Kudos to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter!

It is hard to believe that the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter was founded in 2004! I have been lucky to have served as its Faculty Advisor from its very inception and have seen so many of our wonderful student members graduate and excel professionally, whether as academics or practitioners. We have built an extraordinary community of students (and also faculty) that are advocates for, users of, and appliers of Operations Research (OR) and the Management Sciences (MS) and Analytics, working on making the world a better place.

The members come from the Isenberg School of Management, the College of Engineering, and the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass Amherst but all students, who are interested in OR/MS and Analytics, are welcome. Typically, the student members are PhD students but we have also had undergraduate students as members. Our invited seminars are advertised at UMass Amherst and are also open to the public.

On August 15, 2025, even though it was the summer still, we celebrated outstanding 2024-2025 officers and members with a special event. I presented award certificates in the beautiful Business Innovation Hub at the Isenberg School of Management to Officers: Ismael M. Pour, Samira Samadi, Semih Boz, Josh Gladstone, G. Busra Karkili, Yukti Kathuria, Sindhoora Prakash, Parisa Lotfibagha, and Mohammad Derakhshi and to Members: Yongdong Chen and Dana Hassani and thanked them for their service! Thanks also to faculty: Professors Arzum Akkas and Chaitra Gopalappa, who were able to join us. The pizza and salads provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst Dining were delicious as was the chocolate cake from Whole Foods. PhD students are so important to the intellectual life of a university. 

It is an honor to serve as this INFORMS Chapter's Faculty Advisor. Looking forward to another exciting academic year with chapter activities. Many thanks to all who support us! Additional photos and information on the Chapter activities can be found on its website: https://websites.umass.edu/umassinf/

The UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter Celebrated the End of the Semester with a Great Party and Congratulations Cake

Yesterday, during the next to the final week of classes in the 2024-2025 academic year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we had our UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter party. This is a tradition of this wonderful student chapter that brings both students and faculty together who work in the areas of Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

It has been a very busy week, with many additional events, that I even blogged about, including the 2025 OIM Awards Celebration just the evening before. And, yesterday morning, for the first time ever, the OIM Department Chair Professor Senay Solak organized a retreat for the department.

I left the retreat early, since, as is also the tradition, my husband and I always bring warm varenyky/pierogies, kielbasa, and desserts.

Some faculty mistakenly thought the party was at 4PM, although the poster circulated stated that the start time was 4:30PM. We appreciate the enthusiasm.

There was a kerfuffle - with all the events happening now at UMass Amherst, because of the end of the academic year, the order for food that the Chapter President Ismael Pour (one of my PhD students) put in got cancelled in the last minute. He scrambled then to get food orders from Atkins and from the famous Antonio's Pizza in downtown Amherst.

The food spread was fantastic and took up two large tables in Room N135 in the Business Innovation Hub at the Isenberg School of Management. Besides the Ukrainian food and the pizza, there were veggie and fruit trays, cold cuts and cheeses, and different types of sandwiches.

Josh Gladstone did a great job slicing the Congratulations cake. 

We brought both potato cheese varenyky and cabbage varenyky and the cake with Congratulations on it we bought at Whole Foods, along with a wide assortment of cookies. There were also various desserts from Atkins and even a spread of baklava pastries from Stop and Shop. It was appropriate to celebrate with a Congratulations cake since this chapter, in October, received the Magna Cum Laude Award from INFORMS at the Seattle Annual Meeting. Also, several of our PhD student members: Semih Boz, Dana Hassani (last year's Chapter President), Ismael Pour, and Samira Samadi have had journal articles published this past year and others are in press!

We have hosted a variety of events and speakers this past academic year. We were delighted that Lorraine Martinelle, of the Isenberg Marcomm Department, wrote an excellent article on our events associated with a panel with the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) exchange students and the visit and talk of the KSE President Tymofiy Mylovanov from Ukraine:  https://www.isenberg.umass.edu/news/three-years-later-isenberg-reflects-umass-amherst-partnership-ukrainian-institution Two of the exchange students, Marharyta Nechytailo and Karyna Lutsenko, joined our party. Also, it was wonderful to see Dr. Natalia Bychkova from Ukraine, who has been teaching at Amherst College.

