OR/MS Today articles from December 2005

OR/MS Today archives from December 2005

Discover how you can benefit from AIMMS--the world's most advanced model development environment.
December 1, 2005... Because Academics deserve the best at low cost... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ... Paragon Decision Technology offers the AIMMS 3 Educational Package for only $450*. This package includes an unlimited network license, a distributable...

Beautiful minds.(INSIDE STORY)
December 1, 2005... Giddy thoughts at 30,000 feet while winging home from the INFORMS fall meeting in San Francisco: If you build it and move it, they will still come. About 3,500 people (they were still counting heads when we left for the airport) showed up...

O.R.: it's a wonderful world!(PRESIDENT'S DESK)
December 1, 2005... This is my last OR/MS Today President's Desk column. It has been an honor and a pleasure for me to serve you during this eventful year. I sincerely thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to working as past-president next year with you...

Premium Solver Platform: this is not your MBA student's Oldsmobile.
December 1, 2005... The Excel Solver's Big Brother Handles Industrial-Strength Models. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over 100 million Excel users have the basic Solver we developed for Microsoft. But that's just our takeoff point for the Premium Solver...

The war for control of your computer.(INFORMS ONLINE)
December 1, 2005... It is certainly not news that multimedia publishers (record companies, TV and movie studios, software and game publishers, as well as paper publishers) are concerned about the potential of computers to make unlimited perfect copies of content...

MPL[TM] Modeling System: the fastest and most scalable modeling language for optimization.
December 1, 2005... The MPL Modeling System is a state-of-the-art optimization modeling software that allows the model developer to formulate complicated optimization models in a clear, concise, and efficient way. MPL offers a feature-rich model development...

Shameless solicitation.(WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID)
December 1, 2005... Friends, in this column I very rarely ask you for anything. I'm generally here to simply and freely share what I have to say, and usually all I demand is your attention for the time that it takes to read 900 or so words. With that said, I am...

Teaching O.R. modeling.(ISSUES IN EDUCATION)
December 1, 2005... When I'm asked what the most important O.R. skill is for the majority of our students, I consistently answer, "modeling." Most of our students will not go on to develop new O.R. methodology or insights; the O.R.-related portion of their...

Breast cancer and O.R.(CYBERSPACE)
December 1, 2005... "Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write." --H.G. Wells Let me distract you from Christmas and your glass of mulled wine with a question: The incidence of breast...

Alvin W. Drake.(IN MEMORIAM)(Obituary)
December 1, 2005... Alvin W. Drake, MIT Emeritus Ford Professor of Engineering, passed away on Oct. 30 near his home on Cape Cod, Mass. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1986, Al fought that disease valiantly for all these years, with many wonderful close years with his...

Game theory: a 'Nobel' pursuit.(HONORS & ACCOLADES)
December 1, 2005... If you're an operations researcher and you're interested in winning a Nobel Prize in Economics, we have two words for you: game theory. Game theory, the field of study founded by one of the legendary figures in operations research, John...

And the winner is ...(NEWS & NOTES)
December 1, 2005... INFORMS President Dick Larson, "Science of Better" champion Irv Lustig and Edelman Award Chair John Milne hosted a lively plenary session entitled "Extreme Makeover of the Edelman Competition: From Internally Distinguished to Externally...

How much are you worth?(NEWS & NOTES)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Are you getting paid what you're worth? What should an O.R. consultant with three years experience expect to make in, say, Dallas? What do tenured professors at top O.R. schools earn? What is the hiring "temperature" in your work environment?...

Rand ends 25 years of service to IFORS.(International Federation of Operational Research Societies)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... INFORMS member Graham Rand, of the Department of Management Science, Lancaster University, U.K., has ended 25 years service in a variety of significant roles to the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). Rand...

MPL database connection: connect optimization models to any data source, anytime, anywhere!
December 1, 2005... Optimization models frequently need to access data from corporate database systems dispersed throughout the world. The built-in database connection in MPL seamlessly links MPL models with data from a wide variety of sources, such as databases,...

A passion for publications: Mark Daskin made his mark on the journal side of INFORMS, but now, as the next president of the Institute, he has a wide spectrum of issues on his plate.(Q & A)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... INFORMS President-Elect Mark Daskin, who takes over the presidential reins on Jan. 1, 2006, came up through the publications ranks of the Institute. A former editor of Transportation Science and a former vice president of publications for...

What problems can we help you solve?
December 1, 2005... Simply incomparable [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Over 400 man-years of R & D invested in ILOG Optimization technologies * Over 30 Ph.D.'s committed to Optimization R & D * The most rigorous development and testing methodology...

The art & science of 'better': borrowing a metaphor from medicine, it may be advantageous to characterize O.R. as the profession that seeks to maintain, improve or restore the "wellness" of an organized complex of operations within commerce, industry or government.(ESSAY)
December 1, 2005... Operations research is defined by Morse and Kimball [1951] to be "a scientific method for providing executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions regarding operations under their control," with the added proviso that...

