2009 INFORMS Annual Meeting Daily eNews
October 13, 2009 :: Day 3
Today's Key Events

Plenaries and Keynotes
10-10:50am
Irwin Mark Jacobs, Qualcomm, "Informing the Globe with Wireless: Opportunities for Innovation and Impact," Hilton Sapphire I, 4th floor
3:10-4pm
Thomas L. Magnanti, MIT, "Globalization and the Residential University," Hilton Sapphire I, 4th floor
3:10-4pm
John D. Sterman, MIT, "A Banquet of Consequences: Adventures in Climate Policy Modeling," Hilton Sapphire M, 4th floor

Daniel H. Wagner Winner Announcement and Reprise

Excellence in Operations Research Practice
8-9:30am, Hilton Sapphire P, 4th floor
Allen Butler, Wagner Prize Cluster Chair, and President, Daniel H. Wagner Associates, presents the winner.

Interactive Session
12:30-1:30pm, Convention Center, Exhibit Hall H
Students, researchers, and practitioners share projects via poster displays, laptop demonstrations, and other creative formats. A first place award of $750 will be presented today.
 
Tutorials
8-9:30am, 11am-12:30pm, 1:30-3pm, and 4:30-6pm
Hilton room 310
Enduring educational information from the Annual Meeting.
 
Grassroots PR: Leverage Your Accomplishments and Make Headlines in Your Local News
8-9am, Hilton Indigo A, 2nd floor
Barry List, INFORMS Director of Communications


Exhibits Open
9am-5pm, Convention Center, Exhibit Hall H
Be sure to visit the Exhibit Hall today. Forty exhibitors will be on hand to share their expertise and services. You can win a Kindle - visit the Exhibit Hall for details. Two Kindles will be awarded today at 4:15pm. You must be present to win. Sunday's Kindle winners were Tony Ng and George Hylden. Monday's Kindle winners were Suneel Bhasker and Feng Lin. Will it be you today?

Job Placement Service Open
9am-5pm, Convention Center, Exhibit Hall H
Employers and job seekers meet in an informal atmosphere.

San Diego Area Math Teacher Workshop
8:15am-3pm and 4:30-7:30pm
San Dieguito High School Academy, Encinitas, CA

O.R. Practice in INFORMS Roundtable Companies
11am -12:30pm, Hilton room 206
Operations Research at SAS, GE, and Intel.

Community Business Meetings
Don't miss your Community Business Meeting. Communities are the lifeblood of INFORMS.

CPMS Council7-8:30am Hilton Indigo B
Women in OR/MS Lunch12:30-1:30pm Hilton Indigo G
SpORts 6-7pm Hilton room 300

 
Join Us for the General Reception at SeaWorld!

Join INFORMS at Sea WorldCome celebrate the wonders of the sea at SeaWorld San Diego. Some of the park's most popular attractions will be open to us for this exclusive event.
Buses depart beginning at 6:30pm; the last bus departs at 7pm.

Delectable salads, barbecue, fajitas (including vegetarian options), and dessert are among the menu choices. Nonalcoholic beverages are complimentary; a cash bar will be available for other beverages.

Depart for SeaWorld:
Hilton: To the Promenade East Foyer on the ground level: Take the escalator down from the lobby level (front desk side) to the Promenade East Foyer.
Marriott Gaslamp Quarter and Hotel Solamar: There are two pickup locations. From the Marriott: Meet outside the front entrance. From the Solamar: Exit hotel and walk left to the corner of 6th & J streets.
Embassy Suites: To Pacific Avenue: Exit hotel and walk right.

Trip: The drive to SeaWorld is about 30 minutes.

Return from SeaWorld:
8:30pm If you wish to return early (before the Shamu show), buses will depart SeaWorld for the three hotel locations at 8:30pm. Note: 8:30pm is the ONLY early departure time. After the 8:30 buses depart, there will be no buses running until 9:40pm.

9:40pm At the conclusion of the Shamu show, buses will depart for the three hotel locations. Look for signs indicating the location you wish to return to. The last bus will leave SeaWorld at 10pm.

