OR/MS Today articles from June 2004

OR/MS Today archives from June 2004

When greed is good.(political campaigns)
June 1, 2004... In the highly polarized environment that marks most 2004 political campaigns, polling Democrats and Republicans regarding their presidential preferences makes about as much sense as asking 4-year-olds what would they rather have for dinner,...

The business of publishing journals.(PRESIDENT'S DESK)
June 1, 2004... According to its charter, INFORMS exists in order to "lead in the development, dissemination and implementation of knowledge" about OR/MS. In order to fulfill this mission, INFORMS and its predecessor societies have been publishing...

Who is Darl McBride, and why is he saying those terrible things about Linux?(INFORMS ONLINE)
June 1, 2004... INFORMS Online runs on a Web platform architecture known as LAMP, which stands for "Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP." LAMP is a collection of open-source tools for Web development: operating system, Web server, database and scripting language. (A more...

Teaching ethics: it's the right thing to do.(ISSUES IN EDUCATION)
June 1, 2004... Ethics was once considered to be the exclusive domain of philosophers and theologians, but more recently there has been a push to implement and integrate ethics within the engineering profession. For example, the Accreditation Board for...

Iraq, Enron and Vietnam: the perils of idealism.(CYBERSPACE)
June 1, 2004... Last night I saw the new movie version of The Quiet American based on Graham Greene's 1956 novel about Vietnam in 1952. What struck me were the ideals and intensity of the main character, Pyles, an idealistic American who creates a third front...

Overcoming conference angst.(WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?)
June 1, 2004... Just came back from a conference at the University of Pennsylvania. Very nice place--classical architecture, pleasant walkways and leafy green trees. A visit to a Cathedral of Learning can be a real shot in the arm for someone who now does his...

Champion's kit kickstarts 'better' campaign.(Institute for Operations Research and Management Science)
June 1, 2004... The "Science of Better" campaign has debuted, and it offers operations researchers in general and INFORMS members in particular many important ways of marketing our profession. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last month you probably received a...

Branding O.R. in Europe.(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... TO THE EDITOR: I was positively impressed by the INFORMS announcement about the "branding O.R." campaign in the United States. Not surprisingly, EURO, the European Association of O.R. Societies, federating 29 national societies and around...

A name that fits the work we do.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... TO THE EDITOR: I am a little disappointed with the decision to name our profession O.R. and to describe it as "Science of Better." While this may be attractive to members of the profession, I cannot feel it will cut much ice with the...

Did you hear the one about the salesman who traveled better?(REAL WORLD)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... Traveling salesmen star in more jokes than almost any other occupation, but William Cook doesn't let that distract him. A mathematician at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Professor Cook is one of hundreds of researchers who, since...

World's fastest supercomputers.(REAL WORLD)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... NEC's Earth Simulator in Yokohama, Japan, is still No. 1. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The powerful NEC machine held on to its top spot among the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world, according to the latest rankings released by the...

Motorola wins Edelman Award.(REAL WORLD)
June 1, 2004... Motorola's innovative approach to streamlining the supplier negotiation process won the 2004 Franz Edelman Award for achievement in operations research and the management sciences. The Edelman Award, the culmination of a rigorous competition...

Prices, probabilities and predictions: with prediction markets, participants put their money where their mouths are regarding worldwide events ranging from government elections to the outbreak of war. The question is, are these markets more accurate than polls and politicians?(Cover Story)
June 1, 2004... THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY WAS DEVOTED to debating the relative merits of planned economies versus free markets. In case you missed it, the winner was announced with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The power of free markets,...

Getting ready for RFID: growing use of radio frequency identification technology presents new challenges and opportunities to operations research professionals.
June 1, 2004... Scene from the movie "Mission Impossible" (1996): The federal agent in charge of the most secret FBI database is tagged with a piece of fabric less than an eighth of an inch square. The tag shows where he is in the building and allows...

Can OR help stop the invisible plague? President's commission calls for systems approach to overhaul the nation's mental health care.(operational research.)
June 1, 2004... WHEN YOU LIST MAJOR THREATS TO U. S. SECURITY AND PROSPERITY, DO YOU INCLUDE MENTAL ILLNESS? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You should. It directly affects about one-fifth of the adult population of the United...

On the road to recovery: 2004 survey of vehicle routing software spotlights critical supply chain management role.
June 1, 2004... Six years have passed since the first installment of the OR/MS Today vehicle routing software survey. So far we have addressed the themes of efficiency, service and security. This time around we examine recovery, or, more specifically, the role...

OR on the ball: applications in sports scheduling and management.(operations research)
June 1, 2004... SPORTS MANAGEMENT IS A VERY ATTRACTIVE AREA for applications of operations research. Sports competitions involve many economic and logistic issues, including athlete evaluation, team evaluation, tournament planning, club management, economic...

Equity 3: software provides equipment procurement direction for United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.(SOFTWAREREVIEW)
June 1, 2004... THE UNITED KINGDOM'S MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOD) procures equipment for the three armed services via the Equipment Plan (EP). A key stage is to decide the relative priorities of the equipment being procured in the light of prevailing assumptions...

A mile-high event: Denver to host INFORMS Annual Meeting Oct. 24-27.(INFORMS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The City of Denver was established on Nov. 22, 1858, after a party of prospectors discovered gold at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. The dusty crossroads was named after James W. Denver, governor of the Kansas...

