INFORMed Newsletter

INFORM-ED Newsletter

 

 

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

VISIT THE SCIENCE OF BETTER WEBSITE!!

 

OFFICER REPORTS

INFORM-ED

OFFICERS

HELPFUL LINKS

INFORMS invades The 'Burgh

JUST A THOUGHT - Greetings from the new editor!

INFORM-ED

EDITORS

 

 

Winter 2006

 

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

 

 

President's Corner

Chris Zappe

 

Dear INFORM-ED Members,

As the newly elected president of INFORM-ED, I would first like to express our collective gratitude to Professor James Cochran for his distinguished service to our organization for the past four years. Building upon the successes of the founding leaders of INFORM-ED, Jim has worked tirelessly with other committed volunteers to grow our membership, enrich our programming, and extend our outreach to members of the OR/MS community since he first assumed the role of president in 2001. We are all very fortunate to have benefited from Jim's hard work and dedication to INFORM-ED over the two terms of his tenure as president. I am personally thankful to Jim for his efforts to bring me into this organization and to facilitate my development as a leader within INFORM-ED. Fortunately, Jim will continue to serve INFORM-ED through his new role as founding chair of the International Education Initiative in the coming years.

While I intend to present to you this spring several particular initiatives that I would like to see INFORM-ED pursue during the next two years, I would like to commence my service as president by inviting each of you to let me know exactly what you would like to see this organization do to support your teaching, scholarship, and/or practice of OR/MS in the near future. I urge you to contact me directly at zappe@bucknell.edu or at my Bucknell office (570-577-3495). I truly want to hear your suggestions for how we can better serve your needs and interests. After all, this organization exists to benefit each of you!

I am fortunate to have a number of very talented and dedicated colleagues to help me build upon the excellent work of past officers and other volunteers within INFORM-ED for the next two years. Please contact any of the following individuals if you have any questions or suggestions for enhancing the programs and services that we support:

Vice President -- Programs: Jill Hardin (jrhardin@vcu.edu)

Vice President -- Projects: Mike Racer (mracer@memphis.edu)

Vice President -- Publications: John Kros (krosj@mail.ecu.edu)

Vice President -- External Relations: Dawn Strickland (stricklandd@winthrop.edu)

Secretary/Treasurer: Mary Beth Kurz (mkurz@clemson.edu)

"Issues in Education" Column in OR/MS Today: Joel Sokol (jsokol@isye.gatech.edu)

INFORM-ED Website: Pinar Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu)

INFORM-ED Newsletter: Matthew Drake (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu)

Case Competition Chair: Tasha Inniss (tinniss@spelman.edu)


In closing, I'm looking forward to working with these individuals and many other dedicated INFORM-ED members to support your work and professional development over the next two years. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing with you my specific plans and goals in future editions of this newsletter. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Matt Drake for his efforts to produce this newsletter. Please feel welcome to submit articles or announcements to Matt for inclusion in the next edition of the newsletter.

Best wishes,

Chris Zappe
Bucknell University

INFORM-ED President

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INFORMS Forum on Education Officers

President:

Chris Zappe (zappe@bucknell.edu)

Treasurer/Secretary:

Mary Beth Kurz (mkurz@clemson.edu)

Vice President - Programs:

Jill Hardin (jrhardin@vcu.edu)

Vice President - Projects:

Mike Racer (mracer@memphis.edu)

Vice President - Publications:
John Kros (krosj@mail.ecu.edu)

 

INFORMS Forum on Education Editors

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

Joel Sokol (jsokol@isye.gatech.edu)

INFORM-ED Website:

Pinar Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu)

INFORM-ED Newsletter:

Matt Drake (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu)

Case Competition Chair:

Tasha Inniss (tinniss@spelman.edu)

 

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

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Issues in Education - Joel Sokol


The last two "Issues in Education" columns have begun a give-and-take on the question of teaching modeling. This is a very important issue in OR/MS education, and while there are some helpful ideas/observations there are also important unanswered questions. Let's keep the discussion going - please share your ideas and points of view on this issue by submitting a column to Joel Sokol, jsokol@isye.gatech.edu. As always, columns on other topics are also welcome.

