INFORMS ANNUAL MEETING eNews DAILYOR Goes to WashingtonWashington, DC

 October 13, 2008 :: Day 2

In This Issue
Schedule Changes
Today's Weather
Today's Guest Tour
Edelman Award Winners
Tutorial Project Mindset Ken Chelst
Tutorial Health Care Linda Green
Omega Rho Karla Hoffman
Forecasting Movie Demand
Challenges Facing Data & Text Miners
Media Training: Making the Complex Less Complex
Deans' Reception
FreeTutORials CD
Tutorials Author Meet and Greet
Bookstore Inventory Sale!
Monday's Community/Subdivisions Awards
Renew Your 2009 Membership
Join a Community/Subdivision
Exhibitors Spotlight
2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting
Schedule Changes

Any schedule changes for the day will be listed here.

 
Weather in Washington DC
 
Today's Guest Tour -- Monday, October 13, 9:00am-3:00pm $65

Mount Vernon - America's Colonial Past
Go back in time for a look at the life of George and Martha Washington. The home, garden and 25 galleries and theaters depict Washington's evolution from a young man into the first U.S. president. Next, have lunch on your own at the Food Court. The afternoon includes a trip to Historic Old Town Alexandria, the famous Virginia port city along the Potomac. While in Old Town, visit the city's numerous galleries and quaint shops along historic King Street.
Note: Go to Registration Desk for additional information and to inquire about availability.

 
2009 INFORMS Election Results
 
Analytics
 
2009 Edelman Call for Papers
 
Nominations for INFORMS Prize being accepted now.
 
Save the Date! 2009 INFORMS Practice Meeting
Plaque Presented to the 2008 Edelman Award Winners
By Ari Mukherjee
Dennis Huisman and Leo KroonProfessor Leo Kroon is an OR specialist and a teacher who commutes on the same railway system in Netherlands that he helped put together a new timetable for using operations research. He and his colleague Dr. Dennis Huisman spoke in the opening plenary of the INFORMS Annual Meeting. Kroon and Huisman reprised their Franz Edelman Award-winning presentation 'The New Dutch Timetable: The O.R. Revolution.'

"It feels great to receive the award here today," said Huisman, who also works for Netherland's Department of Logistics and teaches at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. "It's an honor and it was a big surprise that we won this award," Kroon added.

The award-winning project, which was implemented in December 2006, introduced a completely new timetable for the Netherlands Railways. It was designed to facilitate further growth of passenger and freight transport on a highly utilized railway network. Kroon and Huisman's team cracked the complex puzzle of constructing a railway timetable from scratch for about 5,500 daily trains commuting at one time in the Netherlands.

edelmanIn the American context, Kroon saystold the audience that OR has not been implemented in the domain of railways for a variety of reasons.

"A lot of OR is being applied in the airline world. In America, OR has not been applied to railways like the way we did for Netherlands. In America, most of the railways are used for freight. In Holland's case, 90% of the rail is for passenger transportation and 10% is freight. The cases are not comparable," Kroon said.

The Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences calls out, recognizes, and rewards outstanding, high-impact applications of OR/MS. Each year, six to seven finalists compete in the "Super Bowl."
OR Specialist Wants to Change the Face of High School Math
By Ari Mukherjee
Dr. Kenneth ChelstDr. Kenneth Chelst's dream is to make high school math as exciting as ever. He wants to deploy a high school math course driven by OR and IE principles and applications.

"Can you imagine 10-20 percent of 2.7 million high school students graduating with OR/IE based math course?" he asked in his tutorial presentation, entitled 'Project MINDSET: High School Mathematics and Operations Research.' (MINDSET stands for Mathematics Instruction using Decision Science and Engineering Tools.)