2004 INFORMS Combined Colloquia.(INFORMS NEWS)
June 1, 2004... The 2004 INFORMS Combined Colloquia will be held Oct. 22-23, the Friday and Saturday immediately preceding the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Denver. This year, the Combined Colloquia will feature the Sixth Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium, the...

P. George Benson.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... P. George Benson, dean of the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, has been appointed to the board of overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. His term begins immediately and ends on Feb. 28, 2007. Congress...

Terry L. Friesz.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Terry L. Friesz has been appointed Harold and Inge Marcus Chaired Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State University, where his teaching and research will focus on dynamic games and service networks, including applications to supply...

Andy Boyd.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... INFORMS member Andy Boyd recently presented a four-minute radio essay about the shortest path and traveling salesman problems on Houston National Public Radio affiliate KUHF. The essay, titled "Optimization," was aired on the long-running...

Horst W. Hamacher.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Horst W. Hamacher, professor of Mathematical Optimization at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, was awarded the inaugural Julius von Haast Fellowship of the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. [ILLUSTRATION...

Roundtable salutes membership service.(INFORMS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... At the Roundtable Meeting in Orlando, Arnie Greenland and Irv Salmeen were honored for service to the organization. Greenland received a plaque upon his retirement from the Membership Committee after one year of service. Salmeen received a...

Fifth annual INFORMS case competition.(INFORMS NEWS)
June 1, 2004... INFORM-ED will continue its co-sponsorship of the Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition this fall. This year's competition, as in the past four years, is jointly sponsored by INFORMS Education Committee, INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials...

In memoriam: Carl Lemke.(INFORMS NEWS)(Obituary)
June 1, 2004... Von Neumann Award winner and INFORMS Fellow Carl Lemke quietly passed away on April 12 in Tucson, Ariz. Besides his fundamental contributions in optimization theory, he was a mentor and friend of many in the INFORMS community.

Meetings.(INFORMS NEWS)(Calendar)
June 1, 2004... INFORMS Meetings 2004 July 8-11 INFORMS Summer Workshop on Teaching Management Science The Learning Center at Marlboro Marlborough, Mass. Program Director: Stephen G. Powell, Dart-mouth College ...

Community Operational Research: OR and Systems Thinking for Community Development.(NEW BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... This book sets out the current concerns of community operational research (community OR for short) and explores new possibilities for its development. Leading community OR writers, international reputations in operational research and systems,...

Statistical Analysis of Financial Data in S-Plus.(NEW BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Although there are many books on mathematical finance, few deal with the statistical aspects of modern data analysis as applied to financial problems. This book fills this gap by addressing some of the most challenging issues facing any...

Loss Models: From Data to Decisions.(NEW BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... This book is organized around the principle that actuaries build models in order to analyze risks and make decisions about managing the risks based on conclusions drawn from the analysis. In practice, one begins with data and ends with a...

Handbook of Quantitative Supply Chain Analysis Modeling in the E-Business Era.(NEW BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Over the past two decades, not only has supply chain analysis become a strategic focus of leading firms, it has also spawned an impressive array of research that brings together diverse research communities. Adding to this diversity and...

Bayesian Approaches to Clinical Trials and Health-Care Evaluation.(NEW BOOKS)
June 1, 2004... The Bayesian approach involves synthesizing data and judgement in order to reach conclusions about unknown quantities and make predictions. Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular in recent years, notably in medical research, and...

Discovering Knowledge in Data: An Introduction to Data Mining.(NEW BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The field of data mining lies at the confluence of statistical analysis, machine learning and business intelligence. However, nearly all the books published so far have been restricted solely to a single one of these areas, usually either...

Systat Software introduces SYSTAT 11.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Systat Software, Inc. recently introduced SYSTAT 11, providing statisticians and professional researchers advanced statistical and graphical capabilities with improved ease-of-use and analytical efficiency. SYSTAT 11 continues the legacy of...

TruckStops Route Scheduling Software offers new capabilities.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... MicroAnalytics, Inc. released version 3.0 of the TruckStops Routing & Scheduling Software. The new version offers enhanced itinerary generating capabilities in addition to the ability to output route data via ODBC. These new enhancements allow...

Cotnoir Transport optimizes distribution with A.MAZE.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... GEOCOM, architect of A.MAZE, a fleet scheduling optimization and territory design solution, announced that Cotnoir Transport has selected the A.MAZE software solution to automate its distribution processes. Cotnoir operates the home delivery...

GoldSim User Conference and workshop set for Las Vegas.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The Annual International GoldSim User Conference will be held in Las Vegas on Oct. 12-13 at the Tuscany Suites & Casino. Two workshops will be held just prior to the conference that attendees may also attend at no extra cost. "Building Models...

Minitab ships Korean Release 14 for Windows.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Minitab Inc. is shipping MINITAB Korean Release 14 for Windows, a fully translated, Korean language version of MINITAB 14--the company's statistical software specially developed for quality professionals. MINITAB Korean 14 contains the same...

The psychiatrists' parable.(mental health disorders)
June 1, 2004... The cocktail party was progressing pleasantly. It was in the late 1980s, and the OR/MS analyst was just breaking into the ranks of experienced professionals--hence his inclusion in this gathering, a rather fancy evening in a large house in one...