DETROIT (March 17, 2014) - Satyendra Rana, Wayne State University computer science research professor and big data expert, joined the College of Engineering faculty in 2013 to help enhance the university's collaboration with a growing big data industry. An accomplished IT executive and entrepreneur who worked for over a decade in academia, Rana brought with him years of experience in big data.

"I have been involved in IT and computer science since the early 1980s," says Rana. "Big data processing is, in many ways, a special case of distributed computing, which was the research topic of my Ph.D. work that I completed in 1980. Since then, I have been engaged with academia, industry, entrepreneurs and professional groups in various capacities. The constant theme, however, has always been innovation -- applying the latest ideas in distributed computing and allied areas to solve topical issues."

Rana is continuing this theme of innovation at Wayne State as he co-spearheads big data efforts and facilitates dialogue between industry and academia around big data.

"I have taken the assignment at Wayne State primarily for the purpose of consolidating and enhancing big data research activities that are dispersed among various departments," says Rana. "The launch of Wayne State's Big Data & Business Analytics Group is a culmination of that effort. Besides fundamental research in big data, a core focus of this group is to enhance industry-university interaction, as the promise of big data lies in solving real-life problems, which are invariably owned by industry. Industry is looking for strong expertise in big data, which is hard to come by and cannot be acquired overnight."

Rana is working to provide this type of expertise through his own research in developing methodologies and frameworks to extract value from big data and to manage big data initiatives.

"Most of the existing effort in big data is directed toward solving engineering challenges when handling complex and large volumes of data," says Rana. "However, the promise of data lies in surfacing the hidden value of data, which I call 'sensing the invisible.'"

Rana's research is based on two main concepts. The first is the concept of information value, or developing a conceptual framework for assigning concrete value to an information item. The second is the concept of information flow, or developing a system for understanding how information flows within a target environment (such as an enterprise) and determining how the dynamics of these flows and interactions affect information value. Rana's research seeks to determine how these flows could be transformed to maximize the retained value (as information assets) and value realization (through the monetization of information assets).

"The applications for this type of research are ubiquitous and in every enterprise where information becomes a key to provide a better service or deliver better products," says Rana. "For example, you can design a better car if you understand what features are most desired by customers and at a lower cost if you know where the inefficiencies are in the supply chain."

In addition to co-leading the efforts of the Big Data & Business Analytics Group and conducting his own research, Rana is working with industry to formulate an executive-level comprehensive and practical program in big data analytics and is pursuing the development of a core set of graduate level big data courses at Wayne State that are essential for students who wish to pursue a research or industry career in big data.

Rana's dedication to leading these big data efforts at Wayne State partially stems from his past with the university. When Rana migrated to the United States in 1985, his first stop was Wayne State. He had left his position as a computer science faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, to join the Wayne State Department of Computer Science as a visiting member of the faculty.

Rana says that what most compelled him to return to the College of Engineering was his excitement for the future.

"What really brought me here is the commitment and vision of Dean Farshad Fotouhi to make a difference through innovation and thinking outside of the box," says Rana. "There is a huge untapped potential and unfulfilled need in this part of the United States when it comes to university-industry collaboration."

The Big Data & Analytics Group is hosting its Big Data & Business Analytics Symposium: From Analytics to Action on March 26 at Wayne State. For more information and to register, visit specialevents.wayne.edu/2014bigdata.

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.