Excited to Be Teaching My Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare Class

The morning temperatures in Amherst, MA have been below 0 degrees the past few days and it has been a challenging winter with a lot of snow.

However, yesterday the new "spring" semester at UMass Amherst began and it was energizing to meet the students in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class. The course meets Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:30AM at the Isenberg School of Management.

The students come not only from the business school but also from the School of Public Health, the Riccio College of Engineering, and even the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences.

I arrived in the classroom at 8:00AM because I wanted to make sure the technology was working well.

The first student arrived shortly thereafter and he drove from Boston (about 2 hours). He is working towards 2 Master's degrees at the Isenberg School - an MBA and a Master's in Business Analytics. Another student is also working on these two degrees and has 3 children under the age of 4. I was so impressed and inspired by the students - I asked them to share some background about themselves and their interest in the course, and also to provide a "fun fact."

One student is a lawyer and several of the students have traveled widely even during the January break (to Croatia and Japan). One of the students is on an athletic team and will be traveling a lot to games.

I told the students that I have some excellent guest speakers lined up and am also planning on a field trip. They were very excited about having a field trip.

The students give us hope (much needed these days).

I am very much looking forward to an engaging and exciting semester.

Teaching Face to Face in the Pandemic - The First 3 Weeks

It has been exciting, and quite interesting, to be back to teaching face to face at UMass Amherst in the pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, I was on sabbatical for that spring term, and, hence, was not teaching.

Last academic year the instruction was done remotely, except for a few classes at the Isenberg School of Management. Hence, I taught all my courses in the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 remotely via Zoom. It was a novel experience, especially since I had never taught online before. With the right technology, coupled with a lot of energy and creativity, the courses actually worked out quite well. A big plus was being able to host remarkable guest speakers, who are top professionals, in classes (and the speakers did not have to travel but could Zoom in even from Europe). 

The students regularly showed up to my Zoom office hours and I got to know many of them as individuals. Quite a few continue to stay in touch, even though they have now graduated!

UMass Amherst has a vaccination mandate (with exceptions for medical and religious reasons) for students, faculty, and staff, so that has provided some reassurance even with the Delta variant. Of course, there are still hundreds who are not vaccinated.

Also, UMass Amherst has a mask mandate inside buildings and students have to be masked in classes (although, strangely, faculty do not, and this has been bothering me a lot but this policy, to date, has not been changed). I am teaching with an N95 mask my Transportation and Logistics course.

It is very clear to me that students are glad that the instruction is now face to face. The first two lectures (I have now taught for three weeks) I reminded the students that the masks must be worn so that they cover their noses and mouths. If a student needs to drink, then the student should leave the classroom, and do so outside the room. The students have been truly wonderful at complying. They care about the health and safety of all and doing their best so that we can continue to have the university open and classes conducted in person.

Some features of  "remote" learning remain, which are actually positives. Assignments, lecture notes, and homeworks are all posted on Blackboard. This saves paper and the environment and the grades are easy to calculate but the "marking" of the homeworks can be challenging since it is much easier to write on paper. The students have gotten used to submitting homeworks online and this positive feature remains.

Also, and this is also advantageous pedagogically, when we were teaching (and learning) via Zoom, the classes were recorded and I would post the videos on Blackboard. Students, could then go back to review the material. This feature was very convenient and helpful.

Now, each of my classes (I had to have a classroom switch, due to several issues, including broken windows and technology that did not work) is recorded via Echo 360. I post the videos of the classes on Blackboard. Last year, I taught synchronously on Zoom and I liked the fact that we had a set schedule, which provided a nice rhythm to the week with the class meetings and also office hours. The students very much appreciated that the classes were "live" and not prerecorded (asynchronous teaching and learning).

I emphasize to the students that they must let me know if they will be missing a class and that is certainly happening in the pandemic. Having recordings of class meetings helps, but being healthy and in class is the best. The courses I teach are quite technical and having students ask questions while the class is in session can save a lot of time and enhances learning. 

I make sure that a window is open and the door to the classroom as well for ventilation since a layered approach to minimizing risk and contagion is important. Even the vaccinated can transmit the Delta variant so one has to be very careful.

