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2014 eNews Daily: Day 1: Sunday, November 9
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Welcome From General Chair
Candace Yano
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Dear INFORMS Friends and Colleagues, Welcome to the 2014 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the City by the Bay. The conference theme, "Bridging Data and Decisions," reflects the broad scope of what will be covered, from data analytics to new optimization and analysis methodologies to models and practical applications pertinent to numerous industries. An unusually distinguished group of keynote and plenary speakers headlines the program: - Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth, the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford and the Gund Professor of Economics and Business at Harvard will give the opening address on "Market Design and the Economist as Engineer."
- Richard Cottle, Professor Emeritus of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, will offer a biographical perspective on George Dantzig to celebrate the 100th birthday of the father of linear programming.
- Omego Rho Lecturer Jonathan Caulkins, the H. Guyford Stever Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, will discuss "Operations Research in Service of Drug & Addictions Policy."
- IFORS Distinguished Lecturer Lyn Thomas, Professor of Management Science at Southampton Management School (UK) will offer lessons for OR modeling from the recent global financial crisis.
- Dimitris Bertsimas, Boeing Global Leaders for Manufacturing Professor of Operations Reseach and Statistics at MIT will give the Philip McCord Morse Lecture: "Statistics and Machine Learning via a Modern Optimization Lens."
- Anthony Levandowski, Product Lead for the Google Driverless Car Project, will share his experiences in developing and driving Google's self-driving car.
- Martin Haugh, Garud Iyengar, Kay Giesecke, and Dimitris Bertsimas will provide perspectives on their experiences with Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) at Columbia University, Stanford, and MIT.
- Mark Rothleder, Vice President for Market Quality and Renewable Integration at the Caliornia Independent System Operator, will discuss how optimization is used in managing the electricity grid.
Winners of the Franz Edelman, UPS George D. Smith, and Daniel H. Wagner Prizes will also give presentations. Please take advantage of the many opportunities to network - and eat - at the conference, including the Welcome Reception on Sunday evening and the General Reception on Tuesday evening. I am grateful to the INFORMS Meetings Committee for their support, and for the dedication and effort of the INFORMS meetings staff, without whom this meeting would not have been possible. I also thank the "Local" organizing committee, including Phil Kaminsky, Shmuel Oren, Alexandra Newman, Janny Leung, Hyun-Soo Ahn, Damien Beil, Rachel Chen, Ana Muriel, Hari Balasubramanian, Theresa Roeder, Julia Miyaoka, Alper Atamturk, Max Shen, Vijay Mehrotra, Warren Lieberman, Thomas Olavson, and Steven Nahmias, for their hard work. We appreciate the generous support of our major sponsors: IBM, the Seth Bonder Foundation, FICO, AIMMS, Chevron, Caterpillar, City University of Hong Kong, and the University of California, Berkeley. Thank you for your participation. We hope you enjoy the conference, as well as the sights, sounds, and flavors of San Francisco.  Candace Arai Yano, General Chair
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 Registration will be open from 7am-5pm in the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Yosemite, BR Level.
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We apologize for an error in the program; Track 3 should be listed as room Golden Gate 8 (not 7.)
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Decision Analysis 50th Anniversary Events
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This year marks 50 years since decision analysis emerged as a field in a professional and academic sense. In 1964, Prof. Howard Raiffa began teaching a course in "decision analysis" within the Economics Department at Harvard and began preparing material for his book "Decision Analysis." Separately, but also in 1964, Prof. Ronald Howard conducted the first professional application of the field he called "decision analysis," which he later described in the paper "Decision Analysis: Applied Decision Theory." Decision Analysis 50th Anniversary Gala  Yesterday evening, the Decision Analysis Society (DAS), the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP), and the Strategic Decision Group (SDG) hosted a celebratory event marking this important anniversary in the development of the field, to honor its founders and other early developers, take stock of achievements, and consider the next decades of application and research. The field's founders, Profs. Howard and Raiffa, were in attendance. Decision Analysis 50th Anniversary Program, Part I The Next 50 Years of Decision Analysis 8-9:30am, Parc 55, Powell I, Floor 3 Presentations on the next 50 years with Jim Matheson, SmartOrg (decision engineering); Warner North, NorthWorks (societal decisions); Greg Parnell, University of Arkansas, and Terry Bresnick, Innovative Decisions (military decision making); and Ali Abbas, USC (space and security decisions). Chair: Jim Matheson, SmartOrg, Inc. Decision Analysis 50th Anniversary Program, Part II Joint Session DAS/SPPSN: Societal Applications of Decision Analysis 1:30-3pm, Parc 55, Powell I, Floor 3 Presentations on societal applications of decision analysis with Warner North, NorthWorks (Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society); Stephen Barrager, Baker Street Publishing (Improving Public Policy Decisions in California); Anne Smith, NERA Economic Consulting (EPA's Uses of Risk Assessment in Setting Ambient Air Quality Standards); and Mazen Skaf, Strategic Decisions Group (DA and Analytics-Based Policy Program Decision Enabling Balanced Growth and Job Creation for Nationals). Chair: Warner North, NorthWorks, Inc.
