Associate Professor Dr Ganeshsree Selvachandran recently won the National Outstanding Young Educator Award 2019.

UCSI University’s Faculty of Business and Information Science (FoBIS) deputy dean Associate Professor Dr Ganeshsree Selvachandran recently won the National Outstanding Young Educator Award 2019 (fuzzy computing and artificial intelligence) at a prestigious awards ceremony held to recognise the contributions of private educators in the nation.

“Academically, it is definitely a really good boost for my career, and has created some really good publicity for me among the academic community, making it easier to obtain opportunities for collaboration in research and other areas,” she said.

“Personally, it makes me feel very humbled and grateful that my hard work and efforts in research and teaching has received recognition at the national level,” she added.

She also went on to say that, “Getting recognition at the national level and to obtain it at such a big platform makes it a really significant achievement in my career. And to have had the opportunity to compete with such strong candidates from some of the best and biggest private universities and foreign branches universities is something I am very proud of.”

According to her, winning the award has increased students’ confidence in the quality of the staff members of the faculty, and assuring both students and parents of the quality of lecturers in FoBIS.

Her advice to other academicians is to always work hard, work smart and always be willing to go the extra mile to achieve success. She said to stay true to their interests and their areas of expertise, and focus on doing research that is in line with the current research trends in their areas of expertise.

To students, her advice would be to “always stay true to your passion and interests, and pursue it with all your heart.”

“Don’t select a field because it will pay well or because it is easy to do well in, but choose a field because you are passionate about it and interested in it. Only then, you will be driven to go the extra mile and the passion to learn and discover will always be alive,” she said.

In her opinion, what it takes to be an excellent educator is teaching and research. According to her, one must have the passion to guide and nurture students, and the passion to excel in research in one’s respective field of expertise.

On the future of FoBIS, Dr Ganeshsree stated that the Faculty has been doing very well and has been steadily growing from strength to strength in the past three to four years. She strongly believes that FoBIS will continue to improve and will one day become one of the premier business schools in the country and the region.

As for words of wisdom, she had this to say: “Don’t chase after fame and fortune. Pursue excellence instead, and fame and fortune will come chasing after you.”