So far, the teaching in person experience (once I got a new classroom) has been enjoyable and rewarding, despite it being the pandemic. 

I receive many "Thank you!s" after each class, which makes my day. I hope to instill the passion that I have for the subject in my students.

I am sure that this semester will bring new challenges, but, so far, I am feeling, more or less, "safe" and I love teaching my Transportation and Logistics class and interacting with the students in person.

Now, if only my PhD student had gotten his visa in time, so that he could be my TA. He is scheduled to arrive now in Spring 2020.

Those Wonderful Thank You Notes from Students

It has been a very busy new Fall semester with exciting events, teaching my Transportation & Logistics class, and also finishing up 4 research papers that we have submitted on topics as varied as auction mechanisms for an affordable Internet, supply chain network capacity competition with outsourcing, consumer learning of product quality with time delays, and even short supply chains in the form of farmers' markets. Plus, I have been busy revising a paper on cybersecurity. Interestingly, all the above papers have been co-authored with my present or former doctoral students, including a present doctoral student whose committee I am on who is in Colombia,  and also faculty colleagues.

There is something very special about the Fall in New England, which marks the beginning of our academic calendar and I suspect that some former students, from undergraduates and even MBAs and doctoral students,  are reminiscing about their time at the Isenberg School and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At least it certainly feels like that to me given the wonderful messages I have been receiving from former students. Some have come through email whereas others have sent me actual hand-written Thank You cards, which I very much appreciate. I am a big fan of Thank You cards and below I have included a photo of some of them which I enjoyed reading through this afternoon while waiting for a co-author to get back to me. I have also received cards from doctoral students when I was a Visiting Professor in Sweden at the University of Gothenburg over a period of 4 years, which is very sweet.

It has been especially pleasant to receive messages from students that I taught 3 decades ago!

Below is a sample of the messages that warm my heart and make me smile. The first two were received since September.

Professor Nagurney,

Back in 1986 I was lucky enough to take one of your first classes, while I forget the name (logistics) and the number (I can find it in a box up in the attic) I will never forget how you changed my prospective on so many things.  It is amazing, other than you and Prof. Whitman (taxes), I do not remember another class or Professor like I remember you.  I know I have said it before, but thank you…for molding me for the world.  You are an amazing educator!

Professor,
 
I was a student of yours way back in 1985 or so, and I am just sending this to give you a shout out for what you taught me.  For years I worked in operations and accounting of various small businesses, and now I am finally at a company that is doing some high-level academic research, Abt Associates in Cambridge.  Mostly I will still be handling the numbers behind the scene but working on a couple of projects that have real-world, life saving implications sure feels better than maximizing profit at a garage door company.
 
Thank you for teaching me about the problems with user-optimized systems, I have used that thought many times in my life to date.  And all of the rest too.

And the following messages came a few weeks ago. The second one below was from a student that Professor Ceren Soylu and I co-chaired his dissertation.

Dear Professor Nagurney,

I am very excited to report that I just received a letter from the Penn
State President, informing me that I have obtained my tenure and have been
promoted to the rank of associate professor.  I would like to take this
opportunity to thank you for your support and endless care all these
years, without which I could not have been where I am now. Thank you!!!

Dear Professors Nagurney and Soylu,

To to honest, I don't know how best to start this letter. Part of me wants to begin describing a destination, but another with a reflection on the path that led to it. Ultimately, I think I gravitate towards the latter.

Not too long ago, when I first started reflecting about topics for my thesis, I knew two things: that I wanted it to be at the intersection between game theory and operations research, and that I wanted the research to have the potential to do good. With your guidance, I was fortunate to find a topic that was not only interesting and that met my academic goals, but one that impassions me and that I strongly believe will give me the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of helping those in need. And even beyond that, I feel very lucky to have found advisors who are as passionate, supportive, and engaged with their students as you.