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Saturday's General Membership Meeting
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 INFORMS Executive Director Melissa Moore kicked off the Annual Meeting at last night's membership meeting with record-breaking INFORMS news. With over 5400 meeting registrants, INFORMS Annual Meeting San Francisco is the largest Annual Meeting yet! This year, INFORMS membership is at its highest point since 1998 with 11,367; there are more student members since the data has been tracked; and there are more subdivision members since 2005 - a 14% increase! Journal submissions continue to rise and the Analytics Meeting attendance has doubled in size since 2009. She said INFORMS is "looking forward to making new records with all of your [members] help - thank you for being engaged!" Five outgoing journal editors-in-chief received Service Recognition Awards, presented by Eric Johnson, VP Publications: Michel Gendreau ( Transportation Science), Robin Qiu ( Service Science), Dan Levinthal ( Organization Science), Gérard Cachon ( Management Science), and Stephen Graves ( M&SOM); INFORMS is grateful for their service. INFORMS President Stephen Robinson kept his part short and sweet to allow more time for members to network and enjoy refreshments - the perfect trade-off.
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Not Particuarly Hard: While working on a new retail optimization problem a few weeks earlier, a colleague was a bit disappointed that it turned out to be NP-Hard. Does that make it unsolvable? Read More.
California #INFORMS2014 Calling: The INFORMS conference is so BIG with multiple tracks and almost 5000 in attendance, it is very easy for beginners/freshers at the conference to feel lost and/or left out. Trust me I have been there. Read More.
'Tis the Season!: No - not the holiday season (although stores haven't wasted time replacing ghosts and goblins with turkeys and tinsel) - It's INFORMS Annual Meeting season! Read More.
Remembering INFORMS Conferences in San Francisco of Seasons Past: For some INFORMS members, this will be their first such conference in San Francisco. For other more seasoned members, I am sure that they have fond memories of previous INFORMS conferences in San Francisco. Read More.
Babies, laundry detergent, and more in San Francisco: My colleagues have begun heading toward San Francisco, and by Sunday at least 40 of us from SAS will be there to talk about operations research as it relates to babies, laundry detergent, and many many more things. Read More.
Low-Hanging Fruit to Improve Your Teaching: I enjoyed the Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium today, chaired by Eric Huggins. Participants ranged from current Ph.D. students who are teaching their first course to seasoned educators with decades of experience. Read More.
Happy Birthday George Dantzig!: Today, November 8th, is the 100th anniversary of George B. Dantzig's birth. As Dick Cottle is fond of saying, "To say that George Dantzig is the father of linear programming is to underestimate his paternal accomplishments. Enlarging the list of 'offspring' to include all of mathematical programming comes closer to the truth." Read More.
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Plenaries & Keynotes 10-10:50am, Hilton, Continental 5-6, BR Level Welcome Stephen M. Robinson, President, INFORMS, and University of Wisconsin-Madison Plenary Market Design and the Economist as Engineer Alvin Roth, Stanford University 3:10-4pm, Hilton, Continental 5-6, BR LevelOMEGA RHO Distinguished Lecture: Operations Research in Service of Drug & Addictions Policy Jonathan Caulkins, Carnegie Mellon University
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Sunday Community Business, Reception, & Networking Meetings: All Welcome!
