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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Business Analytics & AI Research Group

The Business Analytics & AI group is a research group focused on the scientific process of transforming data into insights for improving decision-making within business organizations. Researchers and students in the lab use a variety of advanced computational and statistical methods to investigate problems in marketing and operations management.

Faculty Researchers

  • Dr. Salma Karray

    Salma Karray  Dr. Salma Karray

    Graduate program affiliations

    At Ontario Tech: Masters and Doctoral programs in Computer Science, Modelling and Computational Science, and Masters program in Engineering Management.

    At other universities: University of Waterloo (Management Science), Ryerson University (Industrial Engineering)   

    Research areas
    • Operations research and marketing interface
    • Supply chain management
    • Retailing and channel management
    • Marketing mix effectiveness
    • Marketing decision models
    • Movie marketing
    • Customer lifetime value
    • Loyalty programs
    • Marketing analytics
    • Applications of artificial intelligence in business.
    Publications: 

    Publications can be found here. 

  • Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan

    Karthik Sankaranarayanan  Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan  

    Graduate program affiliations

    Masters and Doctoral programs in Computer Science, Modelling and Computational Science, and Masters program in Information Technology Security (MITS). 

    Research areas
    • Agent-based computational modelling
    • Behavioral operations management
    • Decision sciences
    • Experimental methods
    • Simulation of complex social systems
    • Technology management
    Publications: 

    Publications can be found here. 

  • Dr. Amir Rastpour

    Amir Rastpour  Dr. Amir Rastpour

    Graduate program affiliations

    Master’s and Doctoral programs in Modelling and Computational Science, and Master’s program in Engineering Management.

    Research areas
    • Health care operations management
    • Queueing theory
    • Stochastic modeling
    • Big data analytics
    Publications: 

    Publications can be found here. 

  • Dr. Nader Azad

    Dr. Nader Azad

     

    Graduate program affiliations

    Masters program in Engineering Management, Masters and Doctoral programs in Modelling and Computational Science. 

    Research areas
    • Supply chain management
    • Facility location and Logistics
    • Supply and demand risk management
    • Exact solution methods
    • Stochastic optimization
    • Game theory.
    Publications: 

    Publications can be found here. 

  • Dr. Wei-Lin Wang

    Wei-Lin Wang  Dr. Wei-Lin Wang

     

    Research areas
    • Empirical modeling in marketing
    • Product portfolio management
    • Innovation and new product launch
    • Purchase timing behavior and dynamic customer management
    • Customer engagement and content marketing
    • Bayesian statistical methods
    • Survival analysis
    • Econometrics.

     


Current Graduate Students

  • Amirhossein Jafarzadeh Ghazi

    PhD in Modelling and Computational Science program

    Supervisors: Drs. Salma Karray and Nader Azad.

  • Brandon Laughlin

    PhD in Computer Science

    Supervisor: Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan

  • Marcos Machado

    PhD in Modelling and Computational Science program

    Supervisor: Dr. Salma Karray

  • Miguel Lozano

    MSc in Computer Science

    Supervisor: Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan

  • Nadia Maarfavi

    PhD in Computer Science

    Supervisor (main): Dr. Salma Karray.


Faculties related to/ used by group


Expertise

  • Business application areas
    Marketing and operations management
  • Examples of techniques used in the lab
    Optimization, game theory, machine learning, big data analytics, queueing theory, agent-based computational modelling, simulations, stochastic models, exact solution methods (decomposition approaches) and meta-heuristic solution methods, Bayesian analysis.

  • Contact
    Please contact researchers directly.