Community Awards to be Presented on Tuesday

Moving Spirit Award
The Moving Spirit Award recognizes chapter volunteers who have made significant contributions to their local chapters.

Award Winners: Russell Wooten (WINFORMS Chapter), Jose Zayas-Castro (University of South Florida Student Chapter)

Moving Spirit for Fora
The Moving Spirit Award for Fora recognizes outstanding forum volunteers who have been "moving spirits" in their forum.

Award Winners: Ana Muriel (Women in OR/MS), Gal Raz (Junior Faculty Interest Group)

Judith Liebman Award
The Judith Liebman Award recognizes outstanding student volunteers who have been "moving spirits" in their universities, their student chapters, and the Institute.

Award Winners: Wilkistar Otieno (University of South Florida Student Chapter), Qiang "Patrick" Qiang (University of Massachusetts-Amherst Student Chapter), Panitan Kewcharoenwong (Texas A&M University Student Chapter)

Student Chapter Annual Award
The Student Chapter Annual Award recognizes performance and achievements of student chapters.

Award Winners:
Summa Cum Laude: Texas A&M University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Magna Cum Laude: North Carolina State University, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of South Florida
Cum Laude: Arizona State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of California-Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Virginia


Presented Tuesday, October 13, 7am, Chapter/Fora Officers Breakfast, Hilton Indigo D

Community Awards Presented on Sunday
Congratulations to all of the winners!
 
Aviation Applications Section
Dissertation Award
This prize is awarded for the best dissertation in any area related to aviation OR (air traffic management OR and airline OR). The award includes a plaque and a $500 cash prize.

Award Winner: Gizem Keysan

Forum on Education (INFORM-ED)
Case Competition Award
The purpose of this annual competition is to encourage the creation, dissemination, and classroom use of new cases in operations research and the management sciences. The recipient of the first place prize shall receive a $500 cash prize. There will also be up to three runners-up who shall receive a $100 cash prize.

Award Winner: Susan Martonosi
Runners-Up: Jessica Heier Samm, Greg Zaric

Revenue Management & Pricing Section
Section Prize
The INFORMS Revenue Management & Pricing Section Prize is awarded for the best contribution to the science of pricing and revenue management published in English. The prize includes a certificate and cash award.

Award Winners: Xin Chen, David Simchi-Levi
 
Historical Prize
The INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize for Historical Works was created to recognize critical contributions to the science of pricing and revenue management published in English prior to 1999. The prize includes a certificate and a cash award.

Award Winner: Gabriel R. Bitran
INFORMS Awards Presented on Sunday
Congratulations to the winners! 

Doing Good with Good OR Student Competition
First Place: David Hutton
Honorable Mentions: Diana Nogoescu, Peter Frazier, Faramroze Engineer
Finalists: Rachel Bullene, Murat Kurt, Toni Sorrell, James Springer, Charles Stewart, Yasser Tanvir


Go Green!

When you are finished with your program book, please return it to the INFORMS Registration Desk, and we will recycle it for you. Thank you.


SpORts Business Meeting Hosts Padres Analyst

San Diego PadresWant to learn more about the role OR/MS plays in America's favorite pastime? Chris Long, Senior Quantitative Analyst for the San Diego Padres, will be speaking at the SpORts Subdivision Community Business Meeting on Tuesday in Hilton room 300, from 6-7pm. See you there!


COIN-OR Cup Celebration

The 2009 COIN-OR Cup has been awarded to a team from Queens University and Cornell University: Yuri Levin, Tatsiana Levina, Jeff McGill, Mikhail Nediak and Huseyin Topaloglu. These researchers have applied various COIN-OR technologies to their research on techniques for cargo capacity management and dynamic pricing applications. The winners were announced at a celebration Monday night that was hosted by IBM. COIN-OR Cup is a light-hearted celebration of the application of COIN-OR technologies; the winners were awarded touristy San Diego mugs, and there was much rejoicing, while drinking Rock Bottom microbrews.