Chelst's team has completed drafting text for one semester of the course covering deterministic decision science. They have also hired 37 high school teachers in North Carolina and Michigan for the project. By October 30, 2008, he expects a revised text for the course ready for testing.

mindsetThe top three major tasks he wants to accomplish are to:
  • create a two-semester mathematics course with an Algebra II pre-requisite that uses IE/OR to teach math;
  • train teachers and support infrastructure that would move material from the project to classroom;
  • and complete a statistically significant assessment to determine whether or not the class improves mathematics learning and attitudes.
Project MINDSET is a $3 million project funded by the National Science Foundation. Chelst is one of the project principals and also the chair of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Wayne State University. To learn more about Project MINDSET, go to http://www.mindsetproject.org.
TutORial: Using Operations Research to Reduce Delays for Health Care
By Dawen Peng
TutORials Author Linda GreenDoes Michael Moore's SiCKO do justice to the American healthcare system? Is U.S. healthcare riddled with delays? With the increasing exposure of healthcare wait time problems on TV and other media, and with healthcare being one of the central topics of political debates and strategies, what and where are the problems, and how do we deal with them? Professor Linda Green from the Columbia Business School talked about the three critical types of waits in healthcare and their impact on one another: emergency room (ER), physician appointment (or imaging tests), and nursing care waits. Her goal is to prove that there are not "too many" beds in the system, physician appointments cannot simply be 'just-in-time,' and the nurse staffing level doesn't have a one-size-fit-all solution.

healthWhen physicians aren't surprised of seeing patients suffering from heart attacks dying while waiting to get into an ER (2006 news from an Illinois emergency room), when patients leave ER without being seen due to the frustration of long, waiting hours, and when ambulances have to be diverted because the ER is full, one needs to ask why. The number one reason is a lack of inpatient beds - the bottleneck of the healthcare system, which causes the inability to move patients in ER to an inpatient unit and therefore releasing beds in the ER. So, why are there not enough beds? The answer is relatively simple. Healthcare is expensive, and when governments need to stay on budget, healthcare gets cut. Healthcare also happens to be largely funded by government subsidization, so such cuts have reduced the number of hospitals from 7,000 to 5,000 (from 1980 to now), and the number of beds available from 435 to 269 per 100,000 persons in the United States. Yet, politicians cry that there are 'too many' beds. Why, you ask? Because important decision makers are looking at occupancy level, or bed utilization ratio. For ER beds, the utilization currently resides around 66%, though the target is 85%. Utilization looks good, but it's the wrong measuring stick. Every OR person knows variability means extra capacity (more so than the average) is needed to deal with times of heavy demand with a reasonable level of customer satisfaction. Healthcare is one such process where demand varies greatly with the day of the week and the hour of the day. Aiming at and planning for averages is not going to work. Green's study showed that if New York state hospitals wanted to have less than a 10% chance of not having a bed available for up to one hour for an ER patient, then 58% of the hospitals would be too small. If they aim for a 5% chance of not having a bed available, then 74% hospitals would be too small; and if the aim were 1%, 90% hospitals would be too small. However, the good news is performance could be improved without increasing staffing levels in hospitals, as Green has shown in her work. Physician appointments and nursing care waits both contribute to the overcrowding of ERs. When physicians are asked to treat patients in a 'just-in-time' fashion, the major issue is that no one knows how to balance the physician capacity with the patient demand. When physicians have too many patients, not everybody can get seen in time, and patients cancel appointments if the wait is long. When patients cancel appointments, they also ask for another one because they still need to be seen, thus adding to the patient backlog. Studies show that the shorter a backlog is, the higher the physician's utilization will be. Green's project of recommending the right number of patients for doctors has helped over 500 clinics and organizations to find that balance of capacity and demand.

It is widely acknowledged that there is a shortage of nurses, and that the lack of nursing care is directly correlated with increasing patient safety issues (mortality included) and patient satisfaction. California has passed a legislation to ensure a 1:6 nurse-to-patient ratio for general medical/surgical wards. It is good to see these actions taking place, but is this policy more disruptive than helpful? According to Green, varying unit sizes, the level of intensity of care for differing patient types, and the length of stay (and therefore turnover of patients) at different hospitals can all mean different optimal nurse-to-patient ratios. In larger units, the California legislation could result in overstaffing at a cost of $300,000 per year per unit, says Green. That is expensive.

