OR/MS Today articles from August 2006

OR/MS Today archives from August 2006

Contributing authors: priceless.(INSIDE STORY)
August 1, 2006... I received an e-mail the other day from a guy who said he was writing a book about India's logistics challenges. He wanted to know if I would consider an article based on the topic. I replied that I was interested, but first I wanted to see a...

Models vs. problems.(management science's personal narratives)(Column)
August 1, 2006... About 15 years ago, I was at a consulting client delivering the final code for a project that a colleague and I had prepared. The project involved assigning busses to garages to minimize deadheading time between the garages and the starting and...

How safe is Web security?(INFORMS ONLINE)
August 1, 2006... When you are browsing the World Wide Web, you may have occasion to visit a "secure" site. In fact, you count on such sites when engaging in e-commerce activities such as shopping or renewing your INFORMS membership (https://renew.informs.org)....

Ode to the Edelman.(WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID)
August 1, 2006... Many years ago, I was less than thrilled when my new girlfriend (now wife) insisted that we attend her friends' Oscar Party. I hadn't seen a lot of movies, and I didn't know much about the nominees. Also, I'd never been much into TV award...

The Praetorian Guard's parable.(ORACLE)
August 1, 2006... The O.R. analyst was recounting to another colleague, a historian turned systems analyst, how a programmer friend had helped find a subtle bug in a computer program. "Somehow" the O.R. analyst said, "I feel as if he had a bigger point in there,...

O.R. heroes on Flight 93.(FORUM)(Editorial)
August 1, 2006... Have you seen the movie "United 93"? The overwhelming majority of the frequent travelers I know have not done so. And that circumstance is easy to understand, as The New York Times explained in another context. In an editorial, The Times...

Voting queues present complicated problems.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... To the Editor: Alexander Belenky and Richard Larson's article regarding voting queues highlights an important issue ("To Queue or Not to Queue, OR/MS Today, June 2006). While we applaud their overview, we would also like to offer some more...

What are our national academy members doing?(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... To the Editor: I recently participated in a meeting at the University of Michigan where a small group discussed the next decade in industrial engineering. Sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the meeting openly...

Amateur operations research: a threat to the profession or an opportunity to promote it?(INNOVATIVE education)
August 1, 2006... We need more operations researchers; there are far too many issues and problems out there for the current inventory of professional operations researchers to be able to address. One solution to this problem is to train more people to actually...

The Spreadsheet Analytic Value Chain: the five essential steps business students must take in order to effectively employ analytical techniques in the real world.(INNOVATIVE education)
August 1, 2006... For very good reasons, O.R. often indulges in a convenient fiction. In order to focus on precise analytical and mathematical challenges, we need to assume away many messy inconveniences that bedevil managers in the working world. We often...

Antidote for academic schizophrenia: from teaching to scholarship, INFORMS Transactions on Education, the online, peer-reviewed publication, aims to advance OR/MS education.(INNOVATIVE education)
August 1, 2006... This article may contain a relief prescription for academic schizophrenia. "What is academic schizophrenia?" you ask. For faculty, it can be an occupational hazard. A professor is likely to experience an outbreak several times in the course of...

My year as a Science Fellow: O.R. professor reflects on "unique" experience at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.(INNOVATIVE education)
August 1, 2006... As my year as a 2005-2006 Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University draws to a close, I thought that I would offer some of my reflections on this unique experience as it relates to the operations...

Agent-based simulation comes of age: software opens up many new areas of application.(MODELING TECHNIQUE)
August 1, 2006... Agent-based simulation is establishing itself as a serious, useful area of study. On Aug. 21-26, the first World Congress on Social Simulation will be held in Kyoto, Japan, jointly sponsored by the three major international professional...

Forecasting: helping to fine-tune your choices.(SOFTWARE SURVEY)
August 1, 2006... The role of forecasting in business, medicine or life is demanding and elusive. Executives at Warner Brothers had box-office figures in mind for "Superman Returns," but some "Pirates" may have hijacked a few of those dollars. ABC-Disney may...

Maple 10: from symbolic computer to universal math machine.(SOFTWAREREVIEW)
August 1, 2006... I KNEW IT IN MY HEART, my theorem just had to be true. This beautiful result--that a particularly ugly objective function was convex--was to be a jewel in the crown of my Ph.D. thesis. But the rascal repulsed every angle of attack I mounted to...

