Leading the Pack
Brenda L. Dietrich, former INFORMS president who leads the data science function of IBM Business Analytics Insights as a Service unit, was named as one of the top nine women leading the pack in data analytics.
The INFORMS Analytics+ Conference showcased how companies are turning advanced analytics and AI into measurable operational results
In most emergency departments, beds are a hot commodity. But some patients don’t actually need a bed for their treatment – and accurately identifying those people is a low-lift but effective way to increase efficiency without sacrificing care quality, finds a study recently published in the journal Management Science.
The researchers developed a simple decision tree, informed by mathematical and machine learning models, to help staff decide whether a patient truly needs a bed or can be routed to a “vertical processing pathway” – that is, an area where they can be treated sitting up. Many hospitals already have such an area but don’t necessarily have a systematic way to decide which patients are treated there.
Diversity alone won’t get the votes for funding public education. It takes communities that are more integrated and connected, where residents have a sense of shared stake.
An audio journey of how data and analytics save lives, save money and solve problems.

Jeff Cohen
Chief Strategy Officer
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
[email protected]
443-757-3565
Explore our resources for multiple topics including:
Brenda L. Dietrich, former INFORMS president who leads the data science function of IBM Business Analytics Insights as a Service unit, was named as one of the top nine women leading the pack in data analytics.
By studying nearly nine million domestic flights, INFORMS members Mazhar Arikan, University of Kansas; Vinayak Deshpande, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Mark Ferguson, University of South Carolina, found that by not charging checked bag fees Southwest Airlines could be impacting their flights' ability to depart on time. Their findings were published in the INFORMS journal Management Science.
The LA Times explores garbage orbiting earth and how to clean it up, including a 2009 paper by INFORMS member Lawrence Wein and coauthor Andrew Bradley, both researchers at Stanford University.
Two INFORMS members from the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, doctoral student Bhupesh Shetty and Associate Professor Jeffrey Ohlmann, in conjunction with Professor Gary Gaeth, developed an optimization model to improve Monday Night Football schedules. By analyzing every Monday night game played between 1993 and 2008, the researchers discovered three factors that have the greatest impact on generating high ratings: games played by Super Bowl champions, teams with high profile players or coaches joining the team, and teams with high-powered offenses.
Using data from a Washington Post comprehensive report, two INFORMS members investigated the impact of technology on police performance and practice. Professors Min-Seok Pang and Paul Pavlou, both from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, found that the use of analytics and smartphones to access intelligence led to decreased instances of lethal force by police, whereas wearable video cameras were linked to an increase in lethal force on civilians by police.

OR/MS Today is the INFORMS member magazine that shares the latest research and best practices in operations research, analytics and the management sciences.
Access OR/MS Today Magazine
Analytics magazine showcases articles and research reports based on big data, AI, machine learning, data analytics and other new-age technologies.
Access Analytics Magazine