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Choose the community that is right for you and attend. Members and nonmembers welcome. H = Hilton and P = Parc 55
| Community | Location | Time | | Information Systems | H - Golden Gate 2, Lobby | 5:30-6:30pm | | Aviation Applications | H - Continental 1, BR Level | 6:15-7:15pm | | Data Mining & Artificial Intelligence | P - Divisadero, Level 2 | 6:15-7:30pm | | Decision Analysis Society Council | P - Powell 2, Level 3 | 6:15-7:30pm | | Energy, Natural Resources & Environment | P - Cyril Magnin 1, Level 4 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Forum on Education (INFORM-ED) | P - Powell 1, Level 3 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Location Analysis | H - Union Square 6, Level 4 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Manufacturing & Service Ops. Mgt. | H - Continental 4, BR Level | 6:15-7:15pm | | Military Applications Society Board | H - Presidio, Lobby | 6:15-7:15pm | | Minority Issues Forum | P - Mason, Level 3 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Multiple Criteria Decision Making | P - Sutro, Level 2 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Optimization | H - Plaza B, Lobby | 6:15-7:15pm | | Railway Applications | H - Continental 2, BR Level | 6:15-7:15pm | | Revenue Management & Pricing | H - Franciscan C, BR Level | 6:15-7:15pm | | Simulation | P - Cyril Magnin 3, Level 4 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Telecommunications | H - Union Square 16,
Level 4 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Transportation Science & Logistics Board | H - Union Square 1, Level 4 | 6:15-7:15pm | | Women in OR/MS | H - Continental 3, BR Level | 6:15-7:15pm | | Revenue Management & Pricing Board | H - Franciscan C, BR Level | 7:15-8:15pm |
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New Member Welcome Breakfast
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By Invitation Only 7-8am, Hilton, Imperial A, BR Level If you are new to INFORMS... welcome! We want you to feel at home at the Annual Meeting. Bring the ticket found in your registration envelope to the new member breakfast. INFORMS leaders will provide information on membership benefits, communities/subdivisions services, and tips on how to navigate the INFORMS Annual Meeting. Time is set aside for informal networking. A great way to get started!
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Junior Faculty Interest Group Luncheon
12:30-1:30pm, Hilton, Imperial A, BR Level
A limited number of tickets are still available. Go to the INFORMS registration desk or Communities desk in the Yosemite Ballroom to purchase tickets.
The winners of the 2014 JFIG Paper Competition will be presented with awards. All junior faculty are invited to participate. This event gives junior faculty in engineering and business schools the opportunity to discuss career development and exchange ideas.
Sponsored by Georgia Southern University, Texas A&M University, University of Arkansas, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Wichita State University, University at Buffalo-Industrial and Systems Engineering.
INFORMS Online & Social Networking Reception
6:30-7:30pm, Hilton, Golden Gate 5, Lobby
What's your social networking strategy for yourself or for INFORMS? We invite all contributors to IOL (the INFORMS website) and INFORMS social networking sites to come and meet face to face. Join us for refreshments and drinks - we are your INFORMS Online community! Minority Issues Forum Reception
8-9pm, Hilton, Golden Gate 3, Lobby
Come meet old friends and make new ones while talking about minority issues and other intellectual issues and opportunities. Posters submitted to the Minority Issues Forum Poster Competition will be on display during the reception.
Sponsored by Cornell University, North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT), North Carolina State University-Industrial and Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University-Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Clemson University-Dept. of Industrial Engineering. Welcome Reception & Exhibits7:30-9:30pm, Hilton, Grand Ballroom
INFORMS and the San Francisco Organizing Committee welcome you to the 2014 Annual Meeting with an evening of fellowship and fun. The Welcome Reception is the perfect venue to meet with colleagues and visit the exhibits. Light snacks will be served. Soft drinks are complimentary, with a cash bar for other beverages. INFORMS Awards Ceremony & Dessert Reception8:30-9:45pm (Doors close at 8:45pm), Hilton, Imperial Ballroom The INFORMS Board of Directors invites you to honor and celebrate the achievements of our colleagues at the annual Awards Ceremony. You can attend the Welcome Reception first and then proceed to the Imperial Ballroom for the Awards Ceremony. Following the ceremony, you'll have an opportunity to congratulate the awardees at a special dessert reception. Sponsored by Caterpillar.
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These prestigious awards will be presented during the Sunday night Awards Ceremony:
Saul Gass Expository Writing Award
Stephen Boyd, Stanford University
INFORMS President's Award
To be announced at the Awards Ceremony.
INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of ORMS Practice
Jason Merrick, Virginia Commonwealth University
George E. Kimball Medal
Terry P. Harrison, CAP, Pennsylvania State University
John von Neumann Theory Prize
To be announced at the Awards Ceremony.
INFORMS Impact Prize
Brenda Dietrich, IBM
JP Fasano, IBM
Lou Hafer, Simon Fraser University
John Forrest, IBM
Brady Hunsaker, Google
Laszlo Ladanyi, IBM
Robin Lougee, IBM
Ted Ralphs, Lehigh University
Matthew Saltzman, Clemson University
Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Health Services
Jónas Oddur Jónasson, London Business School
Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Military Applications
Jason Southerland, George Mason University
Four student awards will also be announced during the ceremony: George E. Nicholson Student Paper Competition, George B. Dantzig Dissertation Prize, Doing Good with Good O.R. Student Competition, and the Undergraduate Operations Research Prize.
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Subdivision Awards for Sunday
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Attend the corresponding Community meeting to join in the fun. Most begin at 6:15pm.
Energy, Natural Resources & the Environment SectionStudent Paper AwardThis award is given annually to the best paper dealing with energy, environmental, or natural resource issues by a student author who is presenting at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, as judged by a panel of the Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment Section. The award is accompanied by a $300 cash prize. Winner: Mahyar Movahed Nejad Best Publication AwardThe ENRE Best Publication Awards are given annually to the best refereed journal articles (in the areas of energy and forestry) published two calendar years prior to the year in which the award is given. The objective of the award is to recognize the contributions of ENRE members to the research areas of forestry and energy. Therefore, separate awards will be given in each area, and membership during the year of the nomination will be a requirement for the nominator. Nominated publications will be judged by three ENRE members in each area (three from forestry and three from energy) with respect to impact and originality. The award will consist of a plaque.
Winners in Energy: Jinye Zhao, Benjamin F. Hobbs, Jong-Shi Pang
Winners in Environment & Sustainability: Yishu Chen, Andrew Liu, Benjamin F. Hobbs
Winners in Natural Resources: Rafael Epstein, Marcel Goic, Andrés Weintraub, Jaime Catalán, Pablo Santibáñez, Rodolfo Urritia, Raúl Cancino, Sergio Gaete, Augusto Aguayo, Felipe Caro Best Paper in a Sponsored Sessions AwardThe prize recognizes the best paper presented in the Energy and Forestry Cluster sessions at the INFORMS Annual Meeting. The award is based on technical merit and quality of presentation. Winner in Forestry Sponsored Sessions: To Be Announced
Young Researcher Award
This prize recognizes an outstanding paper on the application of OR/MS to an important problem in energy, natural resources, and/or the environment. Winners: Michael K. Lim, Ho-Yin Mak, Ying RongPresented: 6:15pm, Energy, Natural Resources, & the Environment Section Business Meeting, Parc 55, Cyril Magnin 1, Level 4
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Society
Student Paper Competition Award
Two awards are given annually for papers judged to be the best in the field of operations management. The first prize is accompanied by a $400 cash award. The second prize is accompanied by a $200 cash award. All finalists will be invited to submit extended abstracts of their paper for publication in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
Winners: Yonatan Gur, Jónas Oddur Jónasson (tie)
Distinguished Service Award
The MSOM Distinguished Service Award was created to recognize individuals whose distinguished service to MSOM has helped advance significantly the goals and objectives of the Section.
Winner: Jeannette Song
MSOM Distinguished Fellows Award
The Distinguished Fellow Award was approved by the MSOM members at the Spring Business Meeting in 1999 in Cincinnati. By the election of a limited number of MSOM Fellows, MSOM 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. Teaching and service contributions are not considered in the selection process.
Winners: Uday S. Karmarkar, Robin Roundy, Matthew J. Sobel
M&SOM 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.
Winner: Philippe Afèche
Presented: 6:15pm, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Society Business Meeting, Hilton, Continental 4, BR Level
Optimization Society
Optimization Society Khachiyan Prize The Khachiyan Prize of the INFORMS Optimization Society was established in 2010 and is awarded annually at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to an individual or a team for lifetime achievements in the area of optimization. The award recognizes a sustained career of scholarship from nominees who are still active during the year of the nomination. The prize serves as an esteemed recognition of innovativeness and impact in the area of optimization, including theory and applications. Recipients of the INFORMS John von Neumann Theory Prize or the MPS/SIAM Dantzig Prize in prior years are not eligible for the Khachiyan Prize.