 

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Case Competition - Tasha Inniss

 

Sixth Annual INFORMS Case Competition

Sunday, November 13, 2005
San Francisco, California

Winners of the Sixth Annual INFORMS Case Competition (This year, we had two winners)

Timeshare Exchange Fair
Anton Ovchinnikov, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Scott Sampson, Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University
Dmitry Krass, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto


Reebok NFL Replica Jerseys: A Case for Postponement
Stephen C. Graves, MIT
John C.W. Parsons, McKinsey & Company

*************************************************************

Runners-Up:

Modeling Co-Development Contracts in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Nicos Savva, Judge Business School
Stefan Scholtes, Judge Business School

Home Depot in San Juan Capistrano: Multi-Objective Multi-Stakeholder Decision Case
Tianjun Feng, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
L. Robin Keller, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
Xiaona Zheng, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Seventh Annual INFORMS Case Competition

INFORMS is pleased to announce its Seventh Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition. This competition 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 are due by August 14, 2006. All cases will be reviewed in August and September of 2006 by a panel of judges familiar with the case method.

Up to four finalists will be selected and notified by the Chair of the Case Competition by the beginning of October 2006. Finalists will give thirty-minute presentations of their entries at a special open session of the 2006 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. The panel of judges will select the winning entry from these finalists based on these presentations. The winner will be announced at the INFORM-ED Business meeting at the 2006 INFORMS Conference. Finalists must present their cases at the Fall 2006 INFORMS Meeting in Pittsburgh to be eligible to win.

Guidelines for submitted cases are:
(1) No more than 10 pages (8.5" x 11.0") single-spaced (maximum of approx. 3000 words); shorter cases are acceptable.
(2) Exhibits are in addition to page limit.
(3) Teaching Notes of length as necessary to meet content expected.
(4) A 12-point proportional font (such as Times New Roman) with 1-inch margins.
(5) All submitted cases must be previously unpublished. Cases should be essentially new in their entirety. If the case contains material drafted originally by individuals or groups other than the author(s) submitting the case, then the intellectual history and ownership of these portions should be made absolutely clear. Contestants are responsible for assuring that this guideline is strictly met.

A complete submission package will consist of the following:
(1) One electronic copy of a short (250 - 500 words) abstract, the case and teaching notes sent in a zipped file. The abstract should appear by itself on the second page and identify the industry, business issues, technical issues, pedagogical objectives, and suggested uses of the case. The case, any exhibits, and then the teaching notes should follow.
(2) A completed Case Competition Submission Form (available on the web).

Prizes include:
(1) $500 and plaque to the best case
(2) $100 and plaque for up to three runners-up

For more information, please contact Tasha R. Inniss at TInniss@spelman.edu.

 

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Publications - John Kros


Since the Fall INFORMS meeting in San Francisco, the leadership torch has been passed within INFORM-ED. Some new individuals have come on as editors for us. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to these individuals who volunteer their precious time to produce electronic and conventional publications for the benefit of INFORM-ED and INFORMS in general:

Please know how grateful I am for the important contributions of these three members of INFORM-ED. If you would like to contribute to the development of these INFORM-ED publications in some way, please do not hesitate to contact these individuals or myself. We welcome your ideas and involvement!

In another very important area to INFORM-ED is our annual Case Competition. Tasha Inniss (tinniss@spelman.edu) is the contact person and organizer of the INFORM-ED case competition. I am sure we will have a very successful round of cases at the Fall 2006 meeting in Pittsburgh. Please email Tasha for details regarding submissions.

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INFORMS Transactions on Education (ITE) - Salwa Ammar

 

As most of you already know, Armann Ingolfsson, as the senior editor, and I, as the editor-in-chief, have assumed the editorial duties of ITE, as of January of this year. Erhan Erkut has agreed to serve on the board and promised to stay involved and to continue to be an advocate for the journal. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for his tireless efforts toward establishing and promoting the journal in the last six years, and especially for his invaluable assistance throughout this transition period.