Pittsburgh meeting looms large.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2006... Fresh from hosting Major League Baseball's All Star Game, Pittsburgh moves on to its next gala event: hosting the INFORMS Annual Meeting 2006, Nov. 5-8. With more than 3,000 abstracts submitted, this meeting is shaping up to be the largest...

WSC 2006 registration open.(Winter Simulation Conference )
August 1, 2006... Winter Simulation Conference 2006 registration is now open. Take advantage of the early registration savings and come join us in Monterey, Calif., Dec. 3-6. The conference covers every aspect of discrete-event and continuous simulation,...

Call for nominations: editor of International Transactions In Operational Research.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2006... Nominations arc sought for the position of editor in chief of the International Transactions in Operational Research. This journal is sponsored by the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS), an international...

Call for nominations: editor in chief, INFORMS Online.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2006... The second and final term of Matthew J. Saltzman as editor in chief of INFORMS Online (IOL) expires on Dec. 31. The president of INFORMS has appointed a committee to conduct a search for a new editor in chief. The committee intends to propose a...

EURO Strategic Innovation Prize.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2006... Applications are invited for the European Association of Operational Research Societies (EURO) Management Science Strategic Innovation Prize. The prize is awarded for an outstanding innovative contribution to OR/MS. The theme of the next prize,...

Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon University.(awarded)
August 1, 2006... Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon University was named one of 16 recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research. The 16 scholars will receive a total of $2.8 million to support 11 new...

Texas-Dallas' School of Management.(Suresh P. Sethi )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... More than 150 attendees from around the world gathered for the three-day International Conference on Management Sciences held in honor of Professor Suresh P. Sethi at the University of Texas-Dallas' School of Management. Friends, colleagues,...

Industrial Engineering at Louisiana State University.(Bhaba R. Sarker and Elton G. Yates )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Bhaba R. Sarker, Elton G. Yates Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering at Louisiana State University, received the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award at the 2006 HE Conference in Miami, Fla. The HE Board of Trustees selects...

Predicting Competitive Response to a Major Policy Change: Combining Game Theoretic and Empirical Analyses.(Kusum Ailawadi, Praveen Kopalle and Scott Neslin awarded)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Professors Kusum Ailawadi, Praveen Kopalle and Scott Neslin of the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, received the prestigious John D. C. Little Award for their Marketing Science article titled "Predicting Competitive Response to a...

Position statement: "the intended effects of [my] outreach and educational programs are to increase the numbers of future O.R. professionals; and ... to foster interdisciplinary collaborations.".(INFORMS NEWS)(Column)
August 1, 2006... INFORMS defines operations research (O.R.) as the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Perhaps this definition sheds light on why operations research is ubiquitous, with demonstrated impact in...

Position statement: "the president must help the organization create a strategically-oriented deliberative process to invest in projects, programs and expenditures that deliver the best value per dollar spent and create opportunities for growth.".(INFORMS NEWS)(Column)
August 1, 2006... INFORM's mission is to promote the growth and development of our profession. Given our extraordinary diversity, this is truly a wide-ranging mission. We serve professionals working in every economic sector, including corporations, nonprofits,...

Symposium on O.R. and the criminal justice system.(INFORMS NEWS)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, and WINFORMS, the Washington, D.C., chapter of INFORMS, will hold a symposium on "O.R. Applied to Law Enforcement and...

Triennial Conference of IFORS.(International Federation of Operational Research Societies)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The 18th Triennial Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) will be held July 14-18, 2008 in Sandton, South Africa. Hosted by Operations Research Society of South Africa, the conference will bring...

INFORMS meetings.(INFORMS NEWS)
August 1, 2006... INFORMS National & International Meetings 2006 Nov. 5-8 INFORMS Annual Meeting 2006 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Convention Center 6- West in Convention Center, Hotel Pittsburgh Chair: Michael A. Trick, Carnegie Mellon University...

Management Sciences Group thrives at PPG Industries.(ROUNDTABLE PROFILES)(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... PPG Industries, Inc. is a global supplier of glass products, chemical products and related services. Founded in 1883 as Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, the name was changed in 1968 to recognize the diverse markets and products offered by the...

The box that changed our lives.(marine cargo handling)
August 1, 2006... When the converted oil tanker Ideal-X arrived in the Port of Houston (Texas) on May 1, 1956, no one imagined the global change it foreshadowed. Longshoremen stopped work and ran to the edge of the dock to watch, as did businessmen who had flown...