The student chapter aims to enhance networking, share scientific knowledge through seminars, and also to build community. The students also present their research in a tune-up before the INFORMS Annual Meeting each year. Lasting friendships are made (and even a few marriages) through the chapter. Its members come not only from the Isenberg School but also from the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and from the Manning College of  Information and Computer Sciences.

I have been the Faculty Advisor of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter since 2004.

To learn more about the Chapter, its Officers, and its activities, please, visit its website: https://websites.umass.edu/umassinf/

The Terrific INFORMS Speakers Program

A huge resource for members of our professional society INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) is the INFORMS Speakers Program. 


Through this program, one can request a speaker on the Speakers Program list and it is a fabulous list! Typically, an organization requests a speaker and this is an excellent service for INFORMS Student Chapters or Regional INFORMS Chapters. Indeed, this resource was also emphasized at last spring's wonderful Student Leadership Conference in Austin, Texas at which two of our chapter officers, Pritha Dutta and Deniz Besik of the Isenberg School, took part in.

I had chaired this committee a few years ago and very much enjoyed working with Dr. Les Servi of MITRE and Dr. Tim Lowe of the University of Iowa to expand the list of speakers.Speakers are from academia and from industry and are experts in operations research, the management sciences, and analytics.

The host organization is responsible for on-site expenses of the speaker but INFORMS (of course, budget allowing) covers the travel costs.

I've enjoyed very much being a speaker in the INFORMS Speakers Program at various universities (including Texas A&M and the University of Pittsburgh) and also at INFORMS chapter sites (Dallas and Boston).  And when Mary Magrogran, the Director of Membership, Subdivisions & International Activities of INFORMS, reached out to me last week whether I would be willing to speak at the University of Alabama this semester, I checked my schedule and we found a mutually convenient set of dates so I am very much looking forward to going there and seeing operations research and analytics colleagues and students!

As the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter (since the chapter was founded in 2004), I also help the students in organizing a speaker series and believe fully in the importance of bringing speakers to campus. We have availed ourselves of the INFORMS Speakers Program over the years and the students, faculty, and even staff,  who were lucky enough to hear our guests speak treasure those memories. Also the networking opportunities are clear.

We have had the following speakers from the INFORMS Speakers Program come to the Isenberg School of Management (note that some may no longer be on the list but others continue providing this valuable, very educational service): Dr. James Benneyan of Northeastern University, Dr. Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois, Dr. Radhika Kulkarni of SAS, Dr. John Birge of the University of Chicago. We have also hosted Dr. Les Servi of MITRE and Dr. Richard Larson of MIT who are on the list (although we did not request funding from INFORMS since they are quite local). We also had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Brenda Dietrich of IBM in our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series!

Below are some photos of the above named guest speakers. Many thanks for their willingness to travel and speak to audiences that benefit greatly from their lectures and discussions that follow. Also, a BIG thanks to INFORMS for sponsoring the INFORMS Speakers Program.

Dr. Richard Larson at the Isenberg School after his presentation: Simple Models of Influenza Progression and Control

Dr. Radhikha Kulkarni of SAS after her terrific talk on Succeeding with Business Analytics: Key Challenges

Dr. John Birge, now the Editor of Operations Research, after his great talk at the Isenberg School on A News-vendor Model for Dynamic Investment and Financing Decisions: Capital Structure Implications and Empirical Results

Dr. Sheldon Jacobson after lunch at the University Club following his talk: An Analysis of Pediatric Vaccine Pricing and Stockpiling Issues

Dr. Brenda Dietrich's talk was on Services Sciences: A New Opportunity for Operations Research.

