A Terrific UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter End of the Semester Party at the Isenberg School

It seems to be a truism that the busiest people also get the most done!

This past Friday was the last day of classes at UMass Amherst for the Fall 2014 semester with final exams beginning this week.

There are final exams to study for and papers to  complete so students are especially busy now as are the faculty.

But great memories are made of special experiences and it has been the tradition of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter to always host an end of the semester party.

This we did (I am the Faculty Advisor of the chapter) on Friday, after also hosting Professor Tilman Wolf in our Speaker Series, who gave a brilliant talk: An Economy Plane for the Internet : Paying for Innovative Network Services that I blogged about.

Clearly, there were some logistical challenges with the talk and discussions over closer to 3:30PM and with the party beginning in the same room at the Isenberg School of Management at 4:30PM.  But, with students taking courses in Network Optimization, Logistics & Transportation,  and  Supply Chains, to start, they were definitely up to the challenge! Special thanks to Michael Prokle, Chapter President, and Sara Saberi, Chapter Treasurer, for their extraordinary work on both events on Friday and to Heng Chen, Chapter Secretary,  for disseminating the news, along with Pritha Dutta, Communications Director! Please visit the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter site for more photos and information. Kudos to our terrific Webmaster, Ekin Koker!


Our parties are not to be missed - the cuisine is always international. This time in addition to the varenyky (pierogies) and kielbasy that I brought, along with cookies that I baked, we had Asian food, Middle Eastern food, veggie salads, and, of course, pizza with different toppings. We also had delicious cakes, fruit salad, and many different juices and drinks.

 

The Chapter Officers did a great job of allocating the tasks, doing the budgeting, picking up the food (and it was a very cold day so we needed to keep the hot food warm for all the guests).

The party began at 4:30 PM and we closed up around 7PM.

The conversations were fabulous and faculty and students from the Isenberg School of Management and the College of Engineering took part with a focus (note the name of the chapter) on those in Operations research and the Management Sciences. It was special to even have several staff members from the Isenberg School attend.

This was a great event in which to catch up, wish everyone good luck for the exams, and a Happy Holiday Season!

Events such as these build communities and I congratulate the hard-working students and chapter officers for doing such a great job.