Meetings and Events
Upcoming Meetings and Events
How to Measure Efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)By David Lengacher
Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2012.
Light refreshments and networking from 6:00 - 6:45 PM. Location:
Booz Allen Hamilton, 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 Program: Efficiency is a stated goal of most commercial organizations and government agencies, although few know how to measure it holistically, beyond calculating and evaluating multiple ratios. How can you calculate a single measure of efficiency for a project, program, process, facility, or course of action? The answer is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Measuring efficiency is a non-trivial task in real world situations and measurement methods are noticeably absent from the OR curriculum. DEA is not taught in most OR programs. Although it is simple to calculate efficiencies when only a single input and output exist, the task quickly becomes complicated and requires advanced econometric models (DEA models) when multiple inputs and outputs are present. This session will provide a short introduction to DEA and cover recent models used to identify maximally efficient portfolios of projects and investments. Speaker: David Lengacher is a Fellow and Principal at CTC. He is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and holds an MBA from Purdue University and MSIE from the University of Florida. He has published several articles in magazines such as INFORMS's Analytics Magazine and OR/MS Today, Business Excellence Magazine, iSixSigma Magazine, Desktop Engineering, and others. He has recently had a chapter on DEA accepted in the Encyclopedia of Business Analytics and Optimization by IGI publishing. Metro & Parking Information:
Contacts & RSVP:
To RSVP, please email Nicholas Nahas. |
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Past Meetings and Events, 2012
Malaria Treatment Distribution in Developing World Health Systems and Application to MalawiBy Kirk Michealson
Date: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Given the current budget crisis and complex, uncertain security environment, the Department of Defense is very focused on "affordability." The previous Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology & Logistics (USD/ATL) has defined affordability as "cost effective capability." Even though affordability has been defined, affordability analysis was ill-defined. As a result, the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) recently hosted a workshop on "Affordability Analysis: How Do You Do It?" to discuss the affordability trade space, the difference between cost and affordability analyses, the people / tools / processes to do it, and other items. Joining MORS were representatives from the National Defense Industrial Association Systems Engineering (NDIA SE) Division and the Industrial Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Affordability Working Groups, the Society for Cost Estimating and Analysis (SCEA), INFORMS Military Applications Society (MAS), and the government-led Acquisition Modeling & Simulation Working Group (AMSWG). The presentation will provide an overview of the results of the workshop and will include time for questions with the workshop chair. Kirk Michealson is a retired Navy Commander, Past President of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), and Lockheed Martin (LM) Fellow for Operations Research Analysis. His current role is LM's Operations Analysis (OA) Workforce Development Project Lead where he has created the model to be a successful OA Practitioner at LM by defining the necessary skills, experiences, competencies, and personal attributes for the Lockheed Martin Operations Analysis workforce. He is also LM's external representative to: MORS, NDIA's Mission Analysis Committee, Industry Development Planning Working Group, and the National M&S Coalition (serves as Education & Professional Development co-chair). As a volunteer, Kirk serves as the Chapter President and Blue & Gold Officer Representative for the US Naval Academy Alumni Association in Orlando, FL. Kirk has a BS in Operations Analysis from the United States Naval Academy and an MS in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School. |
Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Results of the "Affordability Analysis: How Do We Do It?" WorkshopBy Dr. Hoda Parvin
Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 Malaria is a major health concern of many developing world countries. Developing strategies for efficient distribution of malaria medications, such as Artemesinin Combination Therapies (ACTs), is a key challenge in resource constrained countries. We develop a solution that integrates strategic level and operational level models to better manage pharmaceutical distribution through the centralized health system model of Malawi. At the strategic level, we develop a two-stage stochastic programming approach to address the problem of demand uncertainty. In the first stage, before the malaria season starts, an initial round of shipments is sent to each local clinic from district hospitals, which receive medications from regional warehouses. When the malaria season begins, a recourse action is triggered. We analyze two different implementations: (1) a transshipment model, in which clinics facing a shortage can receive ACTs from clinics that have supply surpluses, and (2) a delayed shipment model, in which a safety inventory is stocked at district hospitals for the purpose of resupplying clinics. The strategic model indicates that the optimal policy involves the creation of clinic clusters with exclusive transshipment policies. This insight enables us to decompose the problem at the operational level, solving each clinic cluster independently using a Markov decision process (MDP) approach to determine optimal periodic transshipment policies. We demonstrate the potential to reduce shortage incidents by using our proposed distribution system in a case study of 290 healthcare facilities. Dr. Hoda Parvin is a research analyst at CNA Corporation and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She received her Ph.D. in 2012 from the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan and her MS degree from Texas A&M University in 2007. Her research focus is on resource allocation policies using Markov decision processes with applications in healthcare and service industries. She received the Rackham merit fellowship from the University of Michigan to support four years of her study. She is also the recipient the Bonder fellowship in 2008, the Judith Liebman award for outstanding service in 2010, and Richard C. Wilson best paper award in optimization in 2011. |
The Future of AnalyticsBy Dr. Brenda Dietrich
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 The explosion of unstructured data will amplify the need for the development of new models and new types of computing systems that can handle the unique demands of analytics. Which analytics promise to be most potent and disruptive? What are the emerging areas of research, where our tools and methods are not yet adequate for the desired applications? How will we stay one step ahead of the emerging customer requirements? How will we educate the work force that builds and uses these future analytical models? Dr. Dietrich will share her thoughts on how the OR/MS field can address and embrace these challenges. This event was cosponsored with IBM's Analytics Solution Center. Speaker: Dr. Brenda Dietrich, Former INFORMS President and IBM FellowDr. Dietrich is a former President of INFORMS (13th), an IBM Fellow and Vice President of the Business Analytics and Mathematical Sciences Department at the IBM's Watson Research center. She has been a member of the INFORMS Roundtable, served on the INFORMS board as VP for Practice, was chair of the advisory committee for the first two Practice meetings. She was a member of the editorial board of Management and Service Operations Management (M&SOM) and is currently on the editorial board of Logistics Research Quarterly. As President of INFORMS she established the strategic planning process, and participated in the launch of the Analytics online magazine. Her research includes manufacturing scheduling, services resource management, transportation logistics, integer programming, and combinatorial duality. She has twice been named one of IBM's top inventors. She brings a business perspective to projects. She is a founding member of Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research (COIN-OR), the open source repository for OR software, which provides the project access to the world's largest repository of free Operations Research and Industrial Engineering computer-based tools. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the IE/MS department of Northwestern University, a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for both the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications (IMA, U. of Minnesota) and the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS, Rutgers), and IBM’s delegate to MIT’s Supply Chain 2020 program. Her doctorate is from Cornell. She was recently rated one of the 100 Most Creative People by Fast Company. |
Putting IBM Watson to WorkBy Dr. Arnold Greenland
A WINFORMS / IIE National Capital Chapter Joint Evening Program February 14, 2011, IBM Watson changed history by introducing a system that rivaled a human’s ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy, and confidence. In the past 5 years, IBM has spent over $14B in analytical acquisitions and $6B in R&D annually. What is IBM Watson and why is it important? How is IBM putting Watson to work? What can we expect in the future? Speaker: Dr. Arnold Greenland, IBM Distinguished Engineer and IBM Public Sector Executive Dr. Greenland focusing on solutions and business development within the area of Business Analytics and Optimization. He has over 35 years experience in delivering analytics solutions for both management and private-sector clients. His experience includes both project management and technical leadership in the areas of data and text mining, operations research, business process modeling and simulation, business forecasting, network optimization, and system development. Recently Dr. Greenland has focused his efforts in using data mining and text analytics in the areas of fraud detection and intelligence systems support. Dr. Greenland serves as IBM’s representative on the INFORMS Industry Roundtable. |
