New visiting professor at the Department of Applied IT
News: Oct 04, 2011
The Department of Applied IT has managed to recruit Professor Youngjin Yoo as a visiting professor during the academic year 2011/2012. Youngjin Yoo is one of the world's leading researchers in the field of information systems.
Youngjin Yoo is Professor of Management Information Systems at Fox School of Business, Temple University, USA. Last year (2010) he was ranked number 1 in the world in information systems in terms of productivity in the top journals (MISQ and ISR).
- We are very proud of recruiting Professor Youngjin Yoo to our department, says Ola Henfridsson, Deputy Head of the department. The recruitment is part of the department’s strategic work towards strengthening the international relations within our research.
Youngjin Yoo's visiting professorship is funded by the Sustainable Transport Initiative - a multi- and interdisciplinary research program and collaboration between Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg. At the Department of Applied IT Youngjin Yoo will be a part of the professors Ola Henfridsson's and Rikard Lindgren's research group within the division of Informatics.
The city as a digital eco-system
At Temple University Youngjin Yoo is working on a major research project on the digital city - Urban Apps and Maps.
- We conceptualize the city as a computing platform or operating system, where we can apply ideas from information technology such as open innovation and open source to solve urban problems, says Youngjin Yoo.
He continues to explain that you can look at the various functions of a city - such as public transport, health and education - as applications developed independently. Today's systems are not integrated and Youngjin Yoo argues that we miss a lot of opportunities when we do not fully take advantage of the technology.
- We generate lots of information in our daily lives that may be useful in several ways. We have now reached the point where it is technically possible to capture this information and use it. There are, of course, problems with integrity but I am confident these can be solved by good design.
Youngjin Yoo believes that information technology can be an effective solution to many social problems such as how we create a sustainable society.
- We can have intelligent recycling and waste disposal systems where the amount of garbage I produce and how much I recycle adjust my bill so that I pay more or less, says Youngjin Yoo. We have smart grids that create user profiles of the electricity consumed in a household, and the savings can be accumulated into personal accounts. But the major advantages come if we connect the systems and integrate them, if you can use what you save when recycling and in electricity consumption in other areas of everyday life, for example, to pay for public transportation or at the grocery store. There must be incentives if we want to change behavior, and this is why I should not be able to use the credit to refuel if the purpose is to change my behavior to a more sustainable one.
The benefit of seeing the city as a computing platform is that it focuses on the urban context that is urban economies as well as human needs, the community becomes a digital ecosystem.
Interesting partnership
Apart from research collaboration Youngjin Yoo hopes to have the opportunity to learn more about the partnership between public sector and private industry such as Lindholmen Science Park.
- This type of partnership is exciting and we hope to create something similar in Philadelphia, explains Youngjin Yoo. The research environment here in Sweden is more open ended and more diverse with greater access to real projects outside the academia than in the U.S. It is stimulating and gives birth to new ideas.