Capabilities

The Robert H. Smith School of Business and the University of Maryland are uniquely positioned to conduct research on electronic markets and enterprises. The Decision and Information Technologies department conducts leading edge research on information technology, decision support systems, electronic commerce, system optimization, organizational design, market design, strategy, and data mining.

The larger Maryland campus has many departments and schools that participate in the Center's activities. In particular, the Economics Department has faculty members conducting research on auction design, the theory of markets, analytical models of markets, and buyer-seller behavior. The Computer Science Department, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computing (UMIACS) and the Institute for Systems Research have associated faculty who study the technology of markets, human-computer interfaces, optimal search algorithms, and data mining.

The University offers a superb environment for a research organization like DIGITS. Further, the greater Washington DC area has a number of significant members of the electronic markets world including AOL, Oracle and MCI.

Current faculty projects illustrate the expertise available at Maryland:

• Sponsored search markets
• Online peer-to-peer lending
• Online search
• Information technology and outsourcing
• Online social networks
• Pricing and auctions in telecommunications bandwidth
• Wireless spectrum auctions
• Combinatorial auctions
• Bartering of airline take-off/landing slots
• Electronic exchange markets
• Learning and adoption of e-business technologies
• Network mediated knowledge
• e-Retailing