Informs News: Meeting of Analytics Program Directors

The inaugural Meeting of Analytics Program Directors (MAPD) will be held on April 1, 2017, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the day before the start of the 2017 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research in the same locale.

Sponsored by INFORMS, the meeting is designed to provide program directors of college analytics programs with a forum for discussion, networking and the sharing of best practices. While master’s level programs are the majority, this first-of-its-kind meeting is open to program directors representing bachelor’s and doctoral level programs as well. The goal is to provide a platform for the types of exchanges that will raise the bar for all analytics programs and ultimately lead to better outcomes for students. Additionally, by supporting this emerging cadre of academics who lead analytics programs, INFORMS hopes that this meeting will help foster new ideas and new energy going forward.

J. David Dittman, director of Business Intelligence & Analytics Services at Procter and Gamble, will deliver the opening plenary at MAPD. The topic: “An Industry Connection: An Industry View of Essential Components of a Graduate Analytics Program.”

Other speakers include: Pooja Dewan, general director of decision support systems, BNSF Railway; Jeff Camm,associate dean of business analytics, Wake Forest University; Sharif Melouk, associate professor of operations management, Culverhouse College of Commerce, University of Alabama; Terry Harrison, professor of supply chain and information systems and executive education professor in the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University; Melissa R. Bowers, director of the master’s in Business Analytics Program and associate professor, Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Michael Rappa, Goodnight director, Institute for Advanced Analytics and distinguished university professor, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University.

The all-day event is free of charge. For more information, contact Bill Griffin, manager, INFORMS Continuing Education Program ([email protected]).