News Room

CATONSVILLE, MD, October 30, 2017 – From reporting traffic jams using the Waze app to a colony of ants working together to achieve extraordinary feats, examples of crowdsourcing and collective intelligence are all around us. As the problems that we face grow in complexity, the speed and reach of communications and data flow are vastly improving now that just about anyone can act as a consultant on a problem by providing their own individual expertise and information. Analytics can be used to refine this insight from groups to improve solutions to problems in a variety of areas including economics, computer science, biology, communications, political science, and organizational behavior. 

Nearly 100 unique factors have to be considered during the complicated task of assigning inmates to any of the Pennsylvania Department of Correction’s 25 facilities.  What once took seven employees nearly a week to accomplish can now be completed in less than 10 minutes at an expected savings of nearly $3 million, thanks to an algorithm created by a team of Lehigh University students and professors, and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. In recognition of their unique new application of operations research (O.R.), Tamás Terlaky, Mohammad Shahabsafa, Chaitanya Gudapati, Anshul Sharma, Louis J. Plebani, and George R. Wilson, Lehigh University; and Kristofer B. Bucklen, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, were presented the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice by INFORMS, the leading international association for analytics and operations research professionals.

HOUSTON, TX, October 24, 2017 – For the homeless men, women, and children of Houston still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a helping hand came from an unexpected source –1,000 comfort kits with essential toiletries and hygiene items assembled by the attendees of the INFORMS 2017 Annual Meeting, held in Houston, October 22-25.