The campus community and members of the public are invited to a free webinar at noon Wednesday, Jan. 23, about how emerging technologies can help improve business processes.

This webinar is part of the Engineering and Operations Management Lunch and Learn Webinar Series.

The webinar, titled "The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Business Decision Making," will be presented by Chase Rainwater, associate professor of industrial engineering. Rainwater serves as the director of the J.B. Hunt Innovation Center of Excellence and co-director of the Arkansas Security Research and Education Institute.  

When we think of artificial intelligence, we are often drawn to the self-driving cars, voice-based home technologies and automated online interactions that fill the news and drive our daily activities. However, the root of these advancements, machine learning, is a predictive analytics technique that has much broader applicability. With the age of "big data" and the buzz around "data science" continuing to grow, decision makers are asking themselves if emerging technologies, such as machine learning, can help improve business processes.

This webinar will demystify the fundamental concepts of machine learning. The differences between supervised and unsupervised learning, as well as classification will be illustrated. In addition, the course will offer examples that illustrate the use of machine learning in industry via business-driven case studies.

Rainwater's research interests include supply chain optimization, large-scale algorithm design and information security. He is an active member in the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science and Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineers. In the Northwest Arkansas community, Rainwater contributes frequently to STEM initiatives for K-12 students. He was presented with the 2017-18 Dean's Award of Excellence Collaborative Faculty Research Award for the College of Engineering. 

The webinar will begin at noon. Registration is required. Click here to sign up.

To learn more about the series, visit the webinar series webpage.