Optimal Pricing with Speculators and Strategic Consumers
by Yichuan Ding

Xuanming SuIf you are a soccer fan, have you ever experienced the dilemma of affording an unexpectedly expensive ticket to catch a match? If you play electronic games, did you spend hours in the queue for a Nintendo Wii when it was first launched on the market? In Monday's supply chain session, Professor Xuanming Su of Haas Operations and Information Technology Management Group at UC Berkeley concluded that there are three common features of the two phenomena mentioned above: scarcity of supply, a market with alternative channels, and rational speculators.

In the view of Su, the price of scarce goods tends to be volatile because of the existence of speculators, who buy goods purely for resale. Su considered a market composed of firms, speculators, and strategic and nonstrategic buyers, and modeled their behavior in reverse-chronological order based on mild assumptions. In his model, the firm first sells a fixed amount of goods in the primary market to both the strategic customers and speculators; later in the resale market, the speculator and the firm sell the rest tickets to an uncertain number of customers. An analysis of the subgame perfect equilibrium shows that as number of speculators decreases, the primary market price decreases, whereas the resale market increases.

His model also leads to interesting managerial implications. The seller can price speculators out of the market but may choose to underprice and accommodate them. The benefits of accommodating rhe speculator to the firms include an increase of the speculative demand and definite revenue upfront, together with a lower risk that has partly been transferred to speculators. However, the speculator may bring in more competition and reduce the primary market price.

In Su's opinion, the resale mechanisms, the emergence of strategic speculator, and the increased competition from speculators faced by firms are all new elements and deserve further investigation by the supply chain community.
 
Better Smarter Electricity Markets: Efficiently Capturing Wind, Rain and Fire
by Jessica Ng

Richard O'NeillSmart market ideas and technology continue to introduce huge opportunities for improving energy efficiency and cost savings. Imagine your refrigerator embedded with a chip that detects a frequency excursion and responds to that excursion by shutting itself down and starting itself up quickly, thereby allowing the refrigerate to "intelligently" decide when to use energy and at what price. Now imagine that your dishwasher operates in a similar manner - set only to turn on at certain time of night, when energy prices are significantly lower. Picture your hybrid vehicle plugged into a wireless network that logs into an Independent System Operator (ISO) that helps it "decide" when to charge based on the current market prices. The energy-saving and financial impacts of the developing smart market are tremendous.

Richard P. O'Neill, Chief Economic Advisor of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, suggested that the name "smart market" should actually be "smarter markets," explaining that current technology is already smart, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. In fact, generators, transmission lines, communication systems, software, and hardware are all going to get smarter. The dynamic energy market proposes the need to develop a model that harmonizes smart market appliances and the demand for a more flexible energy grid. There is a growing need to improve the current ISO Market Design to use smarter hardware to allow for better transmission rates and better approximations to generate better efficiency. In recent years, many ISOs have switched to using mixed integer programming (MIP) as a better tool for modeling start-up and shutdown, nonconvexities, transmission switching, and investment decisions. While improvements to MIP have helped decrease computation time, the algorithms are inflexible to the onset of developing energy sources, such as wind energy. With the need for a more robust large-scale stochastic MIP comes the need for a good paradigm for transmission investment. The increasing focus on software and optimization provides huge possibilities for work in this area, especially for OR/MS scientists.
 
Supply Chain Risk Management
by Yichuan Ding

Christopher TangThe goal of Monday's keynote speech given by Professor Christopher S. Tang of the UCLA Anderson School of Management was to remind the supply chain community of a subject that has not received enough attention: supply chain risk management (SCRM).

SCRM is especially deserving of more attention because in today's world, local incident events can result in global impact more quickly. In addition, a recent survey indicates that company executives are increasingly concerned. However, few concrete efforts have been made toward reducing the risk. Tang argues that the possible reasons include underestimating the risk, ignoring disruptions that rarely occur, and failing to perform risk reduction research.