Overall, healthcare certainly has a lot of problems - increasing cost, quality issues, and access concerns, to name a few. Operations Research is needed in this field. It could mean a matter of life and death.
Hoffman Expostulates OR's Role in Packaged Bidding
By Ari Mukherjee
If you missed out on Karla Hoffman's Omega Rho distinguished lecture on Sunday, here are the top three thiKarla Hoffmanngs she wants you to know about "Auctions: Why they are proliferating and what you need to know to participate":
  1. Package bidding auctions are proliferating.
  2. Operations research plays a very big role in packaged bidding, also known as combinatorial auctions. While some auction designs have been successful, others have failed disastrously.
  3. OR should play a role in design options, but more importantly, government and businesses can decide what's best for them. OR also plays a crucial role in public policy and the world of commerce by helping organizations more efficient. Auctions are the tools for doing just that.
In her address, Hoffman retraced the history of auctions from the day when the whole of the Roman Empire was auctioned off to the present-day's spectacular success of eBay. She highlighted the Internet's impact on auction theory and practice and stressed the critical role that OR analysts can play in designing, running, and assisting participants in business-to-business and high-stakes government auctions.

Hoffman is a professor in the systems engineering and OR department at George Mason University. She was president of INFORMS in 1999 and her primary focus is on auction design and testing and combinatorial optimization. She is currently a consultant to the FAA on auction design for arrival and takeoff slots and has previously consulted the FCC on spectrum auctions.
Forecasting Movie Demand Decay Via Functional Models of Prediction Markets
By Dawen Peng
INFORMS Presenter Natasha FoutzWant to know what movies are going to make it or flank it at the box office? Is it going to be a hit, a fast-decaying, or a sleeper movie - that is, in terms of its box office revenue trend? Natasha Foutz, Wolfgang Jank and Gareth James have attempted to predict the revenue trend of Hollywood movies with three principle components (average/longetivty, fast decay, and sleeper effect) in conjunction with Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) trading histories. HSX is a virtual stock market of music, TV shows, and movies. The authors claim a high degree of forecasting accuracy using functional shape analysis and regression on the three principle components and early HSX trading histories for the individual 10 weeks of box office opening revenue for Hollywood movies. If you are really good at this game, you may end up selling your billion-dollar HSX portfolio on ebay. Who knows?

Box office revenues vary from movie to move, some much more profitable than others. Therefore, it is crucial to forecast movie demand decay patterns for movie financing, contracting, general planning purposes, etc. The forecast needs to be made long before the movie release, because release planning happens much more in advance, sometimes years earlier. Most movies gain the majority of its revenue in the first 10 weeks of opening; thus the model looks at the forecasting of demand decay patterns of the first 10 weeks of Hollywood movies. The use of HSX data is proven to provide more information for the revenue forecasting purposes. Virtual stock markets (VSM) are no stranger to complicated forecasting for events such as election results, NBA championship winnings, and Al Gore's winning of the  2007 Noble Prize. The results produced by VSM are accurate and impressive. For example, the political VSM was said to be 75% more accurate than political polls.

hsxFoutz, Jank, and James identified three principle components to be used alongside the trading history of HSX: average/longevity, fast decay, and sleeper. Longevity captures the average box revenue over the lifetime of the movie where the trend is relatively smooth (a linear decreasing trend of a log transformation of the revenue figures), such as Batman Begins. Fast decay captures the movies that have great openings but quickly die out, such as Anchorman. Sleeper describes the movies that have a slow start, but with word of mouth (for example), they pick up momentum in later weeks of the opening, such as Monster or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

The authors tested five different models of weekly revenue regression over a period of 10 weeks. Each model uses a combination (or the lack of) the three principle components and the trading histories from HSX. The results indicate that movies with higher levels of trading activities on HSX at the very early stage (weeks in advance) would more likely have a higher weekend box office opening revenue. How could this finding be used for more meaningful purposes than betting with your friends? For example, theatre owners could better allocate screens and profit sharing, while movie producers could design different contracts for the slow burners than the fast ones. If you are a movie buff, maybe it's time to get on the HSX for some trading fun instead of crying over the financial stock markets.
 
Panel Discussion: Challenges Facing Data & Text Miners in 2008 and Beyond
By Dawen Peng
Figure 1In the world of business intelligence (BI), data/text mining is a rising star, but it faces many challenges. Seth Grimes and John Elder presented, separately, on their experience with data/text mining on Sunday.

dataIn his presentation on Sunday, Seth Grimes spoke about the importance of having structured data in relational databases, and the need for statistical, linguistic, and structural techniques to analyze various dimensions of the raw text. He also shared with the audience some useful, open-source tools in the field of text mining.

