Good day, Dr. Md Samim Aktar. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

You can start.

Certainly. Let's begin: Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

OK.

Good evening. I am Mohammad Sahib Akhtar.

Thanks

Uh, I have completed.

Did my class trial from school.

After that I have done BSc in Mathematics from Assistance College, Calcutta University.

Then I have done MSC in Applied Mathematics from IST SQL. After that I have done PhD in Applied Mathematics from ISD Simple and recently I have completed Post Doctor as a Post Doctor Fellow in the School of Business Department at IIT Guwahati from 18 December 2023 to 17 December 2025.

And currently I am not associated with any of the institute right now.

Yes, yes.

Let’s start by exploring your expertise in teaching theory and laboratory courses. Could you provide an example of a topic you have taught or would like to teach, and explain how you would structure the lesson for maximum student engagement?

OK.

Uh during my uh MSC courses I have learned different method like I have solved transportation problem.

I knew, I think you know, you must know about what is transpersonal problem. So transportation problem is a typical linear program problem where our aim is to transport some items from different sources to different destination where the objective is to minimize the transportation.

Cost.

So this was my uh, so the, I think I can teach this topic to the, uh, operation management courses. And if I, I want to say about my research experience, then uh, I have developed some 4 dimensional transparency problem under uncertain environment during my PhD. I have published some research articles in highly reputed journals like Journal of Cleaner production, Computers and Industrial Engineering.

Flight, Subcomputing, advanced engineering informatics. International Journal of system science. Operation on logistics and new Mathematics and natural computation.

During my post doc I have published 2 conference paper. I have communicated one journal paper in a highly reputed journal like Engineering application of Artificial Intelligence and currently I am working in one on paper which I which I wish to submit in upcoming one month.

And if I want to say about, uh, in which topic I can teach, then I will like to say that I can teach, uh, transportation problem, inventory problem, traveling, salesman problem, uh, then project management, then operation research.

Et cetera.

So if you want then I can elaborate that how to solve a transportation problem. I can solve through different technique like northwest corner method.

And I can also teach that how to get the optimal solution because.

Minimum cost method. Google's approximation method.

If you want to solve some transportation problem, we have to go through 2 phases. In phase one we can find out the basic feasible solution.

Initial basic physical solution through different technique like northwest corner method, least cost method and focus approximation method and after that we have two we have to solve.

To get the optimal solution through different techniques like stepping stone method and modified distribution method which is also called UV method.

Thank you.

Yes.

OK.

Go ahead, Professor. Please share your approach and an example.

During my post doc journey at IIT Guwahati, I have helped 2/2 of my students to doing their project in their management courses.

I have.

I have helped through the carbon emission policies, introducing different carbon emission policies in a transportation problem.

And on one of my student also worked in inventory problem where I have helped him through with the with the.

Return ROI level, I mean reorder point.

So I can develop.

I can develop some, I can I can help my students to to solve some real world transportation problem or some real world.

Vehicle routing problem or different problem let's say. Let's say there are different sources.

And there are different destinations and you have to transport.

Some items from these sources to this destination and let's say you have some restriction like you cannot transport.

Uh, from every sources to every destination.

Then.

How we can solve?

Along with the minimum along with your transportation cost should be minimum.

So that should that could be a unique project in that in this project I can help my students that how to solve this type of problem.

Thank you.

Let’s now discuss your experience with student evaluation and exam duties. Could you explain how you have approached assessing student performance in the past?

Actually.

In during my post doc journey.

I have worked as a teaching assistant with my professors, so our professor used to check our. Our professor generally used us to check the copy, to check the copy of the quiz, and to evaluate through the lab exams.

And so on. So I have some experience that how to.

How to give, how to give the numbers? How to give numbers to the students? So I would like to take different approach like I would like to conduct some quiz, I would like to conduct some group projects, I would like to conduct some final exam etcetera. In doing these things, I think I can evaluate that which student.

Is going to be fast and which student going to be second. I can also use some different UH percentage or normalized criteria to find out that which student will become first and which student will become second and so on.