Enhancing Immigration Enforcement with Decision AnalyticsBy Cenk Tunasar, Nick Nahas, Patrick McCreesh, and Jeff Munns
Date: Tuesday, June 19 Booz Allan Hamilton has won the first INFORMS Innovation in Analytics Award, which recognizes creative and unique developments, applications or combinations of analytical techniques. The prize promotes the awareness of the value of analytics techniques in unusual applications, or in creative combination to provide unique insights and/or business value. In its inaugural year, there were over 50 submissions for this award. After multiple rounds of vetting and review, Booz Allen Hamilton's project, ‘Enhancing Immigration Enforcement with Decision Analytics’ was chosen for these reasons:
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Managing Emergency Medical Services During Severe Weather EventsBy Laura A. McLay
A WINFORMS / IIE National Capital Chapter Joint Evening Program An effective emergency medical service (EMS) response to emergency medical calls during extreme weather events is a critical public service. Nearly all models for allocating EMS resources focus on normal operating conditions. However, public health risks become even more critical during extreme weather events, and hence, EMS systems must consider additional needs that arise during weather events to effectively respond to and treat patients. In this talk, I will characterize how the volume and nature of EMS calls are affected during extreme weather events with a particular focus on emergency preparedness. In contrast to other studies on disaster relief, where the focus is on delivery of temporary commodities, we focus on the delivery of routine emergency services during blizzards and hurricane evacuations. Additionally, I will discuss how to identify adequate staffing levels during weather events. To determine staffing levels that depend on weather, we propose a model uses discrete event simulation of a reliability model to identify minimum staffing levels that provide timely patient care, with regression used to provide the input parameters. These issues are explored through a case study using real-world data from Hanover County, Virginia. Laura A. McLay is an Assistant Professor of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. Dr. McLay’s research interests are in the field of operations research, with a particular focus on discrete optimization and Markov decision processes to manage both routine and severe risks. Her research has applications in homeland security, emergency management problems, and emergency response during severe weather events. Her research has been widely published. She has authored or co-authored twenty-nine publications in archival journals and refereed proceedings. Dr. McLay’s research has been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. She was recently awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER award. She is the recipient of an Outstanding Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Publication Award and a best paper award for co-authored proceedings for the IIE Annual Conference. She has been named a fellow in the NSF-sponsored program Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disaster Researchers. She is a member of INFORMS, IIE, Tau Beta Pi, Alpha Pi Mu, and the Virginia Academy of Science. |
Providing a Scientific Basis for Managing Illegal Drug ProblemsBy Jonathan P. Caulkins
Date: Tuesday, March 13 Illegal drugs pose serious problems that vex policy makers throughout the world. The tools of operations research, industrial organization, and economics can be harnessed to provide an empirical, scientific basis for drug policy making. Data are drawn from epidemiological studies, forensic laboratory analysis, undercover buys, and extensive interviews with incarcerated drug smugglers and dealers. This talk focuses on drug initiation (product diffusion), price responsiveness (elasticity of demand), and operation of the illegal supply chain, both during normal times and when the distribution network is disrupted. Resulting understanding provides the foundation for estimating the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for controlling drug use and associated social harms. Jonathan P. Caulkins is Stever Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Qatar Campus and Heinz College of Public Policy and Information Systems Management. Dr. Caulkins specializes in systems analysis of problems pertaining to drugs, crime, terror, violence, and prevention - work that won him the David Kershaw Award from the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management, a Robert Wood Johnson Health Investigator Award, and the INFORMS President’s Award. Other interests include reputation and brand management, software quality, optimal control, black markets, airline operations, and personnel performance evaluation. He has taught his quantitative decision making course on four continents to students from 50 countries and authored/co-authored over 100 refereed journal articles and eight books including Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (2011, OUP), Drug Policy and the Public Good. (2010, Oxford) and Optimal Control of Nonlinear Processes: With Applications in Drugs, Corruption, and Terror (2008, Springer). He is a past co-director of RAND’s Drug Policy Research Center (1994 - 1996) and founding Director of RAND’s Pittsburgh office (1999 - 2001). Dr. Caulkins received a B.S., and M.S. in Systems Science from Washington University, an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Ph.D., in Operations Research both from M.I.T. |