About a month ago, I decided to apply for a scholarship in the CHC that recognizes 10 students the quality of their theses. I am very excited to let you know that, mostly due to your dedication and support, our work was selected among them. To be honest, I don't know what the best words are to thank you for your guidance, for your willingness to brainstorm with me, and for your commitment to help me overcome barriers as the arose. In a strange way, the more I try to think of the "best" adjectives to describe what I want to say, the more I feel that the phrases are trite. And so it may be best to leave it at a more simple, but heart-felt, "thank you for everything you have done for me along the way".

I've also been putting some thought into what to do with the award. I've come to the conclusion that, given the nature of the research, I want to donate the funds to a charity - and would love to include both of you in the process of selecting one.

Thank you again for all your support.

Finally, I end this blogpost with two handwritten messages in two of the Thank You cards in the photo above.

Professor Nagurney,

I just want to thank you for all the support you have given me this year. You are a passionate and inspirational teacher who cares deeply for your students. Personally you had a big impact on my experience at UMass. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know you.

Professor Nagurney,

You were instrumental in starting and sustaining the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Without you we would not have come together for this wonderful organization.

Thank You...and we would never be able to thank you enough.

We are highly appreciative and filled with gratitude for your guidance and support.

Being an educator at the university level is truly the best job in the world. No two days are ever alike and sometimes we actually make a difference! Now it is my turn to thank: Thank you to all my students - you challenge me, energize me, and together we address problems in the hope of making the world a better place.

Supernetworks Lab at the Isenberg School of Management

It is hard to believe that 15 years ago I founded the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and have served as its Director ever since.  My co-author and former doctoral student, Dr. June Dong, and I had written the Supernetworks book, grants were coming in from the National Science Foundation and the AT&T Foundation, and there was and continues to be great interest surrounding networks to this day.

A big component of the Supernetwork Center is the Supernetworks Laboratory for Computation and Visualization, or the Supernetworks Lab, for short.

I am excited to report that we now have a new home at the Isenberg School for the lab. It is now housed in Room G11 and was formerly in G28. The lab has workspace for students as well as guests and visitors, a conference table for meetings and discussions, storage areas, shelves for books and boards for posting as well as a blackboard for discussions. We also have teleconferencing capabilities which is critical with our National Science Foundation grants, which tend to be multi-university ones.

When I look at the dissertations that have come out of the lab, as well as the publications, and the books, since its inception, it is clear that a community of support, excitement, and collaboration on both research and teaching leads to discoveries plus to great enjoyment. Also, the Center has Center Associates from academia and industry, and students, both graduate and undergraduate ones, creating great synergies. I have supported several undergraduates under NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates grants. Two former Undergraduate Center Associates went on to receive the Leaders for the 21st Century Awards from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, upon their graduation, a select honor only given to about a dozen students a year. Doctoral Student Center Associated have been recipients of the Isenberg School Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher Award and the Outstanding Doctoral Student Teaching Award as well as INFORMS Judith B. Liebman Awards.  Two Doctoral Student Center Associates have been awarded national dissertation awards and one received two Isenberg Scholar Awards!

The lab and its Associates have been involved in numerous activities, from organizing conferences and workshops, to editing journal volumes, and serving as Associate Editors, to being frequently invited speakers at many prestigious forums in both academia and industry. The Supernetworks Lab page on the Virtual Center for Supernetworks contains more information.

Also, since Doctoral Student Center Associates are always very active in the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter and frequently serve as officers, speakers can come to the Lab for meetings and discussions. We also have awards received by the Student Chapter from its parent society INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)  (other awards of the chapter grace our beautiful Isenberg School atrium) and a big poster designed by the students.

What I am especially proud of is the great Supernetwork Team, whose members continue to work and collaborate together, building a resilient network across the miles. We are always stronger together!

Marathon Mondays

This semester I have a Monday Wednesday teaching schedule but my Mondays are true marathons with a morning class on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare, which is an hour and a quarter, and an afternoon seminar, on Advances in Variational Inequalities, Networks, and Game Theory, which is 2 hours and 45 minutes. I do a lot of lecturing in the latter class, although it is a seminar, because I want to make sure to bring all the students who come from different programs on campus to more or less the same level of knowledge.