Figure 2Grimes took the audience on a journey through traditional BI work, where data miners take raw csv (comma separated values) files, and turn them into relational databases, which then gets displayed as fancy monitoring dashboards in analytics tools - all very pretty and organized. However, most of the data that BI deals with are "unstructured" data, where information is hiding in pictures and graphs, or in documents stuffed with text. According to Grimes, 80% of enterprise information is in "unstructured" form. To process the raw text information, Grimes says it needs to be three-tiered: statistical/lexical, linguistic, and structural. Statistical techniques help cluster and classify the text for ease of search (go to http://ranks.nl). Syntactical analysis from linguistics helps with sentence structures to provide relational information between clusters of words (see Machinese on http://connexor.eu to form a sentence tree). Finally, content analysis helps to extract the right kind of data by tagging words and phrases for building relational databases and predictive models (see GATE on http://gate.ac.uk).

John Elder, Chief Scientist at Elder Research, also presented on Sunday, sharing the top 5 lessons he has learned through mistakes in data mining:
  1. Focus on training the data;
  2. Rely on technique;
  3. Listen (only) to data (not applying common sense to processing it);
  4. Accept leaks from the future;
  5. Believe your model is the best model (don't be an artist and fall in love with your art).
Figure 3In particular, Elder shared with the audience the biggest secret weapon of data mining: combining different techniques that do well in 1 or 2 categories will give much better results (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). Essentially, every bundling method improves performance. Figure 3 also illustrates the combinatorial power of methods for another example in his talk.

Data/text mining is still at early stage, and the "miners" face many challenges yet to overcome. However, given the richness of information floating around on the internet and hiding in thick binding books in the library, data/text mining could revolutionize the business intelligence field.
 
Media Training: Making the Complex Less Complex
Have you ever tried explaining your doctoral dissertation to a 13-year-old? One day, you may very well have to do just that. A rule of thumb for those addressing newspapers, television, and online media is to paraphrase your work so that the average eighth-grader can comprehend your message.

Communicating complex science to the public is not just an art but a skill, and you can learn that skill. On Monday at 11am, in Room Washington 2, Denise Graveline, who has worked with scientists at AAAS and NSF workshops, will make a one-time appearance at INFORMS to provide media training. Among the topics you will learn are:
  • How to work with INFORMS and your communications office on interviews
  • What to expect from yourself and reporters in an interview
  • Why the news media matter in public outreach
  • The reporter's job
  • Your job as the subject of an interview
  • Preparing your message before you're interviewed
  • Everyday tips for working with reporters on information calls and interviews
  • What reporters want and how you can help them get it
You will also receive important resources that you can consult after you complete this special training.

If you do any work with the media - or wish you could - this workshop will provide an opportunity to obtain training that is rarely given to operations researchers in academia or practice. Come with your questions and a willingness to learn new skills.
 
Deans' Reception
Operations research trains a professional to become a better thinker, problem solver, and educator. As more and more members of INFORMS are discovering, the field also trains you to become a better university administrator.

Dozens of operations researchers across the country are becoming deans and provosts - and even presidents - of universities large and small, in the U.S. and throughout the world. Some examples: Prof. Arjang Assad, formerly of the Robert H. Smith School at the University of Maryland just became the dean of the University of Buffalo School of Management. Also this year, James Bean, the former president of INFORMS, became Senior Vice President and Provost of the University of Oregon.

Assad, Bean, and other members of INFORMS will have a chance to gather and exchange thoughts and experiences on Monday night at 7pm in the very first INFORMS Dean's Reception, which will take place in the Harding Room on the mezzanine at the Marriott.

Are you a university administrator? If you have already RSVP'd, or if you are just learning about the program for the first time, make sure to join the reception. This will be your opportunity to meet operations researchers like you, as well as deans from local universities who will be joining INFORMS.

The reception will also give you a chance to suggest how INFORMS should turn to the deans, provosts, and presidents in our midst to advance the mission of the association and explore new ideas.

So don't be a stranger - come join your colleagues and enjoy the very good company.
 
