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                                                     Seminar

             Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
                                  The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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Title

:

Service Science Progress and Directions

　

　

　

Speaker

:

Dr. Jim Spohrer

　

　

Director, Almaden Services Research

　

　

IBM Almaden Research Center

　

　

　

Date

:

May 27th, 2011 (Friday)

　

　

　

Time

:

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

　

　

　

Venue

:

Room 513

　

　

William M.W. Mong Engineering Building

　

　

(Engineering Building Complex Phase 2)

　

　

CUHK

　

　

　

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Abstract:
　

Economists report the growth of the service sector globally.   This trend is likely to continue, as technological advances improve productivity, lower transaction costs, and increase outsourcing opportunities.  Service-Dominant Logic (Vargo & Lusch), service science (Spohrer & Maglio), and service network theory (Gummesson) are all research directions that shift the focus away from service versus manufacturing and towards a view of networks of entities interacting.  Service system entities are complex systems with customers and other stakeholders (e.g., workers, investors, etc.).  In this view, modern farms and factories are nodes in the global network of interconnected service system entities (http://www.flixxy.com/high-tech-car-factory.htm).  Others complain that this view is overly general.  In this talk, I will debate their view, arguing that generalizing "customer" to "stakeholder" is required in the practical design and management of all real-world processes and systems.  Furthermore, sustainable innovation may require a focus on holistic service systems (e.g., cities, universities, luxury conference hotels, etc.).  I will argue for the design of "ideal or reference" holistic service systems to accelerate learning and transfer of innovation between complex real-world system of systems that include transportation, water, food, energy, communications, buildings, retail, finance, health, education, and governance (security, development, laws).  The focus is on improving quality of life: quality of service to customers, quality of jobs for workers, and quality of new opportunities for investors and other stakeholders.


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Biography:
　

Jim Spohrer is the Director of Almaden Services Research at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. IBM Global Services (IGS) is a people-intensive, information-intensive business of over 170,000 professionals world-wide, accounting for almost half of IBM's yearly revenues, and innovation for IGS is the focus of the Almaden Services Research group. Human sciences, On-Demand Innovation Services (ODIS), deep industry knowledge of future trends, and operations technology are areas of active exploration.

From 2000-2003, at IBM, he was CTO of IBM's Venture Capital Relations Group, where he identified technology trends and worked to establish win-win relationships between IBM and VC-backed portfolio companies. Previously, Dr. Spohrer directed the IBM Almaden Research Center's (ARC) Computer Science Foundation Department, and before that was senior manager and co-strategist for IBM's User Experience/Human Computer Interaction Research effort.

From 1989-1998, at Apple, he was a DEST (Distinguished Engineer, Scientist, and Technologist) and program manager of learning technology projects in Apple's Advanced Technology Group (ATG). He lead the effort to create Apple's first on-line learning community and vision for mobile any time, any where e-learning. From 1978-1982, he developed speech recognition algorithms and products at Verbex, an Exxon Enterprises company.

Jim received a B.S. in Physics from MIT in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University in 1988. In 1989, Jim lived in Rome, Italy where he was a visiting scholar at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and lecturer at major universities across Europe. Jim has published broadly in the areas of speech recognition, empirical studies of programmers, artificial intelligence, authoring tools, on-line learning communities, open source software, intelligent tutoring systems and student modeling, new paradigms in using computers, implications of rapid technical change, as well as the coevolution of social, business, and technical systems. Jim has also helped to establish two education research non-profit web sites: The Educational Object Economy (http://www.eoe.org/) and WorldBoard: Associating Information with Places (http://www.worldboard.org/). Jim is a frequent advisor to the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, and other groups (http://www.merlot.org, http://www.newmediacenters.org) on the implications of rapid technological change to the future of education.


************************* ALL ARE WELCOME ************************

　

　

　

Host

:

Prof. Duan Li

Tel

:

(852) 2609-8316/8323

Email

:

dli@se.cuhk.edu.hk

　

　

　

Enquiries

:

Prof. Nan Chen or Prof. Sean X. Zhou

　

:

Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management

　

　

CUHK

Website

:

http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~seem5201

Email

:

seem5201@se.cuhk.edu.hk

　

　

　

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