INFORM-ED Newsletter

 

 

 

 

September 21, 2004

 

Keeping members of the OR/MS community informed of innovation in education

 

 

President's Corner

James Cochran

Hello fellow INFORM-ED Members,

I hope all of you had a productive and enjoyable summer and are getting settled in for the upcoming academic year. INFORM-ED continues to work on various initiatives and activities. A short summary of some of these efforts follows:

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

Our forum is very busy organizing various activities designed to improve ORMS education and assist ORMS educators. Upcoming activities include:

-   the 5th annual Case Competition

-   the 6th annual Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium

-   a sponsored education track for the 2004 INFORMS Conference in Denver (October 24 - 27)

More details about these and other INFORM-ED activities are provided in the STATUS REPORTS OF ONGOING EDUCATION INITIATIVES below.

OTHER ACTIVITIES OF INTEREST TO INFORM-ED MEMBERS

Our officers are helping to coordinate many other activities that should be of interest to INFORM-ED members. These activities include:

-   I have been organizing three sessions on using sports in the OR classroom for the INFORM-ED sponsored cluster at the 2004 conference in Denver. These sessions should be lively and of great interest to all (even those who are not sports enthusiasts!). Presenters include Eric Bickel, John Birge, Dave Goldsman, Armann Ingolfsson, Paul Kvam, Eli Olinick, Joel Sokol, Cole Smith, Mike Trick, and me. In addition, several of these presenters have written papers summarizing their work in this area for a special issue of INFORMS Transactions on Education. This special issue will be published in September to give ITE readers the unique opportunity to ask the authors questions soon after reading their articles. Foe more information on these sessions and the special issue of ITE, please read the 'Issues in Education' column in the August 2004 issue of ORMS Today.

-   In a related note, these sessions and the special issue of ITE will be used to (hopefully) introduce a new section of INFORMS - OR in SpORts. In order for this new organization to gain section status with INFORMS, at least twenty five INFORMS members must sign a petition indicating they intend to join the new section. If you are interested in joining this new section (which will have some natural ties to INFORM-ED) click here to download the petition, then submit the completed petition to Christy Kline at Christy.kline@INFORMS.org. The OR in SpORts section has planned its first business meeting and reception for Monday (October 25) from 6:15 - 7:15 p.m. (immediately prior to the General Reception in Denver) - all interested INFORMS members are invited. Contact me for more information about the OR in SpORts section.

-   Steve Powell, Academic Director of INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science, is currently organizing the 2005 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science. The workshop will be held on July 28-31, at the Harrison Conference Center in Lake Bluff, Illinois. This 2004 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science was a tremendous success, offering great sessions and a tremendous opportunity to interact with colleagues who are interested in ORMS education. See Steve's report in this newsletter and visit the website (http://www.informs.org/Edu/TMSWorkshop/) for more information on the 2005 workshop and to access materials from the 2004 workshop. This will be a great event for college instructors at all levels, so plan to attend!

-   Erhan Erkut (Editor-in-Chief) invites you to visit the INFORMS Transactions on Education website (http://ite.pubs.informs.org/) and read a variety of provocative new articles on ORMS education. Erhan also encourages you to submit your article that relates to any aspect of OR/MS education.

-   Ken Chelst is again planning to Chair an INFORMS Teachers Program: How to Teach the Teachers session at the annual INFORMS Conference in October. This session, sponsored by INFORMS' Public Awareness Committee, will provide you with everything you need to "Teach the Teachers" at a local or state math teacher conference near your home. Members of the PAC team that developed the INFORMS materials (available at http://www.hsor.org) will demonstrate how to conduct these workshops at this comprehensive briefing. As a session participant, you will receive the program materials, videos, software packages (with instructions), and Teacher Instructional Modules you need to deliver a program at a state, county, or school district conference.

OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST

-   John Lawrence resigned as INFORM-EDs' Secretary/Treasurer in August. John was the forum's inaugural Secretary/Treasurer and served the Forum well for five years. He made many contributions to the ongoing success of INFORM-ED and was a pleasure to work with. INFORM-ED appreciates all of John's efforts on the Forum's behalf. The INFORM-ED officers have approved the appointment of Mary Beth Kurz of Clemson University to complete the current term (November 2003 - November 2005) as Secretary/Treasurer. We look forward to working with Mary Beth.