Don't Forget to Pick Up Your Free 2008 TutORials in Operations Research CD! Bonus - Meet an Author!
Make sure you pick up your TutORials CD!Pick up your complimentary copy of the 2008 TutORials in Operations Research CD at two locations: the Registration Desk and INFORMS Booth #701 in the exhibit hall. Find the special tear-out in your printed program and bring it with you to receive your complimentary CD.

The 2008 CD - the most comprehensive yet - includes 15 of the 18 tutorials presented at the meeting. Books and additional CDs will be available for sale at the INFORMS Booth. As an added bonus, several Tutorials in OR authors will be available for meet-and-greets Sunday-Tuesday at the INFORMS Booth during session coffee breaks. A schedule for the author appearances will be available in the Sunday morning eNews Daily and at the INFORMS Booth.

Attendees must present the special 2008 Tutorials in OR tear-out from the program book to receive a free CD.
 
2008 Tutorials in Operations Research
Author Meet and Greet!
2008 TutORials in ORJoin us at the INFORMS Booth #701 today during your morning (9:30am-10am) and/or afternoon (4pm-4:30pm) coffee breaks to meet a 2008 Tutorials in Operations Research author. Engage an author in discussion about his or her chapters, view a demo, and find out more about the tutorials are presented at this year's annual meeting.
 
Monday
Gilvan C. Souza - 9:30am-10am
Zan Huang - 4pm-4:30pm
 
Tuesday
Arnold Barnett - 9:30am-10am
Stan Uryasev - 4pm-4:30pm
INFORMS Booth/Bookstore and Inventory Sale!
Visit the INFORMS Bookstore.
Stop by the INFORMS Bookstore for savings on print and electronic products. The bookstore is located at the INFORMS booth #702. Attendees will receive a 50% discount off select book titles available while supplies last. Plus pick up your complimentary TutORials in OR CD and Edelman DVD, purchase recently published books, and the INFORMS PubsOnLine Suite (all 12 journals online) for just $99. Staff members will be available to assist you with your purchase. Save on shipping and handling when you purchase a book or CD on site. We accept cash, checks, and the following major credit cards: Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.  
Monday's Community/Subdivisions Awards - Come Show Your Support!
Behavioral Process Management Section

Annual Domain Service Award

This award recognizes an individual who has contributed the most to the institutional development of the section or other organizational structures related to the section. The award consists of a plaque listing the name of the award winner and the award winner's affiliations.
Winner: Karen Donohue

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 7:15pm, Behavioral Process Management Business Meeting, Marriott, Taylor
 
Computing Society

INFORMS Computing Society Prize
The ICS Prize is an annual award for best English language paper on the OR/CS interface. The award includes a plaque and a $1,000 cash prize.
Winners: R. Day and S. Raghavan
 
INFORMS Computing Society Student Paper Award
The ICS Student Paper Award is given annually to the best paper on computing and operations research by a student author, as judged by a panel of the ICS. The award includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Winner: Guanghui Lan

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 6:45pm, Computing Society Business Meeting, Marriott, Lincoln 6
 
Decision Analysis Society
Publication Award
This award is given annually to the best decision analysis article or book published in the second preceding calendar year, as judged by a panel of Society members. The award includes a plaque and a $750 cash prize.
Winners: Louis Eeckhoudt and Harris Schlesinger


Student Paper Competition Award
This award is given annually to the best decision analysis paper by a student author, as judged by a panel of Society members. Student papers need not be sole-authored or firstauthored. This award includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Winner: Jagpreet Chhatwal

Frank P. Ramsey Medal
The Frank P. Ramsey Medal is the highest award of the DAS. It was created to recognize distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis. The medal is named in honor of Frank Plumpton Ramsey, a Cambridge University mathematician who was one of the pioneers of decision theory in the 20th century. The Ramsey Medalists are recognized for having made substantial further contributions to that theory and its application to important classes of real decision problems. The medal is accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize.
Winner: James. E. Smith

Presented: October 13th, 4:30-6:00pm, Decision Analysis Awards Session
(see program for location)
 
