What does it mean to conduct research at a business school in the 21st century with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the sustainability challenges businesses are facing?
As the associate dean of research at the Weatherhead School of Management, Youngjin Yoo finds this to be one of the more interesting questions he’s given thought to.
“Our school is so uniquely well-positioned to embrace and address these challenges,” Yoo said. “It's really exciting to see what we can do as a collective group.”
From centers that advance sustainability, train leaders and reimagine digital futures—to faculty who create world-renowned research, teach it in the classroom and hold positions at major institutions—Weatherhead has a number of resources to tackle these problems.
Most recently, the Office of Strategic Research Initiatives (OSRI) was established July 1 of this year, to create a bold, forward-looking research strategy that transcends traditional individual efforts.
Yoo, who also holds the Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professorship in Entrepreneurship, and is the faculty co-director of XLab and a professor in the Department of Design & Innovation, will lead the efforts of the office along with Stefan Agamanolis as associate director of strategic research programs, and Celeste Blau as associate director of research administration.
Agamanolis comes with a background in corporate-funded research at MIT Media Lab and experience as chief innovation officer at Akron Children’s Hospital. He will collaborate with Yoo to develop new strategic research programs.
Blau, who has been assistant director of operations at xLab, will expand her role to provide comprehensive administrative support.
One of the biggest goals of OSRI will be to increase research activities by securing grants through externally funded sources like the National Science Foundation, Economic Development Administration, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense and others.
“External funding means people recognize our work as being important and something valuable to society,” Yoo said.
In turn, this will provide faculty and doctoral students—who may not have had the opportunity before—the chance to participate in external funded research activities.
“Traditionally, our research has been self-funded through the school by tuition or endowment,” Yoo said. “If we proactively curate and identify externally-funded research opportunities, we can then prompt our faculty members to look at it.”
The office is sending a weekly newsletter to faculty each Friday to highlight research they may take part in.
OSRI will also help connect Weatherhead faculty with faculty outside of the school for collaborative research projects.
“Research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary,” Yoo said. “We will work to build the bridge with other schools and colleges.”
Through these initiatives, OSRI will increase Weatherhead’s recognition as a “research first school.”
“All along we’ve had a lot of interesting research happening here,” Yoo said. “But, now, we have to put an emphasis on that research.”