DISA SEMINAR

Research Topics in Modularization, Analytics, and Data Monetization

Speaker
Dr Jorge Sanz, Professor, School of Computing and Business School, National University of Singapore


26 Apr 2019 Friday, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Executive Classroom, COM2-04-02

Abstract:

This talk will consist of three parts. First, I will share some motivations for my applied research and practice. In particular, I will highlight key contributions I have made to three interrelated topics: (i) Modularization of industry segments and componentization in enterprises; (ii) cross-functional process modelling and analysis; and (iii) analytics.

Second, I will address the topic of data monetization in Manufacturing 4.0 and Financial Services. I will show how we are approaching key technical challenges and solution opportunities with enterprises in different segments of these industries. This work leads to new software assets that build upon new modelling solutions suitably designed for multi-tiered architectures and applications. The critical interplay between the "design phase" in analytics and the "deployment phase" of resulting software solutions proves that both subjects are equally important, i.e., lack of due attention to either of them is the root-cause for many failures of analytics and related IT efforts. I will also show how this work is being seeded with and quickly adopted by industry through collaborative engagements. I will share examples of ongoing work in the concert of the Fund and Asset Management industry, including topics in Legal Technology needed for a much more efficient regulatory compliance of marketing collaterals.

At the end of the seminar, I will address key challenges and opportunities in carrying out research across the above topics. In particular, I will point to some oversight concerning the close interplay of laws, ethics and culture with most of what we hear daily on "automating decision-making" (i.e., artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, data science, etc.); and related (major) gaps in regulation and policy making.

Biodata:

Professor Dr. Jorge Sanz has over 30 years of applied and industrial research as well as extensive experience working with global corporations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has specialized in Financial Services and Advanced Manufacturing, working in the past also with Telecommunications companies and Government enterprises. Jorge's research interests are in multidisciplinary topics at the interplay of business-legal-operations-technology domains. His work focuses on business transformation, business analytics, legal cognitive and regulatory systems and high-performance big-data applications.

From a cross-industry perspective, Jorge conducts research on analytical modelling, business componentization for industry operations in seeking for new economies-of-scale, business innovation through accelerating the adoption of digital solutions, with applications in front-office, back-office and enterprise performance management. He specializes in predictive models for large data sets and infrastructure for data-centric computing applied to different lines-of-business such as Finance and Accounting, Regulatory Compliance and Legal, Marketing, Human Resources, Customer Operations and Quality Assurance. He also carries out research work on the conjunction of Law and Technology through applications to Regulatory Compliance.

Jorge has worked at different times in IBM, for over 20 years at the IBM Research Division in Silicon Valley, California, and also as Director on different international assignments in Latin America and Singapore. He has been Global Chief Innovation Officer in Banking for IBM Research, thus rounding 18 years of innovation efforts in the finance industry.

In academic terms, Jorge has held different professorial positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leading to a Full Professor appointment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in 1993. He was President of the University of Saint Andrews in Argentina, in 2000. Jorge was the Founding Director of the Business Analytics Centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2013, leading an analytics program that became top-branded in Asia-Pacific and among the most successful ones worldwide. Jorge founded in 2017 the first Applied Research Centre in Luxembourg on Finance Innovation and Regulatory Systems and Technology, leading it as Scientific Director and hosted by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology.

Jorge has been a Fellow of the IEEE Society for over 25 years. In July 2010, he got an IBM Corporate Award for "Outstanding technical leadership and innovative contributions to Component Business Modelling and tools", which generated over 2 billion dollars in service revenues. In May 2016, he received a Corporate Award from 17 Enterprises headquartered in Singapore for "Leadership, innovation and contribution to operations in Asia-Pacific". In April 2017, he got a Recognition from NUS Business School and NUS School of Computing for "Outstanding leadership and dedicated service" as the founding Director of the Business Analytics Centre. In October 2018, Jorge got a new Corporate Award from 11 companies in Europe for "Thought-Leadership in Digital Transformation, Innovation in Analytics and Collaboration with our Operations in Europe".

Jorge holds today a joint appointment as Professor (Practice) at the School of Computing and Business School in the National University of Singapore.