Health Applications Section

Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Health Services
Created in 2002 to honor the work and commitment of Seth Bonder. The purpose of the Bonder Scholarship in Health Care is to promote the development and application of process modeling and operations research analyses to health care design, delivery and operations. The tenure of the award is one year. The scholarship provides funding of $5,000 to support the development of highly qualified individuals and promote the interchange of health services research knowledge in conjunction with INFORMS. The Bonder Scholarship consists of a grant of $4,000, which is intended to provide financial support for a promising young researcher. In addition, the award winner will be eligible for up to $1,000 of travel funding to support their participation in Health Application Section activities at the annual INFORMS conference. INFORMS will waive registration fees for the awardees.
Winner: Minsun Kim, University of Washington

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 6:15pm, Health Applications Business Meeting, Marriott, Thurgood Marshall West

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Society

Distinguished Service Award

The MSOM Distinguished Service Award was created to recognize individuals whose distinguished service to MSOM has helped to advance significantly the goals and objectives of the Section.
Winner: Gerard P. Cachon

Best Paper Award
The Best Paper Award recognizes the one paper, published in one of the prior three volumes of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM), as most deserving for its contribution to the theory and practice of operations management. The recipient of the award is announced in M&SOM and is accompanied by a $2,000 honorarium.
Winners: Sridhar Seshadri and Vishal Gaur

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 6:15pm, MSOM Business Meeting, Marriott, Salon 3

Distinguished Fellow Award
The Distinguished Fellow Award recognizes outstanding research and scholarship in operations management. Election as an MSOM Fellow should be considered a rare distinction, comparable with membership in Omega Rho.
Winners: Sven Axs�ter, J. Michael Harrison, and John A. Muckstadt

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 11:00am, MSOM Fellows Presentation Session, (see program for location)

Military Applications Society

2007 Koopman Prize
This Prize was named after Bernard Koopman, a founding father of military operations research. It is awarded for the outstanding publication in military operations research of the previous year. The award includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Winners: Ravindra K. Ahuja, Arvind Kumar, Krishna C. Jha, and James B. Orlin

Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Military Applications
Created in 2002 to honor the work and commitment of Seth Bonder. The purpose of the Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Military Applications is to promote the development and application of process modeling and operations research analyses to military issues. The scholarship provides funding of $5,000 to support the development of highly qualified individuals and promote the interchange of military OR research knowledge in conjunction with INFORMS. The Bonder Scholarship consists of a grant of $4,000 that is intended to provide financial support for a promising young researcher. In addition, the award winner will be eligible for up to $1,000 of travel funding to support their participation in Military Application Section activities at the annual INFORMS conference. INFORMS will waive registration fees for awardees. The tenure of the award is one year.
Winner: Irina S. Dolinskaya, University of Michigan

Presented: Monday, October 13th, Military Applications Business Meeting, 6:15pm, Marriott,Washington 4

Technology Management Section

Best Dissertation Award
The Technology Management Section recognizes the best doctoral dissertation in the field of technology and innovation management in terms of furthering the field and making a theoretical and practical contribution. The award includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Winner: Andrew Nelson

Distinguished Speaker Award
TMS presents its distinguished speaker award to an outstanding academic leader in the field of technology management. The award is presented every year during the annual fall academic meeting and includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
Winner: Carliss Baldwin

Presented: Monday, October 13th, 6:00pm, Technology Management Business Meeting, Marriott, Coolidge
Renew Your 2009 Membership at Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting is the perfect time for you to renew your 2009 membership with INFORMS. Stop by the INFORMS Booth #700 in the exhibit hall where you can renew online or fill out a renewal form. We'll make your membership transaction as fast and easy as possible.

You know how important participating in the Annual Meeting is to your career. The Annual Meeting is just one of the many benefits that your membership dues help support. Others include:
  • Discounts of up to 60% on individual publications
  • Suite of all 12 INFORMS journals at the reduced rate of $99 for regular members and $50 for students
  • An online Membership Directory that provides real-time contact information for all your fellow members
  • Access to over 100 INFORMS Communities including Societies, Subdivisions, and geographic and student Chapters
  • Educational material that you can use to enrich the OR classroom
  • A Job Placement Service that provides first word of opportunities in OR
We want you to come along on the journey with us. Stop by the INFORMS Booth Sunday - Tuesday during the Annual Meeting to reserve your place.
 
