Vinodh Subramanian: So when I started my master's with the University of Arizona, I was working with a couple of medical practices as a consultant, and then I've been helping them get more patient appointments. So while doing that, I realized that getting new patient appointments is not the problem, but most of the patients that actually scheduled an appointment with the practice, most of them, they don't show up. Right? And no-shows has been a pressing problem in the healthcare industry and every single year, every single private clinic or private practice loses about $150,000 per year in no-shows alone, this is on the one end. On the other end, we have patients that are not getting the care they need, because of various system and human inefficiencies. And this prompted us... I was doing my master's under the systems and industrial engineering department where we study everything based on system.

So we see problems as systems, we tried to get to the root cause, and then we try to address all these root causes by creating systems, using systems thinking principles. So when I came across this problem, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to do my research and had I not attended the I-Corps program, had I not found out about it from TLA, then I wouldn't have had the vision that I have. They completely shifted the way I thought about research. They just gave me a new vision. And currently I'm just working to expand whatever that I learned as part of TLA. So after having worked with TLA for like eight months now, I feel TLA is like a moving train, right? You simply need to catch the train. And once you catch the train, it just takes you to places.

So that is, what I feel. That is that the... I feel that is the most accurate reference for TLA. It just takes you to places. You just simply need to catch your train. I am happy and I am extremely honored to receive this award on behalf of all the researcher, right? So that is the first thing. And secondly, I just want to thank TLA for giving this honor. And as a student innovator, when you're doing your work, all of a sudden you are given this honor or you are given some title, it just makes you get more serious about the work that you're doing. It is going to make us more serious. So, this is such a great honor.

And at the same time, I would also like to thank my department college of engineering, especially the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering and Professor Robert Lepore. And I would like to thank the entire team, entire staff at the System and Industrial Engineering Department for giving me this opportunity. When I proposed this idea, my professor, he happily agreed to be a part of this. He just wanted me to work on this. So I just want to thank the professor as well for a receiving this honor. And I would also like to dedicate this honor to my department, the Department of Industrial Engineering.