Dr. Rakesh Kumar, faculty member School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra delivered an invited talk (online) on “Queuing models with reverse balking and their extensions” in the One Week International Faculty Development Program on “Application and Implements of Mathematics” at Hindustan College of Engineering and Technology (Affiliated to Anna University Chennai) on 22nd August, 2020. In this FDP 220 faculty/research scholars participated from India and abroad.

Dr. Kumar discussed the concept of reverse balking in queuing theory, which was developed in 2004 by him along with Prof. N. K. Jain and Dr. B. K. Som. In conventional balking, large queue size discourages the customers to join the queuing systems. In reverse balking, the probability of a customer to join a queuing system is more when the queue size is more and vice-versa. This idea fits well to the real life scenarios like queuing systems at reputed hospitals, reputed investment companies, famous restaurants etc. where the customers do not worry about the wait but prefer the service level. Dr. Kumar further discussed various extensions to the concept of reverse balking. A number of researchers worldwide are now working on this concept, and publishing their work in reputed journals.