Next, Tang named several examples to illustrate how SCRM has been overlooked. There are only 785 SCRM research articles from Google, compared with 16,000 supply chain management articles. By reviewing the benchmark papers, Tang concludes that there are three gaps in the current literature of SCRM: (1) no consensus definition of SCRM, (2) a lack of study in response to risks, and (3) a lack of empirical research. He thinks the three gaps, together with the increasing importance of SCRM, make it an exciting area for mutual learning between practitioners and academics.

Tang distributed questionnaires during his speech, asking the audience to share their opinions toward SCRM. He expects to see a change in the attitude of the populous toward SCRM. As he said enthusiastically, "SCRM is a new area that company executives care about, a new area of practice for many consulting firms, and a new area of research that is not well understood!"
 
Decentralized Pricing and Alliances in Revenue Management
by Seda Tepe

Imagine you are booking a ticket for a conference at a city in the northern United States. What you would probably do first is to go online and search for flights from your city to that northern city. Most likely, there will be some dominating airline companies having flights to various cities originating from your city, but finding a direct flight to a selected destination is not always possible. Southwest Airlines, for instance, dominates the south-to-south flights but does not have that many flights to the northern cities. Sometimes, it may not be possible to find a flight just using that specific airline to fly to the destination city, even when you prefer two or more stops. What airline companies do in such cases is collaborating. This session, in a broad view, is about airline collaborations and revenue management.

Xing Hu, the first speaker in this session, gave a talk on airline alliance collaboration and operation. This study focuses on contractual agreements between airlines operating together. Hu proposes methods to split revenue between alliance partners. In this study both the static and dynamic models are considered, and the static transfer prices are proven to be asymptotically optimal.

The second speaker, Sandra Transchel, uses a deterministic linear programming model as an approximation for the network revenue management problem. The transfer prices are found for the centralized system and compared with the decentralized system equilibrium strategies used by the airlines.

Lori Houghtalen concentrates on the revenue sharing problem of carrier alliances. She proposes algorithms to fairly allocate the revenue between alliance partners. When the revenue is shared equally, the overall alliance revenue is higher. However, when the value of a carrier is taken into account, the resources are used more efficiently.

Andrew Lim analyzes the resource allocation problem in a broader sense. He first undertook the pricing and service agents' problems separately---what he calls the "na�ve decentralization" and which was not system optimal. Next, Lim examined the pricing and service agents' problems under collaboration as well as the centralized problem. In the pricing agent's problem, the demand function is known but the cost function is not known necessarily. On the contrary, the service agent does not know the demand function. In this study, centralized optimal is computed under a lack of information sharing.
Edelman Finalists Reprise - I
by Jessica Ng

Decision Engineering at Intel Corporation (The 2009 INFORMS Prize Winner)
Intel's internal Decision Engineering Group is credited with saving the company over $4 billion. This small support group (consisting of 6 to 12 members) has helped to define and successfully improve on the processes of Intel's Enterprise. Using OR/MS principles, the Decision Making Group has helped improve efficiency within Intel's core functions: manufacturing, supply chain, material purchasing, sales and marketing, and product development. In reflecting on the Group's successes, Karl Kempf of the Decision Engineering Group noted several key "lessons learned." He stressed the importance of defining the problem, learning how to use the current approach, and, most importantly, learning the current metrics. After fully understanding the problem and in developing a solution, it is better to work incrementally, building on a simple initial "solution" (which may not be always OR). In developing the actual tool, it is important to work hard on the graphical user interface, because that is the only thing that the customers see. Kempf also emphasized building effective relationships with not only the customer but within the team. These simple tips have proven quite effective in the success of the Decision Engineering Group.

Zara Uses Operations Research to Reenginer Its Global Distribution Process
Jeremie Gallien of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Felipe Caro of UCLA's Anderson School of Management have developed a sophisticated operations research model that has helped significantly improve Zara's sales by 3%-4%, corresponding to approximately $233 million and $353 million in additional revenues for 2007 and 2008, respectively. Zara follows a fast-fashion business model - changing inventory within each of its 1,500 stories twice a week. This model poses a complicated distribution problem. Gallien and Caro replaced Zara's legacy manual process by implementing an OR model that maximizes the total expected sales across the network. The model also incorporates a stochastic store display model that utilizes a "size display policy" that calls for the removal of clothing items that have stocked out of main sizes. Interestingly, this policy has helped mitigate the frustration felt by retailers who have customers that have committed to a garment and cannot find their particular size. This is one of the first applications of OR to the fast-fashion industry and one of the first described implementations of an inventory distribution model that specifically captures the dependencies introduced by a store inventory display model.
 
