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This month, let’s meet Salim ROSTAMI, professor of Project Management, at the Lille campus. 

Each year, more than 600 professor-researchers on IÉSEG’s Lille campus and Paris-La Défense campus contribute to students’ learning journeys, enhancing their chances of achieving their professional goals and thriving in their careers.  

“Faculty in the Spotlight” is the monthly feature that offers a closer look at IÉSEG’s professors—their background, what they teach, why they joined IÉSEG, fun anecdotes and more. 

Salim, can you tell us a bit about your background?

I come from Iran. I did my Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, so I have an engineering background. Then, I earned my Master’s in Operations Research and Operations Management at the KU Leuven in Belgium. I worked for two years as a researcher at the Hospital of Saint-Étienne in France, where my job was to reduce the waiting time for patients receiving chemotherapy treatments using an optimization approach in line with operations management. In 2015, I started my PhD, a joint program between IÉSEG and the KU Leuven. The topic of my PhD was operations research and operations management. In 2019 I became a professor at IÉSEG.

What courses do you teach at IÉSEG and how?

I’m the Project Management Officer in the Department of Operations Management, which means that I oversee all the courses related to project management and project planning in different course levels and programs.

I teach Project Management at the master’s level. In this course, students are tasked with planning a new building project, such as a summer palace for a political figure. They manage resources and assess risks, incorporating software like Microsoft Project to plan and execute their projects. The course involves various team projects, assessments on methodologies, and relies heavily on group work and collaboration. Overall, the course offers a good combination of theory, case studies, software, and methodology.

For this course, we have also developed a multi-round scheduling game, where the students form imaginary PM companies, come up with project plan, submit project proposals and bids, and compete with other teams. The game was developed in collaboration with two project management companies in France and Belgium: ProManed and Proove. Their experts assisted in creating this game, along with other professors in our project management department.

Depending on the time availability, I invite guest lectures / practitioners from PM companies to share and discuss their practices, covering topics like earned-value management and project data management. Some guests are former graduates and alumni of IÉSEG, coming back to the school to share their career paths in project management.

At the Bachelor’s level, I am also the coordinator of the “e-bike project”, which is an interdisciplinary project involving collaboration between two academic departments: Operations Management and Cost Accounting. The case revolves around a Polish bicycle manufacturer that has bought an e-bike startup in France, aiming to integrate e-bike models into its ecosystem. Students analyze the existing capacity of the company, assess the consequences of adding a new model, and conduct facility location analysis for a new factory in France, focusing on demand forecasting and supply chain management.

How would you describe your relationship with students? What comes out of student feedback?

First of all, I remind my students that everyone in the classroom is an adult, and it’s important that we treat each other like adults. We have a very friendly interaction. I allow my students to interrupt me anytime to ask questions; and in fact, I encourage them to do so!

I like students to be critical of everything I say, to think critically and ask if what I’m saying applies to their projects or future job market considerations. I want to be approachable, so I invite students to contact me anytime. I try to answer their questions even late at night. In intensive courses, it’s important since they have classes every day.

In student evaluations, three things stand out: approachability, clarity of explanations, and feedback. I’m able to explain complex quantitative methods by using very basic examples to simplify situations. I am passionate about my work; my research and background are in project planning, scheduling, and management. Sometimes I lose track of time because I’m discussing something I’m passionate about, sharing stories in project management.

They also appreciate the digital and innovative tools I use for the courses. I previously won the Digital Teaching Award for a platform I’ve developed, which automates many of the assessments for students. They get individual exercises and immediate feedback. This platform has made it very easy for them to access material and receive extensive feedback after exercises. We have group activities in class, and individual assignments at home. After each session, they have graded assignments to help them review and understand our discussions, and the feedback clarifies their mistakes. This is very important to them and is one of the highlights of the evaluations.

What do you like most about teaching in general and specifically at IÉSEG?

For me, teaching is very important. Why do we publish our research? Because we want to share it with the scientific community. Teaching is even more crucial, as it allows us to share knowledge with those who will implement it: the students who are the managers and leaders of tomorrow.

Teaching helps me learn too, as I must perfect my knowledge to teach effectively. When students ask questions, I often find myself thinking about how to address them, which helps me understand better. Sometimes when we create slides, ideas connect, and we learn something new. Additionally, I must update my knowledge every year, which is a continuous learning process.

As a researcher, it’s easy to get carried away by theory, but teaching these business-minded students helps me recall the value of practical situations. I love the questions I receive from them as they push me to think more critically about my own research.

Also, teaching smaller groups is great because you can have one-to-one interaction with the students. It allows for more in-depth teaching compared to a class of 200 students in an amphitheater.

Do you have an anecdote that you would like to share about your time at IÉSEG so far?

My favorite moments in class are when students come to me and say that now they love project management and ask for advice on how to go further and even become project managers. I feel like I have an impact on their interest in project management.

Outside the class, a funny story happened in Paris, actually. I was having a night out with my wife and we were walking by the river. Two young men came to us and said: “Are you Mr. Rostami?… You actually changed our career path! We used to be your students a few years ago, and now we are working in project management! You had a great impact on our lives.” I couldn’t believe it because Paris is a very big city! That was a very funny and very touching moment for me.