Thank you, Professor. It is clear you have a thoughtful and structured approach to student evaluation. Let’s proceed to the next area.

OK.

Let’s move to your research publications. Could you highlight the most impactful research paper you’ve worked on and discuss its contribution to the field?

Can you please repeat?

Yes, yes, I have.

Of course, Professor. Could you highlight the most impactful research paper you’ve worked on and discuss its contribution to the field?

Basically, I want to say that supply chain I I would like to introduce my research, what I have done right.

So supply chain focuses on several factors like procurement decision, in-house decision and distribution decision. So distribution decision is a major part in the supply chain where the.

Objective is to transport the end items to the end to the finished item to the end customers in a minimum cost and time.

Now earlier that transportation model had been assumed that there are only one path and only one conveyance to transport the items from sources to distribution. But nowadays you can see there due to the infrastructure development, there are different path option as well as conveyance option from each sources to each destination. Among these paths there are some paths which are very bad having potholes at different places.

There are some paths which are very smooth. So paths may play a significant role in choosing optimum decision.

Again, uh, there are some toll taxes at different places to collect the money from the vehicles flying through the road to maintain the national highways, and sometimes it makes queue to make the payment at the toll Plaza.

For that reason, government introduces several payment policies like fast tag, et cetera to reduce the carbon emissions to reduce the transportation time.

So, paths may play a significant role in choosing optimum decision. For that reason, we have included multiple path in our research paper.

You can see there are different conveyance option and different conveyance option can also reduce the total trip of the system so that it can reduce the total cost of the system.

So we have also included multiple convenience option to transport items from the sources to destination. So you can see the earlier researchers have been ignored this fact. So we have included this fact and it is it's being a realistic problem to our society.

Again, in a business it is advised to transport multiple items in a single conference, but.

Multiple items can arise in different ways like it may be compatible, it may be incompatible, or it may be breakable. So how to transport some breakable incompatible items? Earlier researchers have been ignored this fact. For that reason, we have included breakable incompatible items in our research river. You can see incompatible items like we cannot transport food and chemical product in the same detail.

So we have included this fact and our research problem becomes very realistic.

Again.

Business organization tries to transport items, uh tries to transport items in a minimum cost and time, but due to the government, due to the global warming, carbon emission due to the global warming, uh government introduces several.

Carbon policies for the organization to reduce the carbon emission during transportation. We have also included carbon emission as an objective in our research paper. So in this way we have included four dimensional transpersonal problem for incompatible breakable items where we have where the our dimension is represented as multiple sources, multiple destination, multiple paths and multiple conveyance options.

We have also.

Developed our model under some uncertain environment like we have developed under type 2 fuzzy random environment. We have also formulated one prepper where we have taken type 2 five random goal programming method.

Where we have taken.

Availability, demand, conveyance capacity as type 2 fuzzy random parameters.

So you can see.

In my profile you can see that we have developed some research article in highly reported journals with a highly impact factor. Like you can see we have published in one paper in general of production which has 10 impact factor. We have also published some research article in different paper like Computers and industrial engineering, applied soft computing, advanced engineering, informatics. These are all highly impacted journals and they have taken our paper.

Who published in their journals?

Thank you.

Let’s now discuss the intersection of your research expertise with teaching. How do you integrate cutting-edge research, like the work you just described, into your teaching methods to enhance student learning?

Can you please repeat? I mean sometimes it breaking broken.

Can you please repeat?

OK.

Certainly, Professor. How do you integrate your cutting-edge research, such as the work you described, into your teaching methods to enhance student learning?

Please go ahead, Professor.

OK, as you can see we have developed some 4 dimensional transportation problem under some uncertain environment. Our thesis title was once on some 4 dimensional transpersonal problem under uncertain environment. So this was my research where we have developed some different problems. And if I want to teach these things or if I want to encourage someone to do some research in this area, then first of all I have to.

Uh, teach through the very basic problem of transportation problem, which I told you earlier in in this interview that I will develop. I will try, I will teach that how to solve some 2 dimensional transposition problem first. Then I will I would like to teach some how to solve how to include multiple conveyance option in two-dimensional transparency problems so that it will become three-dimensional and transpersonal problem or how to include.