To start with, we would like to maintain the general structure of the journal, including its special areas of publications and its review process. Regular submissions to ITE should now be made to Armann (Armann.Ingolfsson@ualberta.ca). We are on the look out for a replacement for me as the resource reviews area editor. If you can recommend someone who might be willing and able to take on the task of soliciting reviews of teaching resources (books, software, etc.) to be published in that area of the journal, please let me know. We count on your continuing support in making and soliciting submissions for the journal as well as in promoting its readership. As you know, our publication is author-friendly and, wherever possible, we will continue to work closely with authors to ensure that submissions become valuable contributions to ITE.

As we review potential directions for ITE, it is important to capture and build upon the current strengths of the journal. At the same time we intend to investigate the need and desire to expand the focus. Specifically, we wish to solicit your feedback and opinions regarding the types and mix of articles that should be included in ITE. Papers published in ITE to date cover a wide variety of typical OR/MS topics. A large proportion describes teaching tools and techniques. Some describe innovative pedagogical approaches, while others argue the value of special course content. Many emphasize the use of spreadsheets. There is no doubt that the journal has accumulated a substantial repository of useful information that has had a positive impact on OR/MS teaching. It is also clear that ITE readership and contributors support the type of papers currently published. The capacity to review, select and make available significant teaching knowledge, coupled with the online accessibility of this directly relevant information, is a unique endeavor of ITE that is consistent with the journal's mission, and needs to be preserved and nurtured. However, the vast majority of ITE articles fall under the umbrella of teaching knowledge. There is an obvious absence of teaching articles that present contributions based on traditional empirical research. The question hence remains, how much effort should be devoted to fill this void and to cultivate sources of research submissions on behalf of ITE. Is the inclusion of such articles necessary or desirable?

The mission of advancing OR/MS education includes the responsibility of addressing this question. At this point, we wish to initiate conversations with you and other OR/MS educators. If you have any ideas, opinions, or comments regarding this issue, we would appreciate hearing them. Also, if you wish to propose submissions to ITE that will help explore this and other related issues please let me know. We hope to seek various venues for this discussion among a diverse group of OR/MS educators.

We are working to provide the mechanism, through ITE's webpage, by which we can share the opinions that we collect from you all. Based on the information that we gather, we would attempt to define the type and scope of research papers that can and need to be included in ITE. Therefore, I invite you all to participate in this discussion. We greatly appreciate your help in refining the guidelines for publications in the journal, as well as in developing methods for furthering its mission.

Finally, I know I speak for Armann as well when I say that we are very excited to get to work. We know we've got 'big shoes' to fill and we will do our best. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. You can contact me at Ammar@lemoyne.edu.

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INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Initiative - Tom Grossman

 

INFORMS Case & Teaching Materials is about to commence processing submissions. We will initiate the review process for a large number submissions in March. Please contact Tom Grossman (tagrossman@usfca.edu) if you are interesting in serving as Associate Editor or as a peer-reviewer for cases and teaching notes.

 

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Call for Papers - ITE Special Issue

 

Special Issue: Effective Use of Software in the MS/OR Classroom

Call for Papers


There is no doubt that the increasing availability of technology in the classroom has
dramatically changed the way we teach Management Science and Operations Research
(MS/OR). In particular, the software used for topics such as Optimization, Simulation,
Decision Analysis and Statistics is an integral component of today's MS/OR classroom.
While the usage of software in teaching has received a growing emphasis over the past
two decades, a large amount of the related literature focuses on how to select the software rather than on how to effectively incorporate it in our teaching.


This special issue's main goal is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas concerning
effective and innovative uses of different software in teaching MS/OR to support
modeling, problem solving and critical thinking. The types of software should be of
interest to MS/OR educators. We welcome papers providing educational materials (e.g.,
cases, data sets, computer programs and tutorials) that can be shared with all the ITE
readers.

