So, we have, at the University of Arkansas Information Systems Department, we have a range of courses. We have a range of programs. I'm the executive director of the PhD program. So, there is the graduate program which is specifically focused on training future professors that are academics. And then we have the masters program. The masters program has different types of students. There are usually the full time master students but we also have professional Masters students and these are professionals who are currently working with large corporations -- Walmart, J.B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, H.P., ConocoPhillips and many other such companies in the vicinity, who would come on a weekend and these classes are typically once a month. They would come and take the courses which are a little longer class durations -- typically four hours for one class but it meets like I said only five times a semester. And so, we have that masters program and in that, we also have combined with the full-time masters which is a more routine classic schedule but some of those classes are trying to be combined. So, we have that graduate program, and then we have undergraduate programs wherein we have multiple different streams of specialization. Students often go for ERP stream or they might go business analytics stream or they might go to systems development and other traditional areas. A lot of these students get jobs in the area. All the tech companies, all the traditional tech companies I would say H.P., ConocoPhillips. We have our own backyard H.P. in other places, some of them healthcare and many such corporations in the region and across would hire our undergraduate students as well.***

My research I would say it's always evolving as we all are. My traditional years of research have been studying how organizations can leverage information technologies for better performance. That has been my traditional view. I often use a capabilities perspective which means that how can firms develop or enhance their capabilities by using different types of information technologies. This research has been conducted in healthcare, supply chain and various other domains where I have studied the capability development processes. So, that's what I've done quite a bit of work on. I've also worked on the process of open innovations in software development wherein I study how open source software dynamics can be leveraged by the community in general to develop software in a more open environment. Those are the two traditional or classical ways I have done but more recently leading to the evolution of the research I mentioned before. I have been very interested in studying the neuroscientific basis for human choices on how technology influences that and that's my current ongoing passion. I have most recently written a book on that which talks about how technology is influencing our choice making behaviors. I used neuroscientific basis to examine the choice dynamics in our neural networks or the brain as we more commonly know it and how is technology either influencing it or we are leveraging technologies to augment our capabilities to make these choices. And so, that's my most recent interest area but yeah, I would say three areas technology performance or how technology can be leverage for performance, open innovations and then neuroscientific basis for technology and choices.***

We all have a history. And so, when I came into the program I had a history. I've been working for organizations in the telecom area and coming into the program, I had interest in studying organizational dynamics related to IT and I build that research up. Your question is how did you come across these ideas. Well, that's a very complicated process. It's usually a combination of your own internal sense making of what are the areas that you're most excited by and a combination of that would be external environment which is what is it in your vicinity that people are doing, that people have capabilities again to help you with and and what other various things around you. So, it's a combination of what your internal sense making and external environment and what it offers that ultimately that's the choice of projects that I did. Which products are worth pursuing? Well, my general idea has been that predominantly something that excites you is the first criteria, something that you would really like to do. I mean that's the reason why one would leave a corporate job or at least why I left the corporate job and came to academics was because I wanted to study certain things that I was passionate about. And so, first thing has to be passion but then after that, it has to be various other factors including the feasibility of conducting those studies and sometimes that shapes how the projects evolve whether you do something before the other and things of that nature.***