Mark Isken

Title: Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
Office: 317 Elliott Hall
Phone: (248) 370-3296
Email: [email protected]

Personal Website

Education: 
University of Michigan, Ph.D. Industrial & Operations Engineering

Biography:
Mark teaches a number of business analytics courses using tools such as Python, R, and Excel. His teaching materials are publicly accessible and you can find links on his faculty web page. He also does analytics related research and open source software development with a focus on healthcare and environmental/ecological issues. He blogs about these topics and you can also find him on LinkedIn and Research Gate.

Before joining Oakland University, Mark was a practicing operations researcher for William Beaumont Hospital and Henry Ford Health System and has consulted with numerous healthcare organizations and other non-profits. He has published in a number of journals including Annals of Operations Research, IEEE Transactions on System, Man and Cybernetics, Health Care Management Science, INFORMS Transactions on Education, and the Journal of Simulation.

Teaching interests: 
Business analytics, statistics, information systems and technology, healthcare operations management

Research interests: 
Simulation and optimization modeling of healthcare systems, business analytics, ecological/environmental analytics, open source software development

Awards:

• 2021 Outstanding Mentor Award Nominee, OU Graduate Council, March 2021
• Featured in SBA Insight Magazine, School of Business Administration, March 2021
• OU Teaching Excellence Award, Oakland University, April 2020
• Nominated for OU Teaching Excellence Award, Oakland University, November 2018
• Nominee for Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor, Oakland University, April 2018
• Faculty Recognition for Teaching, Oakland University, April 2018
• Faculty Recognition by student athlete, Oakland University Athletics, February 2018
• Order of the Plume, Oakland University College of Arts and Sciences, April 2016
• Teaching Excellence, School of Business Administration, August 2013
• University Teaching and Learning Committee, 2004
• Oakland University, 2003
• School of Business Administration, 2002

Journals and Articles:

Isken, Mark W. "Spreadsheet Modeling and Wrangling with Python." INFORMS Transactions on Education (2024).

Tiegs, S. D., et al. "Human activities shape global patterns of decomposition rates in rivers." Science (2024): eadn1262.

Isken, M., Norman, J. W. (2024). hillmaker: A Python package for occupancy analysis in discrete entity flow systems. Journal of Open Source Software, 3.

Isken, M. , Aydas, O. , Roumani, Y. F.(2023). Queueing Inspired Feature Engineering to Improve and Simplify Patient Flow Simulation Metamodels. Journal of Simulation. 19

Isken, M. , Aydas, O. (2022). A tactical multi-week implicit tour scheduling model with applications in healthcare. Healthcare Management Science. 20

Tiegs, S. D., Costello, D. M., Isken, M. W., , C. (2019). Global patterns and drivers of ecosystem functioning in rivers and riparian zones. Science Advances. 9

Isken, M. (2014). Translating a Lab Based Spreadsheet Modeling Course to an Online Format: Experience from a Natural Experiment. INFORMS Transactions on Education. 15

Isken, M. , Ward, T. J., Littig, S. J.(2011). An Open Source Project for Obstetrical Procedure Scheduling and Occupancy Analysis. Health Care Management Science. 14(1), 18

Littig, S. J., Isken, M. W.(2007). Short term hospital occupancy prediction. Health Care Management Science. 10(1), 47-66

Isken, M. W.(2005). Hillmaker: An open source occupancy analysis tool. Clinical and Investigative Medicine. 28(6), 342-43

Isken, M. W., Sugumaran, V. , Ward, T. J., Minds, D. , Ferris, W. (2005). Collection and preparation of sensor network data to support modeling and analysis of outpatient clinics. Health Care Management Science. 8(2), 87-99

Isken, M. W.(2004). An implicit tour scheduling model with applications in healthcare. Annals Of Operations Research. 12891-110

Isken, M. W.(2003). Data cleansing and OLAP as a prelude to model based decision support. INFORMS Transactions on Education. 3(3), not applicable, web based

Isken, M. W.(2002). Modeling and analysis of occupancy data: a healthcare capacity planning application. International Journal of Information Technology and Decision Making. 1(4), 707-729

