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As we approach the 2009 Annual INFORMS Meeting beginning
on Sunday, October 11 in San Diego, I’m writing to encourage you to attend
the INFORM-ED Business Meeting on Sunday, October 11 from 6:15 until 7:15
pm (Pacific time) (Hilton-202A) to learn more about our ongoing activities and the new
initiatives that we are pursuing this year.
This annual event also provides the membership of INFORM-ED with a wonderful opportunity to
socialize in an informal session as well as to exchange ideas and experiences
for enhancing the teaching of operations research/management science in a
wide variety of settings. I also would like to call your attention to the
excellent cluster of education sessions that Professor David Rader of Rose-Hulman Institute for Technology has organized for the
upcoming Annual Meeting in San Diego.
In particular, Dave has worked diligently with our INFORM-ED colleagues to formulate a program
that includes sessions which will be of interest and value to faculty in both
engineering and business programs, trainers and practitioners in corporate
environments, educators in governmental organizations, and others. Please be sure to review the detailed
schedule of sessions provided in the program. At our annual Business Meeting on October 11, we will
hold elections for a number of positions that are critical to the effective
ongoing functioning of our organization.
While several of our elected officers and editors have indicated their
willingness to continue their service over the next two-year period, it is
now clear that we will need some new volunteers to get involved in the
leadership of our forum in 2010.
Therefore, I encourage those of you would like to get more involved in
INFORM-ED to contact me (zappe@bucknell.edu) prior to our annual
meeting in San Diego. As always, my fellow INFORM-ED officers and I urge you to share your suggestions for
enhancing our programs and activities in the coming year. We look forward to seeing you at the annual
Business Meeting beginning at 6:15 pm PDT in San Diego! Best
wishes, Chris
Zappe Bucknell
University
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President’s Corner – Chris Zappe
Publications – John Kros
Case Competition – John Kros
INFORM-ED
@ INFORMS 2009, San Diego – Dave Rader
INFORM-ED Website – Kellie Keeling
Project MINDSET Update – Kenneth Chelst
INFORMS/IFORS International Education Initiative – Jim Cochran
Education Plenary – Jim Cochran
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Publications - John Kros |
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INFORM-ED Case Competition- John Kros |
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INFORM-ED Website –
Kellie Keeling |
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Project MINDSET Update –
Kenneth Chelst |
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We
just completed year two of the project. This year the team wrote a 10-chapter
text for probabilistic decision models. This text complements the first
year’s work on a deterministic modeling text. Also in year two, the first
book underwent extensive revisions based on feedback from teachers who
piloted individual chapters. Implementation
is ahead of schedule. More than 70 teachers in North Carolina and Michigan
have taken an 8 day course in deterministic modeling. Twenty five of them
have also completed a course on probabilistic decision models. Piloting
continues on the individual chapters in tens of schools in both states. In
addition, four schools have agreed to implement in 2009-2010 complete courses
based on our texts. This experience will provide important feedback on
realistic pacing of the semester long courses. Our website is up and running http://www.mindsetproject.org/. In addition, we have developed a hotline
that teachers can call with questions and that is staffed several evenings
each week. Year’s
three focus will be on developing the methodology for evaluating student
performance. We will continue to expand our outreach to recruit more teachers
and high schools to be part of the final evaluation. In year 5, the project
will be formally evaluated in 50 high schools classes in MI and NC with an
estimated enrollment of 1500 students. During
the past year, faculty at universities in Georgia, Tennessee, Washington,
Missouri, New York, Louisiana, and Connecticut have approached us and taken
steps to reach out to local area high schools to explore opportunities for
bringing Project MINDSET to their schools. We look forward to cooperating
with them in their outreach efforts. We anticipate that some of these schools
will host local teacher training session in summer 2010. The
San Diego high school teachers’ workshop this year is being held at a local
area high school instead of at the INFORMS conference. In addition, we are
offering both a full day program and an abbreviated evening program. We
anticipate 20 to 30 teachers in each program including a group of teachers in
training. |
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INFORMS/IFORS International