Multiple path of sun in two-dimensional transpersonal problem so that it will become three-dimensional transpersonal problem. Then we can include how to solve 4 dimensional transpersonal problem where we can include multiple conveyance as well as multiple path option. Now after constructing our model, our main goal is to be solve how to solve this problem.

To take some decision.

Then we have different methodology that how to solve A4 dimensional transmission problem. Like we can solve through lingo optimization solver, we can solve through CPLEX optimization solver if we want. If we do not want to get the optimal solution and if our problem will become so large then we can go through some genetic algorithms, particular form optimization etcetera.

So for that reason, we have to, I have to teach this methodology first, then we can teach our, we can, I can encourage my students that you can go for, for this research area.

So this will be what my my teaching philosophy that how to encourage my students to uh.

To interest to get some interest in the four dimensional transportation problem.

Thank you, Professor. Your approach to integrating foundational teaching with innovative research is commendable. Let us move forward.

Hello.

Yes, Professor, I’m here. Let’s proceed. Could you share how your communication and teaching approach ensures clarity and engagement with diverse student groups?

Can you repeat once more?

OK.

Of course, Professor. How does your communication and teaching approach ensure clarity and engagement when working with diverse student groups?

Forklift.

Yes, yes.

Let's say, uh, I mean, for clarity, uh, what I, what philosophy I will take, uh, let's say I have to teach some metrics to some management students, then, uh, in at first they will, may get some nervous, uh, by seeing the structure what is going on. So for that reason, if I want to teach metrics, then I will, I will introduce in such a way so that they can learn.

Through some visualization as well as through some memorization. I mean, uh, I will say them that let's say, uh, you are 10 students and there are three subjects or 4 or let's say, yeah, you have 5 students and there are 5 subjects, I mean.

Life science, physical science, math and physics. Then I will tell them.

Bingo. English.

The first student.

Let's say get numbers in these five subjects 105897 respectively. The second student get numbers 95321 in this subject respectively. So I can teach them that the first the the the.

Element which I have written in the row wise it is the number of.

Students I mean the name of the students and the subject which I have written at the top of the matrix this is or the column it is the subject name. So first first is the Bing English, second is the math, 3rd is the physics, 4th is the chemistry and so on. So I will see them that the first student get this number in this subject first subject, first student gets this number in the.

Subject. In this way I can introduce metrics so that they will learn in a better way or it should be very clear to the students.

This is one kind of example that how I I will introduce metrics to some students again.

Uh, if I want to.

Hello.

Can I?

Yes, Professor, I’m here. Please continue.

OK, again Again, let's say I have to teach supply chain management.

So there are different methodology in supply chain management and that there are different decision process in supply chain management that how to select suppliers, how to how lead time plays any role in selecting in selecting supplier different methodology there is are there like effect can.

Can amplify the demand at the as you move from the retailer to the sources or the supplier.

These are the different different, uh.

Different, I mean what I want to say there are these are there, there are different philosophy or there are different?

Uh, such incident that how you can introduce how, uh, different things are there. I mean, how to select the, uh, supplier, What is centralized decentralized system? What is bullhave effect? So I will teach them thoroughly. I mean, I will teach them that what is the centralization system? I will teach them that how lead time plays any role to select the supplier. Uh, like I have, I, I, I can, I can remind that if the.

Harrison is there in the lead time of a supplier then our safety stock will becomes too much high. If there is a large lead time then also there will be no problem. But if there is a variation in lead time then the.

Supply safety stock will becomes very high. So these some, these are the some, some incident which is happening in supply chain management. But if you want to teach, if if I can teach through some theoretical process only then they will not be they will not be memorized through for the long days. But if I if I can manage, if I can go with some classroom games, then they will can memorize for some long.

Is like I can introduce beer game I I think it might be know about it. Beer is beer game is a very famous game which was played in the classroom and it is quite.