HP Transforms Product Portfolio Management with Operations Research
by Seda Tepe

2009 Franz Edelman Winners,HPHewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest technology company, has won the 2009 Franz Edelman Award for its successful product variety management initiatives among six strong finalists. Their project includes the Revenue Coverage Optimization (RCO) software algorithm, developed by HP Labs, and the company's complexity return on investment (ROI) calculators, developed by HP's Strategic Planning and Modeling Team. One of today's keynote sessions was on this innovative project.

HP has a large and diverse product portfolio that needs special care to be successfully managed. The RCO software algorithm that HP OR team developed aids managing the current product portfolio efficiently, and the ROI calculators help HP to assess the effect of offering new products by successfully evaluating the return on investments. The two tools have been used to simplify HP's product offerings for the customers and to advance HP's focus on its key products.

HP implemented the RCO algorithm to rank its personal systems' group product offerings based on the relationship between products and orders. They classified the products into two groups. The "core offering" is composed of the most critical products in each region, which includes approximately 30% of the ranked product portfolio. The rest of the products are classified as "extended offerings." Based on the findings of this project, HP adjusted its service level for the products in these categories. They started to stock the core offering products in higher inventory levels. Moreover, the lead times are shortened for these products. On the other hand, extended offering product inventories are reduced and longer lead times are allowed for these products.

This application led to more than $500 million savings and $180 million ongoing annual savings as well as higher margins and improved service to customers. HP also had significant order fulfillment improvements. In this study, HP used OR as a tool for operational efficiency, risk management, and resource planning. This award-winning project is a fantastic example of OR being the "science of better."
Free -- 2009 TutORials in Operations Research CD!

2009 TutORials in OR CDPick up your copy of the 2009 TutORials in Operations Research CD at two locations: the Registration Desk and INFORMS Booth #41 in the Exhibit Hall. Find the coupon for the free CD enclosed in your registration envelope.
 
Attendees must present the special 2009 TutORials CD coupon to receive their free CD.
FREE Internet at Convention Center

Tues, 9am-5pm, Wed, 9am-3pm
Free wireless Internet and the Email Center are located in the Convention Center, Exhibit Hall H, at the back of the hall. There are a limited number of computers available. Your name badge must be worn for admittance. There is no complimentary wireless available in the Hilton.
Blog of the Day

Erika Klampfl highlights the Interactive Sessions in her blog post on Monday.
2009 INFORMS Fellows Inducted on Monday

Eleven new INFORMS Fellows were inducted at the Fellows Luncheon on Monday, October 12.
Congratulations to the new Fellows:

Aharon Ben-Tal
Srinivas Bollapragada
Margaret L. Brandeau
Awi Federgruen
Nimrod Megiddo
David B. Montgomery
Michael Pinedo
Kathryn E. Stecke
John A. Tomlin
Garrett J. van Ryzin
C. F. Jeff Wu

The Fellow Award is reserved for distinguished individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in OR/MS.
Engage with Online Tools at the Annual Meeting

Blogs
Go to the Annual Meeting website during the meeting for commentary from your friends and colleagues.
 
Tweets

All attendees are invited to tweet about the Annual Meeting; be sure to add the hash tag "#informs09" to the beginning or end of your tweets to identify them as pertaining to the INFORMS Annual Meeting. Meetings staff will also use Twitter to communicate late-breaking changes to the program.

LinkedIn
Join our LinkedIn Group devoted to the Annual Meeting. Ninety of your colleagues have done so already. Go here to see news, find jobs, and join the discussion.