Dr. James Benneyan after speaking on Healthcare Systems Engineering   

And, for those of you who are interested in some suggestions as to how to organize a successful Speaker Series, please see one of my most popular blogposts on this topic.

Photos of the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter at the Isenberg School

Today was truly a special day!

We marked the 10th anniversary of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter with a party at the Isenberg School of Management.

How do you celebrate 10 years - you do it in great style and I congratulate all the student chapter officers and members for pulling together a party with exceptional cuisines, video testimonials from previous officers and a friend: Professor Amir H. Masoumi of Manhattan College, Professor Tina Wakolbinger of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, who was the Chapter's first President back in 20014, Professor Christian Wernz of Virginia Tech, who was the chapter first President from outside the Isenberg School (from the College of Engineering), Professor Zugang "Leo" Liu of Penn State University Hazleton, and Professor Jose M. Cruz of the University of Connecticut! Shivani Shukla, last year's Chapter President, gathered all the video testimonials and made a wonderful video of all of them - thank you!

And Professor Masoumi surprised us by also showing up with his family!

The testimonials were greatly appreciated!

Our new webmaster and new doctoral student in Management Science, Ekin Koker, put together about 800 photos of chapter activities in a beautiful slide show video, which brought back so many wonderful memories!

The officers even presented me with a gift and a lovely thank you card. It's been a joy serving as the Faculty Advisor of this student chapter and it is amazing the community that we have built and the friendships made over the years.

Thanks to the officers and students for putting together such a memorable, wonderful event today. Thanks also to all the faculty and staff that support this chapter. Your support means a tremendous amount to the students (and to me)!

Below I include some photos from today's celebration for your enjoyment and those who could not be with us in person.

Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) Events at INFORMS Minneapolis

Are you excited about the upcoming Annual INFORMS Conference in Minneapolis, October 6-9, 2013?

I certainly am as are my colleagues who will be going and, of course, our students, who will be presenting.

The Annual INFORMS Conference serves as an outstanding scientific and professional conference plus a great social one -- for many of my former doctoral students this is where we hold one of our annual reunions.

And, among our favorite activities and events (for both males and females alike), are the events organized by the Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) Forum.

Below is a flier prepared by Dr. Susan Martonosi to highlight our activities at INFORMS Minneapolis. You can click on the image below to get an expanded view.

Something new this year, is the Speed Networking event on Tuesday afternoon, cosponsored by the Junior Faculty Interest Group and the Minority Issues Forum.

Hope to see many of you at the great WORMS events and others soon n beautiful Minneapolis!

Networks Against Time -- From Food to Pharma

Last week I spoke at the University of Oklahoma and had wonderful experiences and now I am preparing a presentation that I will be giving next week in the Philadelphia area.

I will be speaking at the Penn State's School of Graduate Professional Studies in Great Valley.

The title of my talk is Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma and the campus has prepared the nice poster below.

More information on my talk is available here.

The INFORMS Philadelphia Chapter had also invited me to speak so I hope to see additional ORMS folks in the audience since my talk is open to the public.

I thank Professor Patrick Qiang of Penn State Great Valley for inviting me to speak and look forward to sharing insights in my talk from the research that we did that is described in the book Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products.

Congrats to ISO Midwest -- The 2011 Edelman Prize Winner!

Yesterday, I gave a seminar at the Management Sciences Department at the University of Waterloo in Canada. My hosts were simply fabulous and I so much appreciate their attention to detail, from hiring a van shuttle to/from Pearson airport in Toronto for me, for the fabulous lunch at the Faculty Club, and the wonderfully scheduled meetings with faculty and with students. I even got a great night's sleep the night before at the Waterloo Inn. I especially thank Dr. Fatma Gzara for making my visit to Waterloo so pleasant.

In my seminar yesterday afternoon, "Supply Chain Networks: Challenges and Opportunities from Analysis and Design," I spoke on our work on supply chains from electric power generation and distribution ones, results for which were published in Naval Research Logistics in 2009 to our more recent work on critical needs supply chains. I also highlighted some of our research on fast fashion supply chains and work that we are doing on perishable supply chains in healthcare. I also brought into the discussions some of our recent results on the Braess paradox.