Isken, M. W., Littig, S. J.(2002). Simulation analysis of pneumatic tube systems. Journal of Medical Systems. 26(1), 9-19

Isken, M. W., Rajagopalan, B. (2002). Data mining to support simulation modeling of patient flow in hospitals. Journal of Medical Systems. 26(2), 179-197

Rajagopalan, B. , Isken, M. W.(2001). Exploiting data preparation to enhance data mining and knowledge discovery. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. 26(4), 460-467

Isken, M. W., Littig, S. J., West, M. (2001). An operations analysis data mart. Journal of Healthcare Information Management. 15(2), 143-154

Isken, M. , Hancock, W. M.(1998). Tactical scheduling analysis for hospital ancillary units. Journal of the Society for Health Systems. 5(4), 11-23

Hancock, W. M., Isken, M. W.(1992). Patient scheduling methodologies. Journal of the Society for Health Systems. 3(4), 83-94

Isken, M. W., Hancock, W. M.(1990). A heuristic approach to nurse scheduling in hospital units with non-stationary urgent demand and a fixed staff size. Journal of the Society for Health Systems. 2(2), 24-41

Books and Chapters:

Isken, M. (2001). Management Engineering, Computer simulation in management engineering. (pp. 179-196). Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Other Publications:

Isken, M. (2023). Bits of Analytics - Tutorials, notes, and ramblings on analytics. (pp. They are web pages). Not a journal - this is a series of technical blog posts.

Isken, M. (2022). Hillmaker for Python. (pp. Not applicable. It's software). It's software. Available from https://github.com/misken/hillmaker and https://pypi.org/project/hillmaker/.

Isken, M. (2022). Using SimPy to simulate a vaccine clinic. (pp. NA). Other.

Isken, M. (2021). Series of blog posts, software and open courseware on using Python for Excel based analytical activities. (pp. 20). Other.

Isken, M. (2020). Covid-19 related modeling and analysis. (pp. Not applicable). Self.

Isken, M. (2013). Health Care Data Analysis Tutorials. (pp. 20). N/A -- Not Applicable.

Isken, M. (2005). Hillmaker. (pp. Not applicable). SourceForge.

Doane, D. Isken, M. (2004). Demonstrating Multicollinearity: A spreadsheet simulation. American Statistical Association Joint Statistical Meetings - 2004, American Statistical Association Joint Statistical.

(2003). Decision Support Software for Short-Term Hospital Occupancy Forecasts - Final Report. .

Isken, M. (2002). Teaching DSS: Trudging through dirty data on the path to model based decision support. 2002 Americas Conference on Information Systems.

(2001). Decision Tool to Manage Cost/Quality in Neonatal ICUs - Final Report. .

Ogino, M. Richardson, D. Zupancic, J. Eichenwald, E. Isken, M. (2001). Simulating NICU census and patient flows. 2001 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting, 2001 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting.

Isken, M. (2001). Simulation analysis of pneumatic tube systems. (pp. 41-43). Midwest DSI 2001 Proceedings, Midwest DSI 2001 Proceedings.

Isken, M. (2000). An optimization model based decision support system for staff scheduling analysis in healthcare facilities. (pp. 356-361). 2000 Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2000 Americas Conference on Information Systems.

McKee, T. Ward, T. Isken, M. (1999). From Theory to Practice ? Developing Decision Support Tools to Manage Cost and Quality of Obstetrical Care. (pp. 1-6). Proceedings of the 11th Annual Quest for Quality and Productivity in Health Services Conference, Proceedings of the 11th Annual Quest for Quality a.

Isken, M. Ward, T. McKee, T. (1999). Simulating outpatient obstetrical clinics. (pp. 1557-1563). Proceedings of the 1999 Winter Simulation Conference, Proceedings of the 1999 Winter Simulation Conferen.

Isken, M. Brzezinski, M. (1992). Staff scheduling as a management tool. Michigan Healthcare Management Systems Society 1992, Michigan Healthcare Management Systems Society 199.