Photos and Video
Please take photos and video at the Annual Meeting and e-mail them to us at http://contest.informs.org/flip for posting on the Annual Meeting website. Contributors will be eligible to win one of two Flip Video Mino Series. Contest rules are here.
INFORMS Booth Activities

Stop by the INFORMS Booth in the Exhibit Hall (#41-43) to receive valuable products and information:
  • 50% off bookstore sale
  • Free sample journals giveaway
  • Information on volunteering
  • Free Community newsletters
  • Free 2009 Edelman DVD
  • Membership information (what's changing in 2010)
  • Pick up your 25+-year ribbon
Exhibit Hall hours:
Tuesday, 9am-5pm
Wednesday, 9am-1pm
Turgay Ayer Wins Monday's Interactive Session

Monday's Interactive Session WinnerCongratulations to Turgay Ayer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, for winning Monday's Interactive Session with his presentation, "Operations Research for Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer."
In This Issue
Today's Key Events
Join Us for the General Reception at Sea World!
Community Awards to be Presented on Tuesday
Community Awards Presented on Sunday
INFORMS Awards Presented on Sunday
Go Green!
SpORts Business Meeting Hosts Padres Analyst.
COIN-OR Cup Celebration
Optimal Pricing with Speculators and Strategic Consumers
Better Smarter Electricity Markets: Efficiently Capturing Wind, Rain and Fire
Supply Chain Risk Management
Decentralized Pricing and Alliances in Revenue Management
Edelman Finalists Reprise - I
HP Transforms Product Portfolio Management with Operations Research
Free -- 2009 TutORials in Operations Research CD!
FREE Internet at Convention Center
Blog of the Day
2009 INFORMS Fellows Inducted on Monday
Engage with Online Tools at the Annual Meeting
INFORMS Booth Activities
Turgay Ayer Wins Monday's Interactive Session
Quick Links
INFORMS Meetings
2009 INFORMS Annual Meeting
Schedule Changes

Follow the INFORMS Meeting announcements on Twitter.

INFORMS Booth/Bookstore Sale!

Stop by the INFORMS Bookstore for savings on print and electronic products. The bookstore is located at the INFORMS Booth #43. Attendees will receive a 50% discount off select book titles while supplies last. Plus pick up your complimentary TutORials in OR CD and Edelman DVD, purchase recently published books, and register for the INFORMS PubsOnLine Suite (all 12 journals online) for just $99.
 
Weather in San Diego, CA

Click here for current weather in San Diego, CA

 
Social Networking Links
 
Follow the Annual Meeting on Twitter 

Become a fan of INFORMS on Facebook

LinkedIn

H1N1 Flu Precautions

We recognize that some people at the INFORMS meeting have concerns about the H1N1 flu. We encourage all attendees to use common-sense precautions to protect both yourself and those around you:
 
+Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective and can be purchased at any drug store. There will be convenient Purell hand sanitizing stations available at the San Diego Convention Center and Hilton.
 
+If you sneeze or cough, use a tissue to cover your mouth; then safely discard the tissue and wash your hands.
 
+If you feel ill, with a fever and flu-like symptoms, please inform the INFORMS meeting organizers that you are ill so we can assist you if needed. Contact the INFORMS Registration Desk at 619.525.6333.
Win a Kindle!

Visit the exhibits and get in the running to win a Kindle! INFORMS will award two Kindles during the afternoon coffee breaks in the Exhibit Hall. Just follow these easy steps:
 
+Stop by one of the booths to pick up a raffle coupon (different coupon for each day).

+Fill out the coupon and get it stamped by the exhibitor.

+While you're at the booth, give the exhibitor an opportunity to tell you about their company's products!

+Place your completed coupon in the Kindle raffle bin.

+You must be present to win.
 
Schedule:
+Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday afternoon coffee breaks.

+Submit your coupon by 3:45pm.

+Drawing: 4:15pm. Location in the Exhibit Hall to be announced.

Note: There is a different coupon for each day. Only coupons for that day will be eligible.
You must be present to win.

Enjoy your time at the 2009 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.

Next Issue: Wednesday, October 14, 5am PDT.