Useful to learn that what different methodology like impact of bullet effect, there are impact of centralized anti centralized system. So I will divide my students in different groups I will.

I will consider different assumption for different groups. I mean, for some groups I will consider they can share the information. So I will uh, give some opportunity to uh, to share their information in some groups and for other groups, they will not be able to share the information. In some group, I can introduce the variation in lead times in for some other groups, I will not assume.

That they can say they, the, they're the their, uh, lead time can vary.

So after taking different assumption for different groups, they will play that game after.

Gay After playing the game for some, let's say 5 periods or 10 periods, they will get some different result. After getting different results, they can actually realize that for which policy or for which assumption? What is the impact in there? What is the impact of the result in their?

Bithrology. So through this techniques or through these procedures, they will learn that what is the impact of the variation in lead time, what is the impact of bullet effect. So in that way, what is the impact of the in what is the impact of the information sharing. So in that way they can learn supply chain management in such a better way so that they will can memorize these things for a long time.

Thank you.

Now I will assess your contributions to industry projects or consultancy. Could you describe any specific experience you have in collaborating with industries or providing consultancy services?

Till now, I don't have any provide. Till now I don't have any experience for providing consultancy experience. But uh, as you can see our research, it is quite realistic. Uh, we have developed, we have included multiple path and multiple conveyance option in our research paper so we can.

We can go for, we can go for some project, we can write some project for some industry where we can include different path and different conveyor option so that they can minimize the total transfers and cost or total carbon emission amount, et cetera.

OK.

Let us discuss your ability to teach and communicate complex topics effectively. How would you explain the concept of "multi-objective optimization" to students who are new to the subject?

OK.

As you can see, yes, yes I am multi objective optimization. Let's say I have to introduce multi objective optimization. So first of all, uh, my students would be learned or or my students would be.

Aware that multi objective optimization that means if we want to solve if we we have two objects, let's say like I mean if we want to hire some car, then if I want to hire some new car then our total cost will be high. But if I want to hire some old car then our total or then our cost will be low. But if we want to.

Go ahead,

Feel comfort, then we have to.

Hire a new car and that their comfort will be high. But if you if you if you are able to have a old car, then our comfort will may become less. So there is a there is a.

Some new car. If you want to get less comfort then you have to hire a worker. So there is a trade off between the objectives. So if you want to if you want to solve some multi objective problem then even you will not be able to achieve optimal solution for each for each objective.

Trade off between the objectives like if you want to. If you want to gain some more comfort then you have to hire.

So this is the main philosophy for a solving a multi objective transportation problem like like I I have some different example.

Let's let's just give me two minutes to think about it, I mean.

OK.

OK.

Whenever

Umm, for multi objective uh.

Let's say I have to buy some phone and.

Uh, there is.

Cost and there is a features for that phone.

So if I can invest some more amount of money, then our feature will be high. But if we don't want to give some.

More money to buy the phone then our feature will be less, so it is not quite possible that we would like we'll be able to get a very.

I mean there is a lots of feature and the cost will be less. So it is not possible. So we have to.

We have to go in such a way then our the so that our feature will be.

Our as expected and our cost will be also in our expectation. So there is a trade off between the cost and the features. So these are the main philosophy to how to solve a multi objective optimization problem.

Thank you, Professor. Your example simplifies the concept effectively. Let’s now evaluate further.

What's now?

I will now review your broader skillset alignment with the role requirements, Professor. Give me a moment.

Professor Aktar, I see that you hold a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a focus on optimization and related fields, and you were recognized for your research on multi-objective green 3-dimensional transportation problems. Could you briefly explain your approach in that paper? Specifically, how does it address the challenges of sustainability and optimization in operations?

OK.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

OK.

As you can, as you can see.

Transportation problem or transportation sector is one of the strongest emitter of carbon emission.

Could

I mean total 1/5 of total world pollution is is is being for transportation sector. So and transportation cannot be done without carbon emission. So the only way is to reduce carbon emission during transportation. For that reason we have included carbon emission as an objective in our transportation problem. In our transportation problem we have taken.

Carbon emission objective by.