OR/MS Today articles from August 2004

OR/MS Today archives from August 2004

CEOs are tough sells.(INSIDE STORY)(Editorial)
August 1, 2004... Whether they're peddling their product to CEOs or MBA students, those who toil in the O.R. field have their work cut out for them. Let's start with the first scenario. CEOs, managers and real-world corporate types simply aren't interested...

INFORMS' meetings: lots of choices including yours.(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences )
August 1, 2004... INFORMS has lots of meetings, and their nature is both varied and evolving. We have a large annual meeting in the fall, with 2,000 to 3,000 attendees, most of them participating in a meeting program that, at times, involves 40 to 50 parallel...

Is this any way to run a publishing outfit?(INFORMS ONLINE)
August 1, 2004... Technological and economic changes in the past decade are having a profound effect on the distribution of research articles. In turn, publishers' business models have to adapt in response. In this and occasional subsequent columns, I plan to...

You can't spell SpORts without O.R., but ... you can teach O.R. with sports!(ISSUES IN EDUCATION)
August 1, 2004... One very effective way to recapture and hold the fading attention of students is to provide examples that are relevant and meaningful to them. Students who have seen such an example of an O.R. concept are generally better equipped to understand...

Passion for punctuation: eats, shoots & leaves.(CYBERSPACE)
August 1, 2004... On a recent trip to New Delhi, I went to the local bookstore. At the entrance, prominently displayed next to Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies" (2004) and Hans Blix's "Disarming Iraq" (2004), was the British gem "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"...

Novel jobs require analytic talent.(WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?)
August 1, 2004... My undergraduate advisor at St. Olaf College was a mathematics professor named Theodore A. Vessey. During the many courses I took from him--and during frequent conversations in his office--I learned a great many lessons, both about math and...

Ronald Reagan's parable.(ORACLE)
August 1, 2004... The smell of the barbecue mingled pleasantly with the scent of freshly mowed grass, and the three dozen people around the patio tables were enjoying the party. At one table, the talk had turned to the recent funeral of former President Reagan....

Five ways to jump on the 'Better' bandwagon.(FORUM)
August 1, 2004... Now that the "Science of Better" campaign is in full progress, there are lots of things that you can do to become a champion for operations research. Here are five for starters: 1. Add this line to the signature in your email: "Explore...

The Sciences of Butter, Batter and Bitter.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Suggestions for sub-sections for the "Science of Better": 1. The Science of Butter * Butter up the client to get the job in the first place. * Grease the ways to get the job done. * Butter up your boss to give you a raise. ...

War in Iraq: math geeks with guns.(REAL WORLD)(Reprint)
August 1, 2004... One of the more revolutionary weapons developed in the last century is being widely used in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is little known even within the military. It's called operations research (O.R.), and it's basically the application of...

Revenue management for MBAs: what every business student needs to know about RM and how to integrate the material into an O.R. course. The secret? Focus on concepts rather than algorithms.(Innovative Education)
August 1, 2004... REVENUE MANAGEMENT (RM) IS A LEADING-edge business practice that belongs in every business school operations research (O.R.) course. MBA students pay rapt attention when they hear that American Airlines estimated that RM was producing almost $1...

Active learning: wide range of new concepts highlight First Annual INFORMS Teaching of Management Science Workshop.(Innovative Education)(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)
August 1, 2004... IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE TEACHING A COURSE IN management science and you have allocated one three-hour class to teaching shadow prices. How are you going to use that time to the maximum benefit of your students? Will you lecture for three hours?...

Teaching teens how to make good decisions: borrowing a page from the O.R. playbook, Decision Education Foundation empowers young people with the skills to make the best choices for themselves.(Innovative Education)
August 1, 2004... GOOD DECISION-MAKING IS AN ESSENTIAL LIFE skill, but most people acquire it only through a process of trial and error--if at all. Decision Education Foundation (DEF) is a nonprofit organization that equips young people with powerful...

The sense-and-respond enterprise: why the U.S. Marine Corps should embrace the new paradigm.
August 1, 2004... What is an adaptive enterprise? What does it mean to be a "sense-and-respond" organization? These terms are becoming quite popular within the business community, and the terminology has also piqued the interest of many government agencies as...

Flexsim 2.6: serious simulation tool offers many benefits for users in a manufacturing and materials-handling environment, including speed and 3-D graphics.(SOFTWAREREVIEW)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... IF PRESENTATION TO DECISION-MAKERS IN A manufacturing and materials-handling environment is your ultimate goal as regards simulation, Flexsim Simulation Software 2.6 should be a serious consideration. It is a drag-and-drop-style graphical...

Denver meeting to take O.R. 'Back to its Roots'.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2004... The INFORMS Annual Meeting 2004 Denver, set for Oct. 24-27, promises to be one of the most extensive ever, with 46 tracks containing nearly 650 sessions and more than 2,100 presentations. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the entirety of the...

'Better' campaign reaches Iran.(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... INFORMS' efforts to market the O.R. profession as the "Science of Better" reached all the way to Iran thanks to the efforts of MIT professor and INFORMS President-Elect Dick Larson. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Larson visited Iran for the...

Position statement: Mark S. Daskin.(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.)
August 1, 2004... The dual roles of the president of INFORMS are to promote the profession and to ensure the long-term health of the Institute. These are interconnected issues. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INFORMS, and its predecessors ORSA and TIMS, have a...

Position statement: Irving Lustig.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2004... I am humbled and honored by my nomination as a candidate for president of INFORMS. Our professional society is at a crucial juncture in its history as we endeavor to market the operations research profession outside our small community. With my...

Meetings.(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.)(Calendar)
August 1, 2004... INFORMS Meetings 2004 Oct. 24-27 INFORMS Annual Meeting 2004 Denver Adam's Mark Denver General Chair: Manuel Laguna, University of Colorado www.informs.org/Conf/Denver04 2005 Spring 2005 Applying...

Ed Kaplan.(appointments.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... INFORMS member and Yale University professor Ed Kaplan was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in June. He will serve on the Academic Committee, which is charged with advising the Technion on all...

Lawrence Wein and David Craft.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... In other news, Kaplan and colleagues Lawrence Wein and David Craft were featured in an article by Stephen Flynn in the July 26 issue of Time magazine. The article, titled "Why America is Still an Easy Target" and based on excerpts from Flynn's...

Melvin F. Shakun.(Informs Group Decision and Negotiation Section Award)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Melvin F. Shakun received the INFORMS Group Decision and Negotiation Section Award to honor his vision and his efforts in creating and leading the GDN Section, founding and editing the journal Group Decision and Negotiation, and organizing GDN...

Robert W. Grubbstrom.(honor of Doctor of the University)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... The Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration, Hungary, will confer upon Professor Robert W. Grubbstrom, Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden, the honor of Doctor of the University, honoris causa. Grubbstrom will...

Niranjan Pati.(renewal of contract with Indiana University Kokomo)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Niranjan Pati, dean of the School of Business and a tenured professor of Operations Management at Indiana University Kokomo, has received a renewal of his contract for another three years. He completed his first three-year term in June 2004....

The life of an operations research mind living in academic administration.(VIEWPOINT)
August 1, 2004... Sometimes our career paths take routes we definitely didn't map out with Rand McNally. As a quantitative person, I spent the first 20 years of my life looking for solutions to questions with finite results. This was an amazingly cozy comfort...