Fleet manager milks efficiency out of dairy company: vehicle scheduling decision support system dramatically improves milk tanker deployment in New Zealand.(CASE STUDY)
December 1, 2005... New Zealand dairy companies are faced with the question of how to collect milk from their supplier farms efficiently, using road milk tankers, and have it delivered to their factories for processing. The dairy companies operate one or more...

'Gaming' reality: biennial survey of discrete-event simulation software tools.(Software Survey)
December 1, 2005... SIMULATION MODELING HAS INCREASED in visibility and acceptance over the years, thanks to improvements in commercial products and particularly in the sophistication of animation. The public has been exposed to simulation through games and the...

Maple 10 and the global optimization toolbox: integrated technical computing system for advanced nonlinear systems modeling and optimization.(SOFTWAREREVIEW)
December 1, 2005... MAPLE (MAPLESOFT, 2005) IS AN INTEGRATED technical computing system that supports rapid prototyping, modular development and full project documentation. Maple allows the creation of documents that integrate mathematical results and their...

Air Products earns INFORMS Prize.(INFORMS NEWS)(Air Products and Chemicals Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The 2005 INFORMS Prize was awarded to Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. for its "demonstrated history of using OR/MS to provide benefits at strategic, tactical and operational levels." The INFORMS Prize honors organizations that "repeatedly...

Fisher to deliver Morse lecture.(INFORMS NEWS)(Marshall L. Fisher)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The 2005 Philip McCord Morse Lectureship Award was presented to Marshall L. Fisher "who exemplifies the true sprit for Professor Morse, and who, like Professor Morse, has been an outstanding spokesperson for the operations research profession."...

Aumann's work in game theory leads to von Neumann Prize.(INFORMS NEWS)(Robert J. Aumann)(2005 John von Neumann Theory Prize)
December 1, 2005... The 2005 John von Neumann Theory Prize was awarded to Robert J. Aumann of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in recognition of his fundamental contributions to game theory and related areas. Named for one of the legendary figures in O.R....

Talluri, van Ryzin win Lanchester Prize.(INFORMS NEWS)(Kalyan T. Talluri)(Garrett J. van Ryzin)
December 1, 2005... The Lanchester Prize for 2005 was awarded to Kalyan T. Talluri and Garrett J. van Ryzin for their book, "The Theory and Practice of Revenue Management" (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, Mass., 2004). The Lanchester Prize is awarded for...

Day, Shah share top Dantzig Dissertation honors.(INFORMS NEWS)(Robert W. Day)(Devavrat Shah)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Robert W. Day of the University of Connecticut, and Devavrat Shah, an assistant professor at MIT, earned first-place honors from the 2005 George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award Committee for the best dissertation in any area of operations...

Wein writes the right way.(INFORMS NEWS)(Lawrence M. Wein)
December 1, 2005... The 2005 INFORMS Expository Writing Award was presented to Lawrence M. Wein for his papers on queueing, medical therapy and public health policy. The award honors an operations researcher whose publications, over a period of at least 10 years,...

Bell takes Prize for teaching OR/MS practice.(INFORMS NEWS)(Peter C. Bell)
December 1, 2005... Peter C. Bell, a professor with the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, received the 2005 INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice for "his exceptional success in teaching so many students how to apply...

Kimball medalist Hoffman urges all to 'get involved'.(INFORMS NEWS)(Karla Hoffman )
December 1, 2005... Karla Hoffman was presented the 2005 George E. Kimball Medal for her many contributions to the field of operations research and for her distinguished service to INFORMS and its predecessor organizations, ORSA and TIMS. The Kimball Medal is...

Nicholson Student Paper Competition.(INFORMS NEWS)(Emre Erdogan )(Wai Kin Chan )(David B. Brown )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Emre Erdogan won the George E. Nicholson Student Paper Competition, which honors outstanding papers in the field of operations research and the management sciences written by a student. Erdogan won for his paper, "Ambiguous Chance Constrained...

Pierskalla receives President's Award.(INFORMS NEWS)(William Pierskalla)
December 1, 2005... The 2005 INFORMS President's Award was presented to William "Bill" Pierskalla for "his wide-ranging and critical contributions to the health services and to public services more generally." The INFORMS President's Award recognizes, and thereby...

INFORMS meetings.(INFORMS NEWS)(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... INFORMS National & International Meetings 2006 April 30-May 2 INFORMS Practice Conference: Applying Science to the Art of Business Hotel InterCoutinental Miami, Fla. Chair: Karl G. Kempf, Intel Corporation ...

The nurse's parable.(ORACLE)
December 1, 2005... "Now, that wasn't too bad, was it?" the nurse asked, with a sunny smile, as she swabbed the O.R. analyst's bared arm with a gauze alcohol pad. "It may get sore for a few days, and you may even get some mild flu-like symptoms for a day or two,...