Education Initiative – Jim Cochran |
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In
the Fall 2006 INFORM-ED Newsletter we introduced INFORMS/IFORS International
Education Initiative; through this initiative INFORMS and IFORS (The
International Federation of Operational Research Societies
http://www.ifors.org/) work with operations research society from developing
regions to jointly organize teaching effectiveness colloquia. These colloquia, patterned after INFORMS’
highly successful annual series of teaching effectiveness colloquia (TEC),
feature extended workshops on effective and novel/innovative approaches to
operations research education. The workshops
that comprise these colloquia are given by members of INFORMS, other IFORS
affiliated organizations, and the host organization; this integration
fosters: •
important cross-cultural exchanges of ideas; •
development of infrastructures to support education initiatives within
the host organizations; •
creation and extension of a worldwide community of operations
researchers who are concerned with the quality of operations research
education and the ensuing applications; and •
improvement in the quality of operations research
education provided by all participants in these colloquia. The
first colloquium in this series was held in Montevideo, Uruguay in November
2006; the second colloquium in this series was held in Cape Town, South
Africa in September 2007; and the third colloquium in this series was held in
Cartagena, Colombia in September 2008. These colloquia have been very
successful, each attracting 40 – 60 participants. Participants have
represented the following countries: •
Argentina •
Austria •
Botswana •
Brazil •
Burkina Faso •
Burundi •
Canada •
Chile •
Colombia •
Comoros •
Cuba •
Ethiopia •
France •
India •
Italy •
Kenya •
Madagascar •
Mexico •
Mozambique •
Nigeria •
Panama •
Peru •
Portugal •
Rwanda •
South Africa •
Spain •
Tanzania •
Uganda •
United States •
Uruguay •
Venezuela •
Zambia •
Zimbabwe 2009 We
are now preparing to hold the fourth workshop in this series in Jaipur, India in December at the 2009 APORS (Association
of Asian Pacific Operational Research Societies) Conference (http://www.apors2009.com/).
We look forward to the opportunity to interact with our APORS colleagues and
extend the developing network of operations researchers concerned with the
quality of education to Asia and the Pacific Rim. Beyond
2009 We
are considering organizations in Senegal, Uganda, and Cuba as potential hosts
for the 2010 INFORMS/IFORS Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium. More details on
this workshop will appear in this newsletter as planning for this event
progresses (again, please contact me with your questions, comments, and
suggestions). Upcoming
Opportunities Outside of INFORMS ALIO/INFORMS
Joint International Meeting Marcela
González and I have been asked by General Chair
Irene Loiseau to organize a Teaching Effectiveness
Colloquium (TEC) for the ALIO (Association of Latin-Iberoamerican
Operations Research Societies)/INFORMS Joint
International Meetings (http://meetings.informs.org/BuenosAires2010/) to be
held from June 6-9, 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This joint conference consists of the
INFORMS International Conference and XV CLAIO (the biannual conference
organized by ALIO). The academic
program will offer a forum for intellectual exchange between participants of
all the countries of Latin and North America, as well as from other regions
around the world. Buenos Aires
promises to be a spectacular venue as well.
We may have room for one more workshop in this colloquium; please
contact me at jcochran@cab.latech.edu or (318) 257-3445 or Marcela at
mgonzalez@utalca.cl or +56-75-201747 if you are interested in organizing an
OR education-related workshop for this colloquium 19th
Triennial Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research
Societies (IFORS) I
have agreed to organize education related sessions for the 19th Triennial Conference
of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS), to
be hosted by the Victorian chapter of the Australian Society for Operations
Research (ASOR). The conference will
be held at the new Melbourne Convention Centre in the center of Melbourne,
Australia from July 10-15, 2011 and will bring operational researchers from
around the globe together, so this represents a tremendous opportunity for
members of INFORM-ED to reach out to the international operations research
community and visit a spectacular city.
Please contact me at jcochran@cab.latech.edu or (318) 257-3445 if you
are interested in organizing an OR education-related session or giving an OR
education related presentation at this conference. You may also find more information
at the conference website (http://www.ifors2011.org/committee.asp). I hope to hear from you soon and see you at the
2010 ALIO/INFORMS Joint International Meetings and
the 2011 IFORS Triennial Conference in Melbourne! |
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Education Plenary – Jim
Cochran |
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