Rob Easley, Faculty MVP, Takes the Field at Notre Dame Stadium
Author: Marshall King
Rob Easley, 2023 All-Faculty awardee
Easley Takes the Field – Where Brains and Sports Collide!
Rob Easley will take the field at Notre Dame Stadium on September 16 as part of the Notre Dame All-Faculty Team.
The University named a team of seven professors to honor them in the way student-athletes are named to an All-American team. The professors being honored are brought on to the field in the third quarter of home games this season.
Easley is a Professor and the John W. Berry, Sr., Chair of the Department of Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations (ITAO) in the Mendoza College of Business. A video will highlight his research and program innovation, including the development of a new sports analytics track within the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. Several of the student-athletes in this program are on the football team and will be shown with Professor Easley on the large video screen in the stadium.
The Visionary Behind Notre Dame’s Thriving ITAO Department
He was the driving force behind the creation of the ITAO department in 2016, which included the development of a new major, Business Analytics. As soon as the new major was introduced, “it got big immediately,” said Easley. The major typically has 100 to 120 graduates a year, making it one of the top 10 majors at the university, and second in size to only Finance in Mendoza.
“The timing was good,” said Easley. “We knew the whole big data explosion was coming, but it was just getting started. We caught that wave.”
The ITAO department has 33 full-time professor positions, roughly two-thirds of which are tenure track and a third teaching faculty. “That’s about 50 percent larger than it was when I started the department,” Easley said.
The Data Crusader Leading Notre Dame Towards Ethical Data Practices
He has worked hard to bring together people of diverse interests and build a strong team and is pleased with the growth of the faculty and the program. “I think the department expansion has been successful,” he said. “I’ve hired very good people and built a very strong culture of collaboration across different disciplines. That’s kind of hard to do. It’s nice to feel recognized for that.”
Easley will be honored with his family at the game versus Central Michigan University. Members of the Mendoza Business Advisory Council will be attending the game and meeting on campus that weekend as well.
Easley holds a Ph.D. in Decision and Information Systems from Indiana University, Bloomington, and an M.B.A. from Pennsylvania State University. His own research has explored ticket pricing, Internet auctions, ecommerce, and net neutrality.
As part of being named to the All-Faculty Team, he’s calling for Notre Dame to be a leader in ethical and moral approaches to how data is used. “That’s missing a lot in society, and it’s important for our teenagers and kids. Notre Dame can come at this from a legitimate stance of calling for us to be careful about this,” he said.
“Society faces huge challenges concerning the potential misuse of Artificial Intelligence, the presence of bias in data sets used to train algorithms, and the lack of transparency about how those algorithms function. It is critical that we train students at all levels to engage with the ethical and moral considerations that should guide the use of big data. As the founding chair of the ITAO department, I have worked with my faculty to distinguish our programs by clearly addressing the many ethical issues that arise in learning from large data sets.”
– Rob Easley, 2023 All Faculty Team
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