So, do the math, the sum is 4 hours, which is exactly how long it takes me to run a marathon, which I have done several times in the past (no matter what my training was). I never, ever sit while lecturing.

I love the energy expended on teaching and the energy that I get from my students. Plus, when you have the opportunity to teach subjects that you are passionate about, the time flies (and, yes, many times we go over the time but there is so much to discuss and share).

I love face to face teaching and the interactions with students, which I would really miss if all the classes were online plus teaching is fabulous exercise if you do it right!

And being a professor is also good for your health.

In a study, "Postponed aging in university teachers," Kristjuhan and Taidre write that: In some population groups, human life expectancy is much higher compared to the average in the population, which can provide new hints to postpone aging and prolong life. Studies show that university professors have a later onset of age-related diseases compared with most population groups. Their productivity mostly increases up to their 60s and remains high for many years afterward. Aging processes appear later compared to the average in the population. Studies in Estonia have shown that university professors have 9 years longer life.

Operations research and economics have a good number of faculty that I have had the privilege of meeting and some even knowing that worked through their 80s and even part of their 90s (Professors George Dantzig, Kenneth Arrow, Leonid Hurwicz, Bill Cooper, Paul Samuelson, and Martin Beckmann, to start).   And unlike after running a marathon, in just a few days, if not hours, faculty are raring to go again!

Multidisciplinary Multiinstitutional Teaching Panel Today at UMass Amherst

This is a VERY busy time of the semester in academia and the academic year with many deadlines but also celebrations.

Nevertheless, when the invitation came from Professor Ana Muriel of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherst to take part in a Faculty Teaching Panel, I had to say, "Yes!"

Because where would we be without our students?!

Do join us this afternoon, if you can (and I will try to write up some highlights on this blog afterwards for those who can;t make it) , for an event that I am sure will be very informative and interesting for all those grad students who are interested in pursuing an academic career and will be teaching soon, if they are not already. We can learn so much from one another.

Hope to see some of you there!

UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter Presents Panel on Teaching

This semester I have been very busy teaching my course on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare and a Management Science seminar on Variational Inequalities, Networks, and Game Theory. Both of these courses are interdisciplinary with students from the Isenberg School of Management, the College of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the Computer Science Department.

In a recent exchange with the President and CEO of the America Red Cross, Ms. Gail McGovern (we were communicating about the great guest lecture of Mr. Rick Lee in my course), she said many things that resonated with me but the below was especially beautiful:

Having come straight from teaching MBAs to the Red Cross, I know firsthand that yours is such a noble profession.  I still keep in touch with many of my students, and I'm proud of  every one of their accomplishments.  It's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

How very  true!

And, this Friday, our great UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter will be hosting a special panel on teaching in which our very own PhD students in Management Science will be sharing their experiences with a lot of exciting Q&A and discussions I am sure.

Refreshments are at 11:00AM with the panel and discussion from 11:30-12:30 in Isenberg Room 128.

Please join us if you can.

The students  prepared the poster below. In this day and age, we need to all also be graphic artists.

 Some very valuable teaching also takes place outside of the classroom!

Modern Economic Theory -- where it went wrong and how the crisis is changing it

When I travel there are two things that I never leave home without -- my BOSE headphones and the latest issue of The Economist. Many overseas flights have been more enjoyable and productive because of these two reliable "companions." My next trip, which will not require an airplane, however, will be to Cambridge (Massachusetts) to teach a course in Executive Education at Harvard University. The course is on portfolio optimization, clearly a very timely topic given the financial crisis. My lecture and handouts are prepared and I am ready for an exciting experience. I will be bringing, of course, my latest issue of The Economist (July 18-24, 2009), which is motivating, in part, this posting.

The cover of this issue of The Economist has a brown book with the title, "Modern Economic Theory," that is melting like chocolate in the summer heat. The caption reads: "Where it went wrong -- and how the crisis is changing it." The issue has several articles, which further reinforced the relevance of my my perspective on the material that I will be covering in my course at Harvard.

