IBM Best Student Paper Award Competition

2025 First Place

Winning material: Improving Access to Essential Medicines in Sierra Leone via Machine Learning

Purpose of the Award

The INFORMS Service Science Section announces the  Best Student Paper Award to recognize excellence among its student members.

The INFORMS Service Science Section promotes and disseminates research and applications among professionals interested in theory, methodologies, and applications in Service Science. The Section provides a forum to exchange new ideas in Service Science. 

Application Process

View information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines
Click here for more information

Past Awardees

2025
First Place
Tsai-Hsuan (Angel) Chung, University of Pennsylvania
Second Place
Zhikun Lu, Goizueta Business School, Emory University
Zhanzhi Zheng, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Finalist
Hamid Arzani, University of Toronto
Nymisha Bandi, McGill University
Soonbong Lee, Yale University
Daksh Mittal, Columbia University
Jiaqi Shi, Columbia University
2024
Second Place
Bengü Nur Özdemir, IE Business School
Third Place
Rakesh Allu, Cornell University
Finalist
Mojtaba Abdolmaleki, University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business
Lin Chen, INSEAD
Arlen Dean, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Arseniy Gorbushin, Rotman School of Management
Clare Snyder, University of Michigan Ross School of Business
Akshaya Suresh, Yale School of Management
Vinit Tipnis, Indiana University Bloomington
Zongsen Yang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Zijie Zhou, MIT Operations Research Center
2023
First Place
Xiaoquan Gao, Purdue University
Second Place
Jiatao Ding, INSEAD
Third Place
Mohammad Reza Aminian, The University of Chicago
Xinyu Zhang, New York University
Finalist
Shukai Li, Northwestern University
Mo Liu, University of California Berkeley
Jimmy Qin, Columbia University
Minmin Zhang, The University of Texas at Dallas
2022
First Place
Abhishek Deshmane, IESE Business School
Second Place
Jingwei Zhang, University of California, Los Angeles
Third Place
Xiao Lei , Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University
Kan Xu, University of Pennsylvania
Finalist
Qinyi Chen, MIT
Neha Sharma, Northwestern University
Yanhan (Savannah) Tang, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Zhihan Wang, University of Michigan
Yueyang Zhong, University of Chicago
2021
First Place
Pia Ramchandani, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Second Place
Hanwei Li, MIT
Leann Thayaparan, MIT
Finalist
Neda Mirzaeian , University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal (PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper)
Milad Armaghan
Jinsheng Chen, Columbia
Scott Rodilitz, Yale School of Management
Arturo Estrada Rodriguez, University College London
Amandeep Singh, Upenn
Alp Sungu, London Business School
Zhe Wang, Tsinghua
Hengda Wen, U Toronto
Yunzong Xu, MIT
Xuan Zhang, Columbia
Cungen Zhu, NUS
2019
Winner(s)
Neda Mirzaeian , University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal (PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper)
Xiao Lei , Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University
Third Place
Andrew Daw, Cornell University, School of Operations Research and Information Engineering
Finalist
Elisabeth Paulson , MIT Sloan School of Management - Operations Research Center
Junyu Cao, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley
Vivek Choudhary, Nanyang Business School, NTU Singapore
Elaheh Fata, MIT Sloan School of Management - Operations Research Center
Kyra Gan, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
Yue Hu, Northwestern University
Zhaohui (Zoey) Jiang, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Simin Li, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Baile Lu, School of Management, Zhejiang University
Dmitry Mitrofanov, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
Jun Hyun (Joseph) Ryoo, Ivey Business School, Western University
Jiding Zhang, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

2018
First Place
Shan Wang
Second Place
Yunke Mai
Third Place
Rakesh Mallipeddi
Finalist
Behrooz Pourghannad , University of Minnesota
Ekaterina Astashkina
Lennart Baardman
Levi DeValve
Kraig Delana, LBS
Sina Golara
Pu He
Divya Singhvi
Kalinda Ukanwa
Lai Wei
Jiayi Joey Yu
2017
First Place
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
2016
Second Place
Leela Nageswaran
Third Place
Ashish Kabra, INSEAD
2014
First Place
Maxime C. Cohen, McGill University
Ngai-Hang Zachary Leung
Second Place
Matthew C. Walsman
Third Place
Changmi Jung
Tianshu Sun, University of Maryland