JIM BURNS: Project
Management, Operations Management and System Dynamics
Mr. Janamanchi has successfully defended his dissertation proposal and is nine months into his dissertation research. He plans to have completed all requirements by spring 2006. He is investigating offshore outsourcing (of high-value knowledge-worker jobs) in terms of dynamical implications upon the U.S. economy. The work he is doing is important and urgent, as federal and state workforce regulatory agencies are trying to establish policy regarding offshore outsourcing. His will be the first dissertation in which system dynamics modeling is applied to an analysis of the problem. He has developed a supply chain management simulation model and has written two papers on the model. He is also doing important research related to project dynamics as well as the dynamics of change management utilizing the same simulation tools that he is using in his dissertation. Recently, he has participated in the presentation of a number of research articles related to the above mentioned areas of investigation, and he has a number of articles that are out for refereed-journal consideration. He has been aggressive in terms of his approach to published research in recent months.
Ms. Chin-Yen Liu
Ms. Liu is interested in energy modeling and dynamics. she recently completed an MBA thesis in which she used various forecasting techniques to endeavor to forecast the spot market price of a barrel of crude oil.
Among the current research interests Dr. Burns is pursuing are the following: how do professional people causally connect facts; how best to represent these causal connections; how to improve the complexity coping skills of professional people.