-   Beginning this year at the annual INFORMS Conference in Denver, the INFORM-ED reception and business meeting (traditionally held on Tuesday evening during the annual INFORMS Conference), will be held on the Sunday evening of the conference. We will continue to provide snacks, beverages (beer, wine, soda, cheese, crackers, etc.), updates on INFORM-ED's efforts, and a forum for discussion of education issues.

-   I am the General Chair of the 2005 INFORMS Conference in New Orleans (November 13-16, 2005) - contact me if you are interested in helping with the organization of this conference.

STATUS REPORTS OF ONGOING EDUCATION INITIATIVES

-   William Christian (Combined Colloquia Chair and VP - Projects) updates us on his committees' progress in developing the program for INFORMS Combined Colloquia (the Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium, Doctoral Student Colloquium, and Industry Colloquium) for the upcoming annual INFORMS Conference in Denver (October 24 - 27).

-   Chris Zappe (Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium Chair and VP - Publications) updates us on the fifth annual Case Competition and explains how you can enter next year's competition. He also posts us on his progress in developing the program for the sixth annual Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium (TEC VI) and tells how you can register for this event.

-   Julie Swann (VP - External Relations) discusses her progress in developing INFORM-ED's speaker program for Local and Student Chapters.

-   Pinar Keskinocak (Vice President - Programs) gives a progress report on the INFORM-ED track of sponsored sessions she has organized for the 2004 INFORMS Conference in Denver (October 24-27).

-   John Kros (Webmaster) discusses additions and enhancement to our website.

I encourage you to get involved with INFORM-ED! Please contact the coordinator of any INFORM-ED project/initiative or me (at jcochran@cab.latech.edu or 318/257-3445) if you have any questions or suggestions (or would like to volunteer!).

Jim Cochran

INFORM-ED President

Vice President -- External Relations:

Julie Swann (julie.swann@isye.gatech.edu)

Past President:

Tom Grossman (tagrossman@usfca.edu)

 

Jim Cochran.

INFORM-ED President

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INFORMS Forum on Education Officers

President:

Jim Cochran (jcochran@cab.latech.edu)

Treasurer/Secretary:

Mary Beth Kurz (mkurz@clemson.edu)

Vice President - Programs:

Pinar Keskinocak (pinar@isye.gatech.edu)

Vice President - Projects:

William Christian (christwa@jmu.edu)

Vice President - Publications:

Chris Zappe (zappe@bucknell.edu)

INFORMS Forum on Education Editors

"Issues in Education" Column in OR/MS Today:

Joel Sokol (jsokol@ISyE.GATech.edu)

INFORM-ED Website:

John Kros (krosj@mail.ecu.edu)

INFORM-ED Newsletter:

Mike Racer (mracer@mocha.memphis.edu)

 

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

 

 

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Twelve INFORMed Sessions in Denver! - Pinar Keskinocak

 

Title:Education (INFORM-ED) SPONSORED/INVITED

 

Chair:Pinar Keskinocak,Coca-Cola Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial and Systems Enginee, 765 Ferst Drive, Atlanta GA 30345, United States, pinar@isye.gatech.edu

 

Co-Chair:Erhan Erkut,Professor, University of Alberta School of Business, School of Business, 3-40G Business Building, Edmonton, Canada T6G 2R6, Canada, erhan.erkut@ualberta.ca


 

Sunday Oct 24, 08:00 - 09:30 : Recent Advances and Thoughts in Teaching Manufacturing-Related Topics

Chair: Yavuz Bozer,Dept. of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, 1205 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor MI 48109-2117, United States, yavuz.bozer@umich.edu

 

Sunday Oct 24, 10:00 - 1:30 : EDUCATION -S08-Session

Chair: Sam Savage,Consulting Professor, Stanford University, Terman Engineering Ctr., Stanford CA 94303, United States, savage@stanford.edu

 

Sunday Oct 24, 13:30 - 15:00 : INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials: Dialog with Prospective Authors and Case Teachers

Chair: Thomas Grossman,Associate Professor, University of San Francisco, Masagung School of Management, San Francisco CA 94117-1045, United States, tagrossman@usfca.edu

 

 

Sunday Oct 24, 16:30 - 18:00 : SpORts in the OR Classroom I

Chair: James Cochran,Assistant Professor, Louisiana Tech University, P. O. Box 10318, Ruston LA 71272, United States, jcochran@cab.latech.edu

 

Monday Oct 25, 08:00 - 09:30 : SpORts in the OR Classroom II

Chair: James Cochran,Assistant Professor, Louisiana Tech University, P. O. Box 10318, Ruston LA 71272, United States, jcochran@cab.latech.edu

