Zionts, Stanley (State University of New York)

Topics:

Introduction to Operations Research
High-school level discussion of what OR is, why it's important. Contrasts/compares OR professionals to mathematicians, engineers, and scientists (Elementary)

Fixed Point: Introduction
High-school level presentation on usefulness of fixed point approaches to root-finding, based on two Mathematics Teacher articles. (Elementary)

Design of Experiments: Introduction
High-school level presentation on how to design and analyze a multivariate experiment. Carefully designed factorial experiments are a critical tool for scientists. Many science fair projects could be vastly improved if they adopted the methods introduced in this talk. (Elementary)

Moment Matching using Phase-Type Distributions
Moment matching can be a valuable way of generating experimental data for stochastic applications, among other things. The speaker presents his own research and suggests avenues of future research. This can provide students with a first exposure to the important class of phase-type distributions. (Advanced)

Optimization of Appointment Systems
This lecture provides a set of problems the speaker solved for his dissertation. It opened up many other areas of fruitful research that have not yet been pursued. He gives an overview of what's been done, why it's important, and what's left to be done. (Advanced)

Introduction to Resampling Statistics
Resampling (a catchall term for bootstrap, jackknife, permutation sampling, et al.) is a remarkably versatile and robust nonparametric approach to obtaining confidence intervals and significance. (Elementary to Advanced)

Good Graphics
The best analysis is worthless if it's communicated badly. How do we best present our results to those who may have "the fear of all sums?" How do we spot when displays are misleading? (Elementary.)

Background:

• B.S. Electrical Engineering - Carnegie-Mellon University
• M.S. Industrial Administration - Carnegie-Mellon University
• Ph.D. Industrial Administration - Carnegie-Mellon University

Previously, Professor, European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels, Belgium; consultant to the steel industry for the Ford Foundation in India; operations researcher for U.S. Steel Corporation. He has also taught in the State University of New York-Buffalo M.B.A. program in China, lectured in most European countries, as well as many Asian countries, and South Africa. He is fluent in French, and speaks Mandarin Chinese. Areas of research include multiple criteria decision making, decision support systems, and mathematical programming. He has organized or co-organized and generated financial support for five international meetings and has assisted in the organization of and the generation of financial support for many other meetings. Currently, co-editor, Journal of Multicriteria Decision Analysis; Associate Editor, Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, and Group Decision and Negotiation Journals.