Rail Applications Section Problem Solving Competition

2025 First Place

Winning material: Data Processing and Model Benchmarking for Predictive Maintenance in Railways: A Modular Pipeline Approach

Purpose of the Award

The Railway Applications Section of INFORMS has announced a new applied problem-solving competition to introduce participants to the exciting world of operations research in railroading. The competition is open to anyone who is either new to railroading or new to ORMS.

Application Process

For more information, please click here.

Past Awardees

2025
First Place
Tangjian Wei
Farzan Heidari
Second Place
Jacopo Bonari
Edoardo Fadda
Alberto Gennaro
Daniele Giovanni Gioia
Third Place
Faiz Hamid
Krishan Kumar
Addula Saiprabhav Reddy
2024
First Place
Peiran Han
Yun Hu, Beijing Jiaotong University
Xiaojie Luan, School of Traffic and Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University
Yuwen Pan, Beijing Jiaotong University
Ranfei Zheng, Beijing Jiaotong University
Second Place
Dian Wang, Hefei University
Jingyan Yang, Hefei University of Technology
Ling Yao, Hefei University of Technology
Shuguang Zhan, Hefei University
Jianhao Zhang, Hefei University of Technology
Third Place
Chongshuang Chen, Southwest Jiaotong University
Feng Xue, Southwest Jiaotong University
Honorable Mention
Lukas Bodi, Technische Universität Dresden
Maurice Krauth, Technische Universität Dresden
Felix Rauschert, Technische Universität Dresden
2023
First Place
Team Name: UrbanRailOpt
Shan Jiang
Qinyang Li
Siyuan Liu
Tianyin Zhao
Yongxiang Zhang
UrbanRailOpt
Second Place
Team Name: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
2022
First Place
Arturo Crespo , TU Darmstadt
Second Place
Xiaodong Luo, Sabre Corporation
Third Place
Mingan Sheng, Hefei University of Technology
2021
First Place
Geordie Roscoe, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jaixi Zhao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Second Place
Qing He, University at Buffalo
Zhen Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University
Qingsong Ma, Southwest Jiaotong University
2020
First Place
Hui Wang, Tongji University
Second Place
Bijan Taslimi, University of Florida
Third Place
Hongxiang Zhang, Southwest Jiaotong University
2019
First Place
Vahid Dardashti
Second Place
Tsung-Han Wang, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Third Place
Daniel Eduardo Suarez Bayona, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
2018
First Place
Evelien van der Hurk , Technical University of Denmark
Jørgen Thorlund Haahr, Technical University of Denmark
Erik Hellsten, Technical University of Denmark
Second Place
Negin Alemazkoor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hadi Meidani, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mohammad Amin Nabian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Third Place
Zheming Gao, NC State University
Haochen Luo, Texas A&M University
Qian Wu, Texas A&M University
2017
First Place
Tai-Chia Huang, National Cheng Kung University
Yun-Hsuan Lu, National Cheng Kung University
Shiue-Mei Sun, National Cheng Kung University
Second Place
Harshad Khadilkar, TATA Consultancy Services
Shripad Salsingikar, Tata Consultancy Services
Sudhir Kumar Sinha, TATA Consultancy Services
2016
First Place
Sergiu Carpov, CEA
Loïc Cudennec, CEA
François Galea, CEA
Second Place
Fu-Yuan Cheng, National Cheng Kung University
Sih-Han Fang, National Cheng Kung University
I-Lin Wang, National Cheng Kung University
Third Place
Bisheng He, Southwest Jiaotong University
Yadong Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University
Yongxiang Zhang, Southwest Jiaotong University
2015
First Place
Negin Alemazkoor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hadi Meidani, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Conrad Ruppert, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Second Place
Carlos Sarmiento Cardona , Universidad de Los Andes
Iván Cárdenas Gallo , Universidad de Los Andes
Gilberto Morales Zamora, Universidad de Los Andes
Third Place
Harshad Khadilkar, TATA Consultancy Services
Sumit Raut, TATA Consultancy Services
Sudhir Kumar Sinha, TATA Consultancy Services
2014
First Place
Jørgen Thorlund Haahr, Technical University of Denmark
Richard Martin Lusby, Technical University of Denmark
Second Place
Tsai-Ti Huang, National Cheng Kung University
Ping-Cheng Lin, National Cheng Kung University
I-Lin Wang
Third Place
Paul Bouman, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Lucas Veelenturf, Eindhoven University of Technology
Joris Wagenaar, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
2013
First Place
Jiangang Jin, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Maokai Lin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hai Wang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Second Place
Setareh Borjian Boroujeni,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Krishna Selvam, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Third Place
Lianbo Deng, Central South University
Wenliang Zhou, Central South University
Zhao Zhou, Central South University
2011
First Place
Jaime E. Gonzalez
Leonardo Lozano, Clemson University
Second Place
Fabio Colombo
Roberto Cordone
Marco Trubian
Third Place
Hung-Yi Lee
Yu-Ting Liang
I-Lin Wang
Honorable Mention
Jian Gang Jina
Jun Zhaob
2010
First Place
Mor Kaspi
Tal Raviv
Second Place
Ed Ramsden
Third Place
Virot Chiraphadhanakul
Cristian Figueroa