There are so many universities in the Toronto area and I heard that about one third of the population in Canada lives in this part of Ontario! Some students from Wilfrid Laurier University (we could see it from the seminar window) marched over to my talk (and it took them about 6 minutes).

Last night, at the Pearson airport, prior to my flight back from Toronto to Hartford/Springfield, I met a manager who had just arrived from Shanghai and works for a high tech company in Connecticut which, among its products, manufactures high tech equipment for the apparel and fashion industry. Our 18 seater Beech airplane provided each of the 8 passengers on board with both an aisle and window seat (the solitary steward was almost double-overed standing up in it and there was no drink service). We continued our conversation during the flight which had some turbulence but nothing compared to that in two of my favorite movies: "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," and "Airplane."

Now, I hear, that on the same day that I was speaking about our research that modeled the New England fuel and electric power market, using ISO New England data, INFORMS announced that the 2011 Edelman Prize Winner is ISO Midwest! Coincidentally, while at Waterloo, I spoke with Professor J. David Fuller who told me about the book that he is writing with Gabriel and Hobbs and others on energy and he will be including a section on variational inequalities in it! Professor Bookbinder and I also had a chance to then discuss the future challenges of global supply chains (obviously, the triple disaster in Japan entered our conversation and also my seminar presentation).

Congratulations to ISO Midwest -- the link to the youtube posting of the award ceremony and the official INFORMS press release can be accessed here. In fact, all of this year's finalists deserve congratulations.

Just think, where would we be without electric power and reflect on the citizens of Japan, who, in addition to their already severely disrupted lives after the earthquake / tsunami / nuclear disaster, are now subjected to rolling power blackouts and even elevated radiation in the food, tap water, etc. Today, the nuclear disaster was elevated to a level 7, the highest level, as was Chernobyl.

Will be in Waterloo and not Chicago

Next week will certainly be another busy week!

Excitement is growing about the INFORMS Business Analytics & Operations Research Conference, which begins on April 10, 2011, and will be in Chicago this year. It should be a fantastic event with the announcement of the Edelman prize, panels, and various networking opportunities. Also, it will be covered by bloggers in case you, like I, can't be there.

I accepted an invitation extended last summer to speak on April 11 at the University of Waterloo in the Department of Management Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering. I am very much looking forward to being back in Canada, albeit for a short time, and to seeing colleagues in that terrific department. My talk in the department's seminar series is on:

Supply Chain Networks: Challenges and Opportunities from Analysis to Design.

Since I was born in Canada I can go through immigration in Toronto through the "faster" route since the Canadians still consider me to be a Canadian, although I now hold a US passport.

Also, speaking about upcoming conferences, UMass Amherst issued a nice press release on our upcoming First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference that will be held at UMass Amherst, May 6-7, 2011. We hope to get, in addition to some of our regular bloggers, student bloggers to also cover this event.

Happy Spring (finally)!

Isenberg Graduate Students Excel in Award-Winning Student Chapter

The Isenberg School at UMass Amherst has issued a press release on the award that our INFORMS Student Chapter will receive on November 9, 2010 at the INFORMS Conference in Austin, Texas.

Our student chapter will be honored for the fourth year in a row with a national award from INFORMS for its activities. This year we will be receiving the magna cum laude award.

As Faculty Advisor to this terrific group of students, I could not be happier for them. They accomplish so much professionally and socially through teamwork, dedication, and innovation.

Last year's President of the student chapter, Min Yu, who is a doctoral student in Management Science, and also my student, will be joining me in Austin, Texas to receive the award on behalf of our chapter.

For the full press release click here.

The UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter website can be accessed here.

Even today, on a gorgeous Fall day, this group of students will be hosting a ping pong tournament, complete with pizza, refreshments, and prizes! A former member, Thomas Lenk, who happens to be visiting Amherst from Germany will take part!