O.R./Analytics at Work Blog

The scene: April 16th, Regency Hyatt Grand Ballroom in Huntington Beach, California. INFORMS President Terry Harrison walks towards the podium on the stage and says: “And now the moment of truth. Srinivas, may I have the judges’ decision please? Srinivas, may I have the judges’ decision please? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage to receive the first place 2012 Franz Edelman Award for outstanding achievement in Operations Research, the team representing……..

It was a great conference as usual. After a day to reflect, here are my top 5 takeaways (not necessarily in order):

(1) Google Insights for Search
Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, gave a compelling keynote that made great use of this free tool. Check it out if you ...

The INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research kicks off April 15 in Huntington Beach, CA. I had a chance to preview a presentation by Glenn Bailey, Sr. Director of Operations Research at Manheim (the $3B wholesaler auto auctioneer). Glenn's talk is on "The Need for Speed: Responsive Predictive Analytics," and he makes an important statement:

Why the Wagner Prize? In this short article we will highlight reasons you might be interested in applying to win this prestigious award. But first the procedures. Your two-page abstract is due by May 1, 2012. Complete details on submittal requirements and timeline can be found under the Application Process tab at http://www.informs.org/wagnerprize

Three days, 116 attendees, 105 talks, 8 posters, 3 plenary speakers, 2 featured speakers, and a small ceremony in honor of Robert Fourer. That’s a one-sentence summary of the Fourth INFORMS Optimization Society Conference that took place from February 24th to the 26th on the University of Miami campus.

Professionals in the fields of operations research – which uses advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions – and analytics are slowly becoming aware of one another, and after 70 years of crunching numbers for business and government, the synergy is becoming more manifest...

We are now two weeks into the New Year, and I’m wondering how many people have already scrapped their resolutions? While the exercise of taking pause and performing a little self-evaluation is a good one, it tends not to be effective without an action plan in place. Here at INFORMS, our Board came up with four main areas to focus on in 2012...

As we head into the holidays, it seems natural for thoughts to turn to families, because good or bad, they add a layer of complexity to our lives that needs to be managed. Not surprisingly, the responses to the O.R. and Families blog challenge presented topics on a variety of issues. From birth rates on a global scale (Capgemini), to planning your immediate family (Marianela Pereira), O.R. can factor in the beginning stages of lives.

I have had a strong interest in answering screening policy questions associated with breast cancer since 2006. Questions such as when to start and screening or how often to screen women are among the most controversial issues regarding breast cancer, the most common non-skin cancer in US women. Although mammography is the most effective modality for breast cancer screening, it has several potential risks including high false-positive rates. Therefore, the balance of benefits and risks is critical in designing a mammography screening schedule, which requires a formal framework to evaluate these effects such as simulation modeling.

The latest Engineering at Illinois news from my alma mater usually contains stories about faculty and students that more or less have to do with engineering. I was surprised to read that a former IE student and enterpreneur Shahid Khan (BS, 1971) is going to buy the football team the Jacksonville Jaguars (the story from Illinois is here, another story from the NY Times is here).