Increase the Value of Your Membership - Join a Community/Subdivision
One of the most important benefits of an INFORMS membership is the ability to network with and learn from a community of your peers. There is no better way to do that than to join an INFORMS Subdivision (or to add additional ones!) We've made joining or adding Subdivisions very easy at the Annual Meeting. Just stop by the Subdivisions section of the Registration Desk Saturday - Wednesday or the INFORMS booth in the exhibition hall Sunday - Tuesday where representatives will help you decide on the Subdivision that best matches your interests. Indeed, INFORMS has Subdivisions that span the breadth of the OR/MS profession. Most are very inexpensive and feature newsletters, list serves, discussion boards, and intimate meetings.

Today's Community/Subdivision Business Meetings
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13
Decision Analysis Society M - Lincoln 3, Exhibit Level 6:00pm-7:15pm
Technology Management M - Coolidge,Mezzanine Level 6:00pm-8:00pm
Applied Probability M - Lincoln 5, Exhibit Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Financial Services M - N.Hale,Wardman Twr, Lobby Lev. 6:15pm-7:15pm
Health Applications M - Marshall West,Mezzanine Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Manufacturing & Service Operations Mgt M - Marriott Ballroom 1, Lobby Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Military Applications Society M - Washington 4, Exhibit Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Public Programs & Processes M - Taft,Mezzanine Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Quality, Statistics & Reliability M - Maryland C, Lobby Level 6:15pm-7:15pm
Spreadsheet Productivity Research O - Cabinet Room 6:15pm-7:15pm
Transportation Science & Logistics O - Blue Room 6:15pm-7:15pm
Computing Society M - Lincoln 6, Exhibit Level 6:45pm-7:45pm
Behavioral Process Management M - Taylor,Mezzanine Level 7:15pm-8:15pm
 
M = Marriott Wardman Park      O=Omni Shoreham
 
Exhibitors Spotlight
INFORMS Annual Meeting is always enriched by the presence of our fine exhibitors and their innovative software products and technical reference materials. Please visit the exhibition hall Sunday 12pm-5pm and 7:30-9:00pm, Monday 9am-5pm, and Tuesday 9am-5pm to preview their offerings and make contacts that will serve you well.

AIMMS (booth #307) will present its optimization modeling package.

AMPL Optimization LLC (booth #406) develops and supports the AMPL modeling language, and distributes large-scale solvers and modeling tools including.

Aplia (booth #500) Aplia's online homework solution ensures students practice and learn statistics outside the classroom.

Aptech Systems, Inc. (booth #309) The GAUSS Mathematical and Statistical System is a fast matrix programming language widely used for solving mathematical and statistical problems.

COIN-OR (booth #504) Visit the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research booth to learn about free, open-source tools for OR professionals and students.

Dynamic Ideas (booth #503) will present its books on applied mathematics and operations research in its booth.

Elsevier (booth #206) publishes leading, high impact OR journals including Journal of Operations Management, Omega, Computers & Operations Research, Decision Support Systems and the European Journal of Operational Research.

Fair Isaac (booth #303) Fair Isaac Corporation's solutions include decision management applications for multiple industries, including the leading systems for credit card fraud and credit card customer management.

Frontline Systems, Inc. (booth #301) Get a first look at easier-than-ever ways to build models, analyze risks, and allocate resources optimally using advanced robust optimization and simulation software technology.

GAMS Development Corp. (booth #208) The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is a high-level modeling system for mathematical programming and optimization.

ILOG, Inc. (booth #606-607) ILOG OPL-CPLEX Development System is the most advanced optimization development package for solving the most challenging optimization problems in business or research.

Imagine That, Inc. (booth #201) Accessible, robust and intuitive, ExtendSim continues to set new standards for simulation software in educational and professional settings.

INFORMS (booth #700-702) Visit the booth to talk to INFORMS staff about our journals, membership benefits and services, continuing education, communities and networking opportunities.

INFORMS Future Meetings (booth #501) Come to the booth for a preview of our future meetings.

Innovative Scheduling, Inc. (booth #407) builds custom decision support systems to solve planning and scheduling problems in the field of logistics, distribution, and transportation. 

JMP Division - SAS Institute (booth #601) JMP, a division of SAS Institute, develops JMP� software, which brings comprehensive data analysis to the desktop, empowering users to interactively explore, visualize, and understand their data.

