Expertise

Topics:  Measurement and Analysis, Risk Analysis, Management Science, Operations Research, Risk Management

Industries: Research, Management Consulting, Education/Learning, Public Policy

Ramayya Krishnan is the W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Heinz College and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. A faculty member at CMU since 1988, Krishnan was appointed as Dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in 2009.

Krishnan was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a master’s degree in industrial engineering and operations research, and a PhD in management science and information systems. He is an expert on digital transformation and has worked extensively with firms and policy makers on using technology and analytics to achieve policy goals. He is well known for his work in e-commerce and information risk management where he has made seminal contributions to technology management and policy. His current research interests are in the responsible use of AI and in data driven approaches to support workforce development.

Krishnan has been a serial academic entrepreneur. He founded the Master of Information Systems and Management program in 1998. The program grew from a founding cohort of 10 students to an intake of 120 students in a few years and now has alumni in leading tech companies throughout the world. The data analytics track of the program (BIDA) was chosen by the US Army Futures Command in 2020 to be part of its AI scholars program. In 2022, he and his colleagues at the Heinz College launched the Decision Analytics and Systems (DAS) program, an innovative undergraduate minor that combines systems thinking, analytics and experiential learning. INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences, the leading organization of scholars and practitioners of analytics, recognized Heinz College in 2016 with the UPS George D. Smith Prize for educational excellence. Heinz College is the only educational institution that is home to both the Von Neumann Theory Prize and the UPS George D. Smith Prize from INFORMS.

Krishnan has founded 4 externally funded research centers raising close to $100M dollars over the course of the last decade. He directs the Block Center for Technology and Society and advises policy makers, business leaders and international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank on Technology and Policy.

Media Experience

Power Shift: How CMU Is Leading America’s Energy Evolution  — CMU News
From reimagining AI data centers to modernizing and securing the electric grid, CMU researchers are working on practical solutions to pressing challenges in how the U.S. produces, moves and secures energy. Ramayya Krishnan, director of the AI Measurement Science and Engineering Center says, "At CMU, we have strength in all the different layers. We have deep expertise in energy, deep expertise in AI and deep expertise in public policy, and we understand how these elements come together."

Thought Leadership At UC Davis Graduate School of Management: Professor Hemant Bhargava On Technology-Based Business & Markets  — Poets & Quants
Bhargava: The more interesting and complex answer is actually going back to that work on generalized hypertext. A few years later, my co-colleague Ramayya Krishnan, who’s at Carnegie Mellon University, and I decided to do something in the context of decision modeling, but also internet computing. And this is the late 1990s when the internet was just taking off.

Empowering the Energy Workforce for an AI-Driven Future  — CMU News
“In other words, both traditional and new sources of energy are being explored to power not only existing sections of the economy but also what AI is demanding,” said Ramayya Krishnan, dean of CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and faculty director of the university’s Block Center for Technology and Society. “Because of that, there is a need for a workforce that has the appropriate skills to contribute to this build out in many ways.”

20 People To Know in Higher Education: Ramayya Krishnan, Carnegie Mellon University  — Pittsburgh Business Times
Ramayya Krishnan (Heinz College) is named one of PBT's 20 People to Know in Higher Education. Krishnan researches AI evaluation and its impact on labor markets.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College Announces New Master of Science In Artificial Intelligence Systems Management Program  — AP News
Carnegie Mellon University has announced a new Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence Systems Management (AIM) program, housed in the university’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. “One of the key strengths of our approach to AI research and education is our deep engagement with real-world applications,” said Ramayya Krishnan, dean of Heinz College.

CMU to build AI research center with $6 million from federal agency  — MSN
The new CMU/NIST AI Measurement Science and Engineering Cooperative Research Center, overseen by Heinz College dean Ramayya Krishnan, will focus on “risk management” and “evaluation” for new AI tools, according to the university.

Inside Universities’ Love-Hate Relationship With ChatGPT  — Wall Street Journal
Ramayya Krishnan, dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, said that it will also be important for students to cite their use of AI, similarly to how they cite their sources in a research paper.

Carnegie Mellon University experts lent expertise to new U.S. artificial intelligence roadmap  — Pittsburgh Business Times
Ramayya Krishnan, dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, faculty director of the Block Center and a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee, who testified on the need for transparency in AI to a Senate subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security on Sept. 12, 2023.

Is It Safe to Share Personal Information With a Chatbot?  — Wall Street Journal
Imagine you’ve pasted your notes from a meeting with your radiologist into an artificial-intelligence chatbot and asked it to summarize them. A stranger later prompts that same generative-AI chatbot to enlighten them about their cancer concerns, and some of your supposedly private conversation is spit out to that user as part of a response.

How to Make Artificial Intelligence More Human in 2024  — Gizmodo
Dr. Ramayya Krishnan is a Carnegie Mellon Professor who advises the U.S. Department of Commerce on artificial intelligence. He says the U.S. needs to invest heavily in research, small organizations, and startups, who have all been effectively locked out of being major innovators in the space.

AI’s energy impact is still small—but how we handle it is huge  — MIT Technology Review
Ramayya Krishnan (Heinz College) writes about the rising energy cost of data centers as a vital test case for how we deal with the broader electrification of the economy.