 

The deadline for paper submission is April 1, 2006. Paper submissions should follow the
ITE contributors' guidelines in http://ite.pubs.informs.org, and should be sent, preferably via e-mail, to the guest editor:
Denise S. Troxell
Mathematics and Sciences Division
Babson College
Babson Park, MA 02457, USA
troxell@babson.edu 

 

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INFORM-ED @ INFORMS 2006, Pittsburgh - Jill Hardin

 

We would like to invite you to participate at the sessions sponsored by INFORM-ED (INFORMS Forum on Education, http://education.forum.informs.org/) at the INFORMS 2006 conference in Pittsburgh. Please contact Jill Hardin (jrhardin@vcu.edu) if you would like to organize a session or would like to make an education-related presentation. For more information about the INFORMS 2006 meeting, visit the conference website http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Pittsburgh06/.

Jill Hardin, VP Programs

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Update on Outreach - Dawn Strickland

INFORM-ED needs your help introducing OR/MS to students at institutions with no OR/MS programs. INFORMS members who would like to share their passion for the field with math and computer science students from nearby institutions should contact Dawn Strickland at stricklandd@winthrop.edu. We are creating a presentation on the “Science of Better” to be used for these purposes, but any presentation you can make that will expose these students to OR/MS would be a great step towards growing the profession. If you would like to help, please let me know, even if you don't know of institutions near you that would benefit from this type of presentation.

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2006 Teaching Management Science Workshop - Steve Powell

Planning for the third INFORMS Teaching of Management Science Workshop is well underway. The Workshop will be held July 13-16 on the campus of San Francisco State University. Details are available at http://www.informs.org/Edu/TMSWorkshop/TMS06/. Join us this summer for an exciting and stimulating three days in San Francisco!

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INFORM-ED Website - Pinar Kaymaz

As the new website editor, I have been working on a reorganization of the web presence of INFORM-ED. The website includes many useful tools and resources for both students and educators of OR/MS. Our purpose is to provide a more logical and attractive website in order to represent these resources in a more efficient way. As of now, I have designed a new outline and have renewed most of the pages. The plan is to finish the whole site in the upcoming month. The new website will be available for access in the next couple months.

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Award Winners - Matt Drake

Every newsletter, we will recognize recent recipients of teaching awards. If you, or anyone you know, have received a teaching award, please let me know at mdrake@isye.gatech.edu. Let's tout our achievements! In this newsletter we are pleased to recognize...

Joel Sokol, Georgia Tech
Winner of the CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award

Criteria for this award were the following:

Congratulations, Joel!

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Just a Thought - Matt Drake

 

I was honored that Chris Zappe and Jim Cochran asked me to assume the editorship of this newsletter in July. My interest in education was the driving force behind my decision to seek a doctorate degree, and I was encouraged to discover a group like INFORM-ED, which is comprised of people who share my passion for and commitment to education. I feel very privileged to serve such an organization, and I hope to get to know more of you throughout my tenure in this office. I would like to thank our previous newsletter editor, Mike Racer, for aiding my seemless transition into this position. As always, I welcome any suggestions on making this newsletter more informative and helpful to INFORM-ED readers.

For those of you who are planning on attending the 2006 Annual INFORMS meeting in my wonderful hometown of Pittsburgh, I am seeking four speakers for a session I am organizing within the INFORM-ED cluster titled, "Teaching OR/MS with Cases." We typically have a lot of sessions discussing different cases and activities that people have developed, but I would like to focus this session on general strategies for teaching with cases. In particular, I am interested in strategies for choosing the right case for your class, facilitating classroom discussions about cases, and assessing students' understanding and insights. I think it would also be instructive to include a presentation on strategies for writing a successful OR/MS case. (This would be especially appropriate for past winners and finalists in the INFORMS Case Competition.) If you are interested in making a presentation in this session or know of someone who may be interested, please let me know.
 

Until the summer....

Matt (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu)

 

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Helpful Links

 

 

 

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