematics, statistics, economics and finance as part of the program. An actuary is an expert in risk management and their skills are in high demand in the industry.
Business analytics students learn to develop and apply analytical models by acquiring quantitative and computer skills to solve problems in business environments. This degree focuses on practical applications and appropriate programming with a view on how a manager can effectively apply quantitative business models to improve decision-making.
Operations and supply chain management students learn how to deal with ensuring the uninterrupted flow of goods and services from a business to its customers. Students take a multidisciplinary approach to designing systems, making decisions and solving complex problems for organizations and their supply chains. Students practice analytical, communication and leadership skills and acquire essential computer skills.
A degree in statistics trains students to collect, analyze and interpret numerical information to answer questions in modern-day life. It can lead to careers in various areas such as clinical research, quality control, corporate planning and financial analysis.
Graduate Programs
- M.S. in Statistics and Data Science (Coordinator: Dr. Keying Ye)
- M.S. in Artificial Intelligence (Analytic Track Coordinator: Dr. Keying Ye)
- Ph.D. in Applied Statistics (Coordinator: Dr. Min Wang)
A graduate certificate in operations and supply chain management is also available.