 

Monday Oct 25, 10:00 - 11:30 : SpORts in the OR Classroom III

Chair: James Cochran,Assistant Professor, Louisiana Tech University, P. O. Box 10318, Ruston LA 71272, United States, jcochran@cab.latech.edu

 

Monday Oct 25, 13:30-15:00 : Presentations of Finalists #1 and #2 for the Fifth Annual INFORMS Case Competition

Chair: Christopher J. Zappe,Bucknell University, 113 Marts Hall, Lewisburg PA 17837, United States, zappe@bucknell.edu

 

Monday Oct 25, 16:30 - 18:00 : Presentations of Finalists #3 and #4 for the Fifth Annual INFORMS Case Competition

Chair: Christopher J. Zappe,Bucknell University, 113 Marts Hall, Lewisburg PA 17837, United States, zappe@bucknell.edu

 

Tuesday Oct 26, 08:00 - 09:30 : Teaching Pricing and Revenue Management

Chair: Ioana Popescu,Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences, INSEAD, Blvd. de Constance, Fontainebleau 77300, France, ioana.popescu@insead.edu

 

Tuesday Oct 26, 10:00 - 11:30 : EDUCATION -S07-Session

Chair: Jane Ross,source21@telus.net

 

 

Tuesday Oct 26, 13:30 - 15:00 : Success strategies for Learning, Mentoring, and Ethics

Chair: Julie Swann,Georgia Institute of Technology, Industrial and Systems Engineering Dept., 765 Ferst Drive, NW, Groseclose 0205 Room 411, Atlanta GA 30332-0205, United States, jswann@isye.gatech.edu

 

 

Tuesday Oct 26, 16:30 - 18:00 : Evaluating Innovations in Teaching OR

Chair: Thomas Willemain,Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Decision Sciences & Engineering Systems, CII 5015, Troy NY 12180-3590, United States, willet@rpi.edu

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 Our New Outreach Program - Julie Swann


INFORM-ED has recently created a Local/Student Chapters Outreach program.  The program is designed to increase the awareness of INFORM-ED activities and how the forum can benefit the chapters, as well as to increase the future participation in INFORM-ED.


The program will match an INFORM-ED member with a chapter that has expressed interest in knowing more about INFORM-ED.  The member will attend the meeting and talk about what INFORM-ED is, what we do, and what the forum has to offer members.  A presentation will be provided to the member in advance, along with guidance on its content if desired.


So far we have had several requests and several volunteers, and we look forward to increasing participation. If you wish to request a visit from INFORM-ED to your chapter or volunteer your services for this external outreach, please contact Julie Swann at jswann@isye.gatech.edu.  Let's spread the good word about the Teaching of Better!

 

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Ethics in the Curriculum - Julie Swann


Are you trying to incorporate ethics in your engineering curriculum to satisfy the ABET requirements?  Are you adding ethics to your management science classes to avoid future Enron scandals?  Do you wish you knew how to teach ethics but aren't sure where to start??


We want to hear from you!  We want to hear what you are doing now or what you would like to do.  We will collect course materials on ethics from those willing to share them and make them generally available to members.  You are also invited to attend a session in the INFORM-ED cluster that will have talks related to ethics in the curriculum.


Help all of us improve ethics education (contact Julie Swann at jswann@isye.gatech.edu).  It's the 'right' thing to do. 

 

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5th Annual INFORMS Case Competition - Chris Zappe

 

INFORM-ED is pleased to continue its co-sponsorship of the Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition this fall. This year's competition, as in the past four years, is jointly sponsored by INFORMS Education Committee, INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Initiative, and INFORM-ED. It is designed to encourage the creation, dissemination, and use of new, unpublished cases in operations research and the management sciences. All submissions and supporting documentation were due to the coordinator of the competition, Professor Chris Zappe of Bucknell University, by August 13, 2004. We are pleased to report that a record number of submissions were received for this year's competition!

 

Up to four finalists will be selected and notified by the coordinator by the end September. Finalists will give thirty-minute presentations of their entries at a special open session of the 2004 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Note that this session is scheduled for the late morning (10:00-11:30 am) and early afternoon (1:30-3:00 pm) of Sunday, October 24. The panel of judges will select the winning entry from the finalists based on these presentations. The winner will be announced at the INFORM-ED Business meeting at the 2004 INFORMS Conference.

