Railway Applications Section's Activities

Railway Applications Section (RAS) of INFORMS has been around since 1994 and has enjoyed a passionate and engaged and growing membership. We are busy planning and preparing for the upcoming INFORMS conference in Phoenix in October. Today, we bring to your attention the following three items: (1) a call for submissions, (2) an invitation for submissions for the 2012 Student Paper Award, and (3) an invitation for entries for the 2012 Problem Solving Competition.

RAS organizes a cluster filled with interesting topics presented by experts in the area of railway/operations research and analytics from around the globe. A detailed announcement can be found here, and if you are interested in presenting your work at the RAS cluster, please contact 2012 Cluster Chair Aihong Wen.

We also invite submissions for the 2012 Student Paper Award on analytics and fact-based decision making in railway applications with a total cash award of U.S. $1750. If interested, please send an email to 2012 Award Chair Juan Morales. Additionally, we are also organizing a RAS Problem Solving Competition with a total cash award of U.S. $3750 open to professors, consultants, and students. The objective is to introduce participants to the exciting world of O.R. problems in railroads. If interested, please send an email to 2012 Award Chair Kamalesh Somani.

The winning entries from the Paper Award as well as the problem competition will be considered for publication in Networks.