Dr. Ratna Babu Chinnam is an expert in AI, Big Data & Business Analytics and is a Professor and Chair of the Industrial & Systems Engineering Department at Wayne State University.

He is the author of over 150 technical publications (journal articles, conference proceedings, and research reports). His research interests include business analytics, big data, operations management, supply chain management, sustainability, healthcare, and smart engineering systems.

He is currently the Associate Editor for the International Journal of Modeling and Simulation, the International Journal of Quality, Statistics, and Reliability, and the North American Editor for the Journal of Remanufacturing. His past research is funded by the U.S. NSF, DoT, DoD, DoEd, and VA.

He carried out collaborative research with such multi-national companies as Ford Motor Company, General Dynamics, Intel, Goodyear, and consulted for such companies as Chrysler, Sirius Satellite Radio, Energy Conversion Devices, Dominos, CapGemini, Faurecia, Whirlpool, Steelcase, MRF Tyres, Magna International, DataFactZ, and Tecton.

He graduated over 50 doctoral students with many occupying academic positions and is awarded the 2012 Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award by Wayne State University.

In 2022, he received an Outstanding Professor Award from the Industrial Engineering & Operations Management Society. He is a Founding Director for the IndustryX: Center for Operational Excellence and AI, Big Data, & Business Analytics organizations at Wayne State University.

He is also the founding Director of the Global Executive PhD Track at Wayne State, the first such engineering PhD program in the U.S.

He leads the Business Analytics Spoke for the NSF's Midwest Big Data Hub. He is also the Founding Director for the novel Data Science & Business Analytics MS Degree at Wayne State.

His students have won a number of best paper awards from national and international conferences, journals, and professional societies, including the 2013 INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society's Best Dissertation Prize (awarded to Farshid Azadian), the 2014 INFORMS ENRE Best Student Paper Award (awarded to Mahyar Nejad), the 2014 POMS College of Sustainable Operations Best Student Paper Runner-Up Award (awarded to Mahyar Nejad), the IISE Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award (awarded to Mahyar Nejad), and the 2017 INFORMS Service Science Best Student Paper Award (awarded to Seung-Yup Lee).

He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology of Mangalore University (India) in 1988 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University (U.S.A.) in 1990 and 1994, respectively.