 

To learn more about the guidelines for submitting a case to this annual competition in the future, please visit http://education.forum.informs.org//ccomp04.htm

or contact Chris Zappe at zappe@bucknell.edu. We look forward to seeing you in Denver.

 

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Sixth INFORMS Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium (TEC VI) - Chris Zappe

 

This year's Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium will address several aspects of incorporating and assessing effective teaching techniques in any undergraduate and graduate curriculum. The colloquium will be beneficial to both seasoned and new faculty members at all levels and in all disciplines of OR. Planned sessions include topics such as: Principles of Effective Teaching, Assessing Student Learning, Teaching with Cases, and Incorporating Active Learning.

 

All Ph.D. granting programs in operations research, management science, and related fields have been invited to nominate faculty members as well as doctoral students preparing for academic careers to participate in TEC VI.

The review of nominations for this year's Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium is now in its final stage. For more information about TEC VI, please contact Professor Christopher Zappe; Bucknell University; 113 Marts Hall; Lewisburg, PA 17837; zappe@bucknell.edu.

 

 

More on the TEC Colloquium - William Christian

 

With the 2004 Annual Meeting around the corner, preparations for the Combined Colloquia are being finalized.  The program includes a list of over two dozen speakers representing industry and academia.  And there will be plenty of opportunity for attendees and speakers to interact and build new research and social networks.  Check the INFORMS Conference website for more details (http://www.informs.org/Conf/Denver2004/cc.htm)

Although the official deadline has passed, there are a handful of seats available in the Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium and the Future Practitioner Colloquium.  Masters students will be considered for the FPC.
Spread the word!  Nominations will be accepted on a rolling basis until seats are gone.

 

WEB FLASH - John Kros


The INFORM-ED website has some new information posted so go take a look at http://education.forum.informs.org/. For example, information regarding the new Local/Student Chapter Outreach program is now posted along with details of the Sixth Annual Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium to be held at the Denver INFORMS meeting. Traffic over the summer was about as expected. The site averaged around 150 hits for the months of May, June, July, and August. Traffic did pick up in August as usual with most campuses and faculty beginning the Fall Semester. Please email me if you have any additions, corrections, and/or comments regarding the website. See you in Denver, John F. Kros, krosj@mail.ecu.edu

 

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2005 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science - Lisa Klose

 

Save the date: 2005 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science

 

Mark you calendars!

 

The 2005 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science will be held on July 28-31, 2005 at the Harrison Conference Center in Lake Bluff, Illinois (http://www.harrisonlakebluff.com/)

 

Workshop objectives include:

-To change the way you think about teaching management science by sharing recent discoveries about the brain, cognition, and human learning.

-To teach you practical classroom skills to actively involve students, enhance their learning, and make teaching more fun.

-To increase your effectiveness delivering important management science topics.

-To create an ongoing learning community for stimulating and supporting your growth as a teacher.

 

For more information on the 2005 workshop and to access materials from the 2004 workshop, please visit http://www.informs.org/Edu/TMSWorkshop/.

 

If you have questions or suggestions for the Workshop program, contact Steve Powell at mailto:sgp@dartmouth.edu. If you have questions or suggestions about other aspects of the Workshop, contact Lisa Klose at mailto:lisa.klose@informs.org.

 

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Just a Thought - Interested in a new direction?- Mike Racer

 

This is my first semester in the Business School, and I drew the big challenge class-wise - Business Statistics! As I teach this class (2 sections) totaling 285 students, it is becoming readily apparent that not all students were created equal. I have asked each student to drop a line of feedback to me each day at the end of class, and the responses range from "I'm bored" to "I am so confused." As the professor, this is frustrating. Yet, in talking to folks on campus, it is simply viewed as "the way things are." (And I know I'm not the only one who faces this issue.)

 

Well, I'd rather not sit back and take this response. What I would like to do is take a look at how you and I might provide some insight and refreshing ideas into the problem, and consider how we might change up this sort of course. How can we strive to teach to the masses, instead of being content with teaching to the middle - losing one tail and boring the other? What technology is available or should be considered? What presentation formats might be considered? How can the course be diversified so as to meet both the needs of the students and the desire to challenge them?

 

If anyone has given this some thought, or is interested in exploring the opportunity (sounds so much better than "problem"!) further, then please give me a call. Some joint studies and brainstorming might be just the thing we need!

 

Thanks.

 

Mike

(mracer@memphis.edu)

Ph: 901-678-3285(work)

 

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Helpful Links

 

INFORMS

INFORMed

Science of Better

 

 

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