Scenes from the 2011 IEEE Conference on Supernetworks in Shanghai

The 2011 IEEE Conference on Supernetworks and System Management has now come to an end. It took place in Shanghai, China, May 29-30, 2011.

Keynote speakers included Professors June Dong, Hani Mahmassani, and Harry Timmermans. My doctoral student, Min Yu, who is from China, delivered my keynote that I prepared, entitled: Supernetworks in Healthcare and Humanitarian Operations.

Professor June Dong spoke on Disruptions in Supply Chain Supernetworks and Professor Timmermans on Applications of Supernetworks in Modeling Activity-Travel Behavior.

Several other presentations that were prepared by Center Associates of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks can be found here.

Above are photos from the conference, courtesy of Professor June Dong.

Starting to Pack for China and Preparing Keynote Talks

Now that the academic year has come to a close with celebratory graduations and associated events in the past, I have begun to pack for my trip to China later this week.

I will be giving two keynote talks at conferences, at the 2011 PAKDD conference in Shenzen, and at the 2011 IEEE Conference on Supernetworks and System Management in Shanghai.

At the PAKDD 2011 conference, I will speak on "Supernetworks: Opportunities and challenges for decision-making in the 21st century," and at the IEEE conference, I will speak on "Supernetworks in healthcare and humanitarian operations." Joining me at the latter conference will be a former doctoral student of mine, Professor June Dong of the School of Business at SUNY Oswego, who is helping with the organization of that conference, and a present doctoral student of mine, Min Yu, who will present our paper, Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain Management Under Oligopolistic Competition and Brand Differentiation, to appear in the International Journal of Production Economics, Special Issue on Green Manufacturing and Distribution in the Fashion and Apparel Industries. Our conference presentation can be downloaded here.

In addition to my keynote in Shanghai, I will deliver the paper, "Spatial price equilibrium and food webs: The economics of predator-prey networks," which was co-authored with my husband, Professor Ladimer Nagurney. This paper will appear in the conference proceedings and the presentation I have made available because it should be of interest to not only the ecology community but also to economists and operations researchers.

For those who think that once the teaching is over, faculty just go on vacation, I beg to differ.

Invitation Letter from China with Beautiful Stamps

I had received the invitation via email but it did not compare to the formal invitation that arrived in the envelope above. With all the virtual communications, it was delightful to be able to hold and admire the envelope with the beautiful bird stamps that traveled over two weeks from China and to read the letter inside.

I will be giving two keynote talks next month in China at conferences in Shenzen and Shanghai and the envelope and letter that I could share and show to my students made the upcoming conferences and experiences more tangible.

Now, it's time to get the visa.

AACSB Globalization Report and Our Supernetworks Conference in Shanghai, China

The AACSB International: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which is the primary accrediting body for Business Schools, has issued a very important report on globalization. The Chronicle of Higher Education's article on it, which provides highlights, is at:
http://chronicle.com/article/Business-Schools-Worldwide/126320/

The report, Globalization of Management Education: Changing International Structures, Adaptive Strategies, and the Impact on Institutions, is available free to members of the association and can be purchased by others. Information is available on the association's Web site.

In all the courses that I teach at the Isenberg School, I bring an international perspective. For example, I compare transportation and logistical systems around the globe, present cases of global supply chains, highlight risk associated with different partnerships, and draw in the students who have had international experiences to bring in their experiences into the discussions. The majority of the student team projects have an international component and the students dream up these projects, which are not only fascinating, but very well-done. To view some of them, click here. Even in my graduate classes, students do projects and presentations and one of the most intriguing ones (I feel it preceded "history in the making") was by a student from Egypt who presented a project, this past December, on the optimization of waste management in her country!

As for our international activities at the Isenberg School of Management, there are numerous exciting intiatives. For example, one that I am personally involved in and very excited about is the 2011 IEEE Conference on Supernetworks and System Management that will take place in Shanghai, China at the end of May. I am an honorary co-chair of this conference, with Professor Ying-Luo, who is a Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Several of my former doctoral students are involved in the conference through the Virtual Center for Supernetworks, including Professor June Dong, who is at SUNY Oswego's School of Business, and is the conference Co-Chair. Dr. Patrick Qiang is involved and one of my present doctoral students, Min Yu, will also be speaking at this conference.

Keynote speakers at this conference include Professor Kieran Donaghy of Cornell University and Professor Hani S. Mahmassani of Northwestern University, along with Professor June Dong. I will also be giving a keynote talk, entitled: Supernetworks in Healthcare and Humanitarian Operations.

More information about the conference, including information on paper submissions, and the refereed proceedings, can be found at: http://csure.usst.edu.cn/icssm/

Coincidentally, a group of our undergrads from the Isenberg School will be in Shanghai, China, when our conference is taking place, so we are looking forward to a great photo-op!

I will also be giving another keynote speech at the PAKDD 2011 Conference in Shenzen, China, before the Shanghai conference, which I am very much looking forward to; see:
http://pakdd2011.pakdd.org/

Supernetworks in China

Supernetworks are big in China and two of my collaborators, Professor June Dong and Professor Patrick Qiang, are now in Shanghai discussing the formation of a sister Supernetworks Center to the Virtual Center for Supernetworks that I direct.

With June Dong I wrote the 2002 book, "Supernetworks: Decision-Making for the Informatiom Age," and last year Patrick Qiang and I co-authored the "Fragile Networks" book.

My last trip to China was back in 2006 when I spoke at the Fudan Management Science Forum in Shanghai on Supernetworks: Management Science for the 21st Century. I also served on the Fudan Management Science Prize committee.

It was a terrific conference and trip, especially since June Dong was also there and she is a former native of Shanghai, China. Such well-known researchers as Mike Pinedo, Charles Corbett, and Eitan Zemel were also there. I took tons of photos.

Patrick Qiang recently gave a presentation, "Vulnerability of Fragile Networks," at the School of Management at the Shanghai University for Science and Technology and was hosted by June. Above are photos taken at his presentation, with his host, a group photo with the audience, and an announcement on the university home page, which a student of mine, helped to translate. The audience for Patrick's talk even included students of Professor Daoli Zhu, who received the Fudan Management Science prize in 2006.

From the World Cup to the World Expo

After the painful loss today of the US soccer team to Ghana's at the World Cup in South Africa, resulting in the US team being eliminated, I thought that I would offer some distraction by posting the above photos taken at the World Expo which is now taking place in Shanghai, China.

But, first, I would like to congratulate the US soccer team and their coaches for their extraordinary efforts. You won the hearts of our country and we are tremendously proud of how well you played.

Congrats to Ghana for being the only African country left representing this continent at this stage of the World Cup.

The above photos were taken recently by relatives of a doctoral student of mine who visited the World Expo in Shanghai and I thank them for allowing me to share them with you. Several of my collaborators are now also in Shanghai and I hope that over the summer I will be able to post additional photos.

The first photo is of China's pavilion (and interestingly in yesterday's New York Times there was a two page photo spread and ad for this World Expo). The second one is especially lovely at night, I am told, and the color and images change. The third photo is of Estonia's pavilion. The fourth photo is of the World Exposition Museum. The fifth is an artwork with four monkeys, which is a symbol of families' happiness. The bottom photo is the Qatar pavilion.

Although China did not qualify for the World Cup I am hearing marvelous things about its World Expo.