Feb Blog Challenge Results: O.R. and Love; March’s Blog Challenge – O.R. and Sports

“Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match.”

- Inspired by Larry D’Agostino’s mention of Fiddler on the Roof.

Everything from pink spreadsheets to photos of O.R. memories, love and O.R. were in the blogosphere for the month of February. The blog “O.R. at Work” is involved at a global level with #LoveSafely and the North Star Alliance to provide healthcare services and supplies across Africa to help with the fight against AIDS. O.R. can help in your personal search for love (secretary problem), wooing (transportation problem), and wedding planning (logistics and supplying fake guests.) However, O.R. involvement in relationships should end with the wedding reception, based on Laura McLay’s advice, “Do not try to optimize your spouse.” Capgemini discussed online dating, and then ran a matchmaking exercise to ensure that our bloggers would not be alone on Valentine’s Day. Love will remain as the weather begins to turn warm, but the warm breezes bring to mind spring and…Sports!

So bloggers, O.R. and Sports is your March challenge. E-mail your entries to graphics@mail.informs.org.

A side note to Mike Trick: I hope your secretary (I mean wife) didn’t see your blog. ;)

Read our entries to the February Challenge O.R. and Love

• #LoveSafely, John Poppelaars
• love & operations research, Laura McLay
• Faking It On Your Wedding Day, Aleksey Nozdryn-Plotnicki
• Finding Love Optimally, Mike Trick
• How can Cupid use Operations Research?, Thiago Serra
• Cupids with Computers, Capgemini O.R. Blog Team
• Why I love O.R. – A Photo Essay, Anna Nagurney
• Transporting Flowers with Love, Tallys Yunes
• Science of Matchmaking, Larry D’Agostino
• Optimal search, David Smith

And the extra credit goes this month to Shiva Subramanian for multiple posts.

• Analytics, Astrology, and V-day Objectives, Shiva Subramanian
• Dating and Wedding Logistics, Shiva Subramanian