Operations Research

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Message from the President – Katie McConky

Greetings OR Division Members,

It was great seeing many of you at the Annual Conference in Orlando this year. As the new President of the OR Division, I would first like to thank our hardworking volunteers, especially our outgoing board members Lizhi Wang (Iowa State University), Hugh Medal (University of Tennessee), and our current Past President Scott Grasman (Kettering University). We need hardworking dedicated volunteers like these to keep this division strong, so I would like to encourage you all to get involved. Please contact me if you would like to inquire about volunteer opportunities which can include competition judging, developing webinar content, providing newsletter content to much larger roles depending on your available time.

This past year we successfully ran two competitions that culminated in line with the Annual Conference including the OR Division Teaching Excellence Award and the OR Division Undergraduate Student Research Dissemination Award. The winners of these competitions are announced in this newsletter. Next year we will continue to hold these competitions, but I hope to do more. So please stay tuned as I hope to make this division more active and valuable to its members in the year to come.

New board members

The OR Division Board fills three positions each year. This year we are welcoming Thomas Sharkey (Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute) and Mohammad Marfuzzaman (Mississippi State University) to the OR Division Board, and re-welcoming Katie McConky (Rochester Institute of Technology). Katie will serve as President 2019 - 2021. Thomas and Mohammad are the new incoming directors. Many thanks to Lizhi Wang, Hugh Medal and Scott Grasman, our outgoing members of the board, for their service to the division.

Award for Excellence in Teaching of Operations Research 2019

Our Excellence in Teaching of Operations Research Award is presented annually at the IISE Annual Conference to recognize exceptional teaching in the area of Operations Research. Candidates for the award must be nominated by a faculty colleague or student who has taken classes with the candidate.

Congratulations to this year’s winner: Rusty King – North Carolina State University.

IISE OR Division Undergraduate Student Research Dissemination Award

GOAL: The goal of this award is to recognize scholarly work as well as ability to effectively communicate results from an undergraduate student or student team.

ELIGIBILITY: The first author of the paper must be a full-time undergraduate student at the time of submission. The paper must present original research conducted while the applicant was a student.

PROCESS: The winner is decided based both on their written paper and their oral presentation. Finalists are selected before ISERC, but the winner is determined at ISERC.

PRIZES: All finalists received cash prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place in the amounts of $400, $200, and $100 respectively!

SPONSORS: This year the award was jointly sponsored by the University of Arkansas and Rochester Institute of Technology.

VOLUNTEER JUDGES: Many thanks to this year’s judges: Omar Aponte, Vishnunarayan Girishan Prabhu, and Zhijie (Sasha) Dong.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2019 STUDENT WINNERS!

1^st Place: Expected Travel Distance Models for Retail Store Order Fulfillment, Ning Zhang – Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Advisor – Jennifer Pazour

2^nd Place: Interactive Optimization Tool for Medical Supply Distribution, Thanika Painruttanusukho – University of Washington, Advisor – Zelda Zabinsky

3^rd Place: Location Allocation of Autonomous Vehicle Stations in Frisco, TX, Tyce Kissling, Texas A&M University – Commerce, Advisor – Sojung Kim

Webinars

Did you miss any OR Webinars? You can still enjoy past webinars by navigating to Training, Webinars, Webinar Archive, Operations or going there directly from here.

About the Operations Research Division

Members apply mathematics and sophisticated computer programs to solve engineering problems. Some members work in areas such as forecasting, statistical analysis and simulation.
The mission of the division shall be to support its members by fostering networks, offering programs and maintaining resources that represent their core competencies and/or areas of specialized practice.