LINDO Systems, Inc. (booth #103) will highlight recent enhancements to its optimization modeling software including updates to the linear, integer, and global solvers.

LINKS-simulations.com (booth #603) markets 14 large-scale, competitive, web-based educational simulations for academic courses and corporate ExecEd programs.

Lumina Decision Systems, Inc. (booth #400) Experienced analysts prefer Analytica to spreadsheets because of its intuitive visual influence diagrams, Intelligent Arrays for managing multiple dimensions, fast Monte Carlo for risk and uncertainty, and scalability to handle large problems.

Maximal Software, Inc. (booth #401) is the developer of MPL Modeling System, an advanced modeling language for formulating optimization models.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin (booth #105) is a premier publisher in operations management and decision sciences with leading textbooks and technology for introductory operations management, supply chain management, manufacturing planning and control, service operations, project management and simulation.

Now Publishers, Inc. (booth #402) and its Foundations and Trends journals publish state-of-the-art review articles in business, information, and technology written by leading researchers in the field.

OptiRisk Systems (booth #404) is a UK-based company with a global reach providing optimization and risk analysis training and solutions.

Palgrave Macmillan (booth #408) is a leading publisher of journals in OR/MS, including IAOR (in connection with IFORS) and the prestigious journal portfolio of The Operational Research Society.

Palisade Corporation (booth #409) is a leading global provider of risk management, decision analysis, optimization, and statistical analysis software.

Responsive Learning Technologies (booth #108) Excite and engage your operations and supply chain management students with our award-winning, and competitive web-based games.

River Logic (booth #403) River Logic's Integrated Business Planning software, Enterprise Optimizer� (EO), helps companies increase financial performance by connecting strategic and operational planning directly to financial outcomes.

Salford Systems (booth #102) develops advanced statistical and data mining software, including the CART� decision tree, MARS� non-linear automated regression, TreeNet� boosted decision trees and Random Forests�.

SAS Institute Inc. (booth #602) provides core operations research methods - including optimization, simulation and scheduling - integrated with these critical capabilities.

SAS Higher Education Consulting (booth #600) SAS is the market leader in providing business intelligence software and services. SAS Higher Education Consulting supports the use of SAS at higher education institutions.

SIAM (booth #306) Check out our new publications, including titles in the MPS-SIAM Series on Optimization and other recently published and best selling SIAM books, all available at a conference discount.

South-Western Cengage Learning (booth #200, 202) strives to provide you the material needed to make decision sciences relevant and interesting to your students as they prepare for the world of work.

Springer (booth #107, 109) is one of the largest scientific publishing companies in the world, with a portfolio of 4,000 new books per year and more than 1,200 journals.

statistics.com (booth #203) offers the most comprehensive data mining package in Excel (data partitioning, classification and prediction with neural nets, trees, na�ve bayes, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbor, clustering, principal components and association rules, and more).

StatPoint Technologies, Inc. (booth #508) offers groundbreaking advances. Fortune 1000 companies worldwide use STATGRAPHICS� to graphically visualize and uncover meaning in their data.

Syncopation Software, Inc. (booth #605) is a leading provider of business analytic tools for decision analysis, risk analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and real option valuation.

Taylor & Francis Group LLC-CRC Press (booth #207, 209) is a premier publisher of books, journals and electronic databases on operations research and management. Special convention discounts ranging from 15-25% off will be offered.

TranSystems (booth #106) provides best-of-breed architects, engineers, management and supply chain consulting, simulation modeling and facility design under one roof.

University of Virginia (booth #205) Accelerated Masters Program in Systems Engineering enables technical professionals to earn their degrees in one year while continuing to work full-time.

Wiley-Blackwell (booth #302), the scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, is the world's leading society publisher.

XJ Technologies (booth #308) is a leading provider of dynamic simulation tools, technologies and consulting services for business applications.

Ziena Optimization, Inc. (booth #300) KNITRO� Nonlinear Solver introduces its newest interface to MATLAB� R2008a. KNITRO is designed for solving the most difficult large-scale optimization problems.

Thank you to our exhibitors.
Enjoy your time at the 2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting, if there is anything we can do to make your experience better, please stop by the INFORMS booth or the Registration Desk or email [email protected].