Ramayya Krishnan
Dean, Heinz College Carnegie Mellon University
- Pittsburgh PA
Ramayya Krishnan is well known for his work in e-commerce and information risk management.
Biography
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.
Areas of Expertise
Media Appearances
Power Shift: How CMU Is Leading America’s Energy Evolution
CMU News online
2025-07-11
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 online
2023-11-13
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 online
2025-03-24
“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 online
2025-03-21
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 online
2024-10-21
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 online
2024-10-02
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 online
2024-08-26
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 online
2024-05-23
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 online
2024-01-18
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 online
2023-12-20
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 online
2025-05-20
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.
Media
Social
Industry Expertise
Education
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
B.Tech
Mechanical Engineering
1981
The University of Texas at Austin
M.S.
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
1983
University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D.
Management Science and Information Systems
1987
Affiliations
- American Association for the Advancement of Science : AAAS Fellow
- INFORMS : Fellow
- National Academy of Public Administration : Elected Member
- Geotech Center of the Atlantic Council : Commissioner
Links
Articles
22-nm FD-SOI Embedded MRAM Technology for Low-Power Automotive-Grade-l MCU Applications
2018 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM)2018
We demonstrate 22-nm FD-SOI 40Mb embedded MRAM (eMRAM) macros for automotive-grade-l (Auto-G1) MCU applications, highlighting sub-ppm to bit error rate and zero failure after 1M endurance cycles across Auto-G1 operating temperature range (-40∼150 °C). Read disturbance characterization with external field also reveals that 40Mb eMRAM macro is capable of active-mode magnetic immunity > 500 Oe at 150 °C. In addition, based on 22-nm eMRAM macro data, we review the effects of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) size on reliability and examine scalability of eMRAM technology beyond 22 nm.
The Dynamics of Online Consumers’ Response to Price Promotion
Information Systems Research2019
We aim to understand the attitudinal and behavior states of the online consumer–retailer relationship and its dynamics and, furthermore, to examine how consumers respond to price promotion as a function of the relationship. To do so, we build a hidden Markov model and estimate it with individual-level transaction data collected from a premier online retailer.
Evolving epidemiology of poliovirus serotype 2 following withdrawal of the serotype 2 oral poliovirus vaccine
Science2020
In 2016, the serotype 2 component of the oral poliovirus vaccine given to children was withdrawn. This measure was taken to prevent vaccine-associated disease outbreaks caused by mutation in the live attenuated vaccine. Children around the world now have poor immunity to serotype 2 poliovirus because the inactivated vaccine is far less effective and a new oral vaccine is not yet ready.
Learning Individual Behavior Using Sensor Data: The Case of Global Positioning System Traces and Taxi Drivers
Information Systems Research2020
The ubiquitous deployment of mobile and sensor technologies enables observation and recording of human behavior in physical (off-line) settings in a manner similar to what has been possible to date in online settings. This provides researchers with a new lens through which to study and better understand previously unobservable individual decision-making processes. In this study, using a Bayesian learning model with a rich data set consisting of approximately two million fine-grained Global Positioning System (GPS) observations, we analyze the decision-making behavior of 2,467 single-shift taxi drivers in a large Asian city with the objective of understanding key factors that drive the supply side of urban mobility markets.
Influence of Agro Meteorological Indices on Different Sowing Time of Irrigated Maize in Western Agro-Climatic Zone of Tamil Nadu
Madras Agricultural Journal2022
A field trial with different sowing windows of the maize crop was done in the Eastern Block Farm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The sowing windows were scheduled mid of every month for four seasons.