Winners: Dimitri Bertsekas, Clóvis C. Gonzaga
Optimization Society Farkas Prize
The G. Farkas Prize of the INFORMS Optimization Society was established in 2006, and is administered by the Optimization Society (OS) of INFORMS. The Farkas Prize is awarded for the most significant contribution to the field of optimization by a researcher, or a team of researchers. It is awarded bi-annually at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Winner: Farid Alizadeh
Optimization Society Student Paper Prize
The Student Paper Prize recognizes the most outstanding paper in optimization that is submitted to and received, or published in a refereed professional journal no more than three years before the closing date of the nomination.
Winner: Damek Davis
Optimization Society Young Researchers Prize
The Optimization Prize for Young Researchers, established in 1998 and administered by the Optimization Section of INFORMS, is awarded in even-numbered years at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to one (or more) young researchers for the most outstanding paper in optimization that is submitted to or published in a refereed professional journal. The prize serves as an esteemed recognition of promising colleagues who are at the beginning of their academic or industrial career.
Winner: Jiawang Nie
Presented: 6:15pm, Optimization Society Business Meeting, Hilton, Plaza B, Lobby
Railway Applications Section
Railway Applications Section Student Paper Award This award is given to recognize the best student research paper on analytics and fact-based decision making in railway applications. The first place paper will be considered for publication in Networks.
Winner: Tie Shi
Distinguished Member Award
This award is given to recognize distinguished contributions that have far reaching impacts and help advance significantly the goals and objectives of the Section.
Winner: Carl Van Dyke
Presented: 6:15pm, Railway Applications Section Business Meeting, Hilton, Continental 2, BR Level
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Designed for students, faculty, and practitioners, TutORials in Operations Research provide in-depth instruction on significant operations research specialties and practices.
All tutorials are located in the Hilton, Continental 4, BR level.
8-9:30am
Using Complementarity Modeling for Planning and Policy Analysis of Electricity & Energy Markets
Ben Hobbs, Johns Hopkins University
Antonio J. Conejo, Ohio State University
J. David Fuller, University of Waterloo
Steven A. Gabriel, University of Maryland
Carlos Ruiz, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
11am-12:30pm
Assessing and Improving Operational Resilience of Critical Infrastructures and Other Systems
Dave Alderson, Gerald Brown, & Matt Carlyle
Naval Postgraduate School
1:30-3pm
From Data to Assessments and Decisions: Epi-Spline Technology
Johannes Royset, Naval Postgraduate School
4:30-6pm
Research in Public Health for Efficient, Effective, and Equitable Outcomes
Pinar Keskinocak, Turgay Ayer, & Julie Swann
Georgia Institute of Technology
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INFORMS Career Center: Job Fair
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 Noon-5pm, Hilton, Grand BallroomINFORMS Career Center Job Fair provides an opportunity for job seekers to meet participating employers in an informal atmosphere and to discuss employment opportunities within those organizations. Employers meet and collect résumés from many job seekers in a short period of time early in the meeting, giving them the chance to set up interviews during the meeting.
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 INFORMS is pleased to offer a free mobile app for smart phones and tablet users. Use the app to access conference information on the go, including the schedule of talks, maps showing meeting locations, exhibit details, and much more. As this is a native app, you do not need an internet data connection to use it during the conference.
When you enter the meeting program in the app, you can either browse through the parallel sessions and special events or search for a specific speaker or keywords. As you locate the events, sessions, and presentations you are interested in, click on the star button which bookmarks it into the My List itinerary. Use My List for a quick reference tool.
Android Devices - to download, go to the Google Play Store and search for INFORMS Mobile. Apple Devices - to download on either iPhone or iPad, go to the App Store and search for INFORMS Mobile.
Please Provide Your Input
We encourage you to complete the survey on the information screen of the main menu. The conference committee greatly appreciates your feedback on individual sessions and on the meeting overall.
Mobile App Information Desk
Visit the booth located next to INFORMS Registration in the Hilton, Yosemite, BR Level. We're happy to help you make the most of your INFORMS Mobile App experience!
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Attendees are encouraged to take photos and video at the meeting; send your photos to photosandvideo@mail.informs.org, and we'll post them on the Annual Meeting website.
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 © 2014 INFORMS. All Rights Reserved.
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