We are drowning in numbers, and we no longer understand what they mean. Every day, headlines bombard us with figures meant to inform: billions in spending, trillions in debt, percentages signaling growth or decline. But for most of us, these numbers blur together. They register as “large” or “small,” but almost never as real. And that is more than a math problem. It is a civic one.
INFORMS has awarded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) its 2026 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science, for reengineering how global cloud infrastructure is planned and delivered, applying advanced analytics and AI to orchestrate complex fulfillment decisions across its rapidly expanding data center network.
In the rush to adopt artificial intelligence, many employers are now requiring that employees use AI tools. As you’re using AI, be intentional and selective. It’s critical that you know yourself. Research published in Management Science found that AI is most valuable for people who understand their own abilities and limitations. Assess yourself, so you can factor this into your process for incorporating AI into your work.
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CATONSVILLE, MD, March 20, 2019 – Researchers from Northwestern University and Facebook in March published new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science that sheds light on whether common approaches for online advertising measurement are as reliable and accurate as the “gold standard” of large-scale, randomized experiments.
INFORMS is saddened to learn of the passing of INFORMS Fellow and esteemed member of the Carnegie Mellon University faculty, Egon Balas, who overcame an early life in the shadow of the volatile political dynamic of World War II-era Romania to become a leader in the field of operations research.
The New York Police Department has touted the successful use of its homegrown crime analysis tool to identify potential criminals, but while the pattern recognition tool highlights the widespread potential for advanced analytics, it also raises questions around AI bias. Patternizr, a set of machine learning models developed in-house at the NYPD, is the first crime analysis tool of its kind to be used in law enforcement. It searches through hundreds of thousands of crimes across all 77 precincts in the department's database to find patterns.
In a new editorial, Sheldon Jacobson, INFORMS member and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discusses how the sophisticated mathematical modeling that is used to increase the odds of having a perfect – or even good – basketball bracket is the same technique used to solve the most complex challenges in both industry and government.
When a syringe-wielding drill thief tried sticking up a Home Depot near Yankee Stadium, police figured out quickly that the crime seemed familiar, and matched it to an identical crime that occurred miles away in Manhattan. The match, though, wasn’t made by an officer looking through files. It was done using Patternizr, pattern-recognition computer software developed by the New York Police Department that allows crime analysts stationed in each of the department’s 77 precincts to compare robberies, larcenies and thefts to hundreds of thousands of crimes logged in the NYPD’s database, transforming their hunt for crime patterns with the click of a button.
OR/MS Today is the INFORMS member magazine that shares the latest research and best practices in operations research, analytics and the management sciences.
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Analytics magazine showcases articles and research reports based on big data, AI, machine learning, data analytics and other new-age technologies.
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