The Future of Analytics and Operations Research : A Panel Discussion
Date: Tuesday, February 21 The exponential explosion in the amount of data available has spawned a new field: “analytics.” This recent arriviste is forcing OR to reconsider how we work, with both clear benefits and risks - not only in areas like data integrity, but the very foundations of statistical problem-solving. How do we define analytics, and how does analytics relate to OR? What is the future of analytics? We’ll ask these provocative questions and others to three of our best OR intellectuals in the Washington DC area. The Panel: Russell Wooten - Current President of WINFORMS, Edelman Laureate, and Edelman Academy Member representing the US Department of Homeland curity, and INFORMS Moving Spirit Award recipient. Current President the National Capital Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers IE), Past Chair of IIE Industrial Advisory Board, Past President of E Society of Engineering Management Systems (SEMS), IIE Fellow, and MS Management Award recipient. Member of the Washington Academy of Science and Council of Engineers and Architects Engineer of the Year in 2007. Douglas A. Samuelson - President and Chief Scientist of InfoLogix, Inc., a research and development company in Annandale, Virginia. He has also been a Federal policy analyst, inventor, high-tech entrepreneur and executive, and university faculty member. He is perhaps best known for his popular and long-running “The ORacle” column in OR/MS Today. He has a D.Sc. in operations research from George Washington University. Gerhard Pilcher - Research Director at Elder Research, Inc. He does data mining, especially related to the areas of Fraud Detection and Risk Management using various analytical methods. He is a recognized expert in three dimensional roadway modeling and automated machine guidance using Global Positioning Satellite systems and directed the design of early digital subscriber line systems. He has a Master of Science in Analytics (Institute for Advanced Analytics, NCSU) and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. Harlan D. Harris - Senior Data Scientist at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, where he builds analytical models and systems and helps the company make better data-driven decisions. He has a BS in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied Machine Learning and Cognitive Science. Harlan is also the co-founder of the Data Science DC Meetup group, and has occasionally blogged about Data Science, Analytics, R, and Operations Research. Layne Morrison, a Service Area Manager, Advanced Analytics, for IBM's Public Sector practice, leads projects in the areas of simulation, econometrics and data mining. She has a Masters in Public Policy and Management (MSPPM) from Carnegie Mellon University. |
Mail Processing Network Rationalization Service ChangesBy Stephen E. Martin, Manager of USPS Area Mail Processing and Facility Construction and Lauren Zalewski, Manager of USPS Operations Industrial Engineering
Date: Tuesday, January 17 The U.S. Postal Service proposed changes that would modify service standards to align with the volume realities of today, as well as those forecasted into the future. The agency seeks to save billions of dollars by closing hundreds of mail processing facilities and significantly reducing its workforce. Doing so would modify current service standards that now deliver approximately 41 percent of first-class mail overnight. First-class mail deliveries peaked at 104 billion pieces in 2001, but USPS is likely to process just 39 billion pieces of first-class mail annually by 2020 - a 46 percent drop from 2001.USPS wants to close about half of its remaining 461 mail processing facilities. The changes should save USPS about $2.1 billion net annually and trim at least 28,000 jobs, part of a broader plan to cut $20 billion in costs and as many as 120,000 positions by 2015. Lauren Zalewski is Manager of Operations Industrial Engineering for the U.S. Postal Service. Lauren has oversight of the Industrial Engineering Program which encompasses over 300 Industrial Engineers nationwide. Lauren received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from New Mexico State University. Stephen Martin is the Manager of Area Mail Processing and Facility Consolidation for the U.S. Postal Service. Stephen oversees the completion of all processing facility consolidation studies, including over 250 that are currently underway. Stephen received his B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Ohio University. |
