Dr. Ron Bose

Dr. Ron Bose

Dr. Ron Bose is putting more than 30 years of technology and related industry experience to work establishing the University’s Institute for Data Analytics and Performance Management.

Researchers and students in the Institute manage and analyze large, secure data sets to help companies improve performance.

Bose’s business experience will be used to expand the Institute’s relationships with industry partners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, especially the health care, telecom and energy sectors. These industries produce massive amounts of information that can yield valuable business insights when analyzed with sophisticated so-called “big data” techniques.

Data come in many forms. Perhaps the most recognizable type is structured data, which can be classified by type or function and arranged in spreadsheets, charts or databases. However, more than 80 percent of data generated today is unstructured, Bose said. Examples include text posted online through Facebook and Twitter, video clips, readings from industrial sensors and medical images. This combination of structured and unstructured data has created huge data sets that must be captured, stored, managed and analyzed to unlock its value for businesses and researchers.

“Finding practical insights from large data sets requires specialized skills in data science, as well as business analytics,” said Bose, executive director of the Institute and research professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “Since UT Dallas already has been a resource for several companies in this field, the institute is poised to take a pre-eminent position among universities.”

Since UT Dallas already has been a resource for several companies in this field, the Institute is poised to take a pre-eminent position among universities.

Dr. Ron Bose,
executive director of the Institute for Data Analytics and Performance Management

The Institute draws primarily from faculty and students in the Computer Science Department of the Jonsson School, but works with other schools throughout the University. It also has a full-time staff.

Bose’s relationship with the University began in the 1990s when, as an executive with AT&T, he served on an industrial advisory board that oversaw construction of the current UT Dallas engineering complex.

The Institute’s staff members have decades of experience in managing large, secure data sets. The Institute currently provides technology support and computer systems for the communications industry’s QuEST Forum, where it maintains more than 10 years of data on service and product quality in a secure environment for more than 150 member companies from across the globe.

It also operates the E-Plan system, the nation’s largest database of chemical and facility hazards data. With thousands of facilities and unique chemicals listed, E-Plan provides information to first responders in order to save lives and property in the event of an emergency. More than 7,000 emergency personnel have been trained as authorized E-Plan users in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Bose earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, master’s degree in systems engineering from Case Western Reserve University and his doctorate in operations research from the University of Texas in Austin. His career included executive leadership positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Arthur Andersen, Siemens and Fujitsu. He has also served on the board of governors of the IEEE Communications Society and as technical editor of IEEE Communications Magazine.