My view of portfolio optimization is that of a critical building block for general financial models that can capture complex interactions among agents in the economy. Classical portfolio optimization problems also have an elegant network structure that can be exploited both for conceptualization and visualization purposes and also for computation of solutions. Such building blocks can help in the construction of macroeconomic models in which one can then explore all sorts of policies such as taxes, tariffs, price supports, transaction costs, etc., and upon which one can also build international financial network models and even explore financial intermediation. I have been writing a lot on financial networks with intermediation and electronic transactions and have supervised doctoral dissertations on the subject.

Amazingly, in an article, in this issue of The Economist, on page 66, is written "In many macroeconomic models, therefore, insolvencies cannot occur. Financial intermediaries, like banks, often don't exist." Perhaps some of those macroeconomic modelers should read the literature! A great place to start would be the volume: "Innovations in Financial and Economic Networks" that I edited in 2003 and was published by Edward Elgar. Other relevant papers can be found on the Virtual Center for Supernetworks website.

Then, to add further injury, on page 67, and I quote a remark attributed to David Colander, who has been surveying economists: "Instead of solving models 'by hand', using economists' powers of deduction, he proposes simulating economies on the computer." The entire field of Computational Economics is over a decade old and those of use who work in the interfaces of operations research and economics and finance well know the power and the use of not only mathematical models to capture the intricacies of human and economic interactions but also the use of algorithms and computers to predict the results of such interactions, including product and financial flows and prices. We have a Society for Computational Economics, an annual conference (the most recent one just concluded in gorgeous Sydney, Australia), and even a journal!

There is a serious disconnect between the literature and the state-of-the-art and what some economists and policy makers are aware of. It is high time that areas of computational social sciences, including computational economics, get the recognition that they deserve! There is some hope, nevertheless -- on page 69 of the same issue of The Economist, Andrew Lo of MIT is quoted and his novel idea of creating a financial equivalent of the National Transport Safety Board to deal with future financial crises! Coincidentally, and you heard it here first, we will be hosting Professor Lo in our Fall 2009 INFORMS Speaker Series at UMass Amherst (co-sponsored with the Finance series). I can hardly wait!

A "Typical" Day

As an academic knows, but much of the public does not realize, despite a regular teaching schedule, no two days for a professor are ever alike. This aspect of being an academic makes one's professional life challenging, always interesting, but also not for everyone. There is no such thing as a "typical" or "routine" day.

For example, yesterday, which was a Monday, turned out as follows. In the morning, I discussed, with a producer in New York City, a program that I will be involved in at the 2009 World Science Festival, which will be taking place in mid-June. Last year's festival was the first and it was a huge success. It took place in late spring in NYC and this year's festival will also be in NYC. The festival was modeled after one in Genoa, Italy, and attracted 100,000 participants last year!

Office hours followed with students dropping in as much to chat as to discuss work. Then it was time to teach. I am teaching a doctoral course, Management Science II, and the class lasted for two and a half hours. I love teaching the material and the session felt like ten minutes long to me. Then it was time for a scheduled phone conversation with an executive of a multinational firm, who is an Isenberg School of Management alum. Topics under discussion concerned possible internships for our students, and possible projects in supply chain optimization. Coincidentally, one of the topics of my preceding lecture had been trade-offs between different modes of transportation and the effects on product prices. It is always gratifying that we can be both rigorous and relevant while teaching in the Isenberg School of Management!

After the conversation, more students came pouring in, and it is always those spontaneous conversations that are the most fun. A student on crutches wandered in and we ended up talking, after discussing employment prospects in operations management, and in transportation and logistics, about soccer and the World Cup. He had actually been a professional soccer player in Portugal (and he was now on crutches because of soccer).

Teaching was done for the day and the homeworks graded so it was time to complete the service duties. I have the honor of serving as the Chair of the 2009 WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Award of INFORMS. In the capacity as Chair, I get to select the members of the committee. Yesterday, all the committee members were confirmed and we have a terrific committee in place! They include faculty at business schools and engineering schools as well as a parctitioner. The award will be announced at the INFORMS National Meeting in San Diego next October and the closing date for nominations is July 1, 2009.


As for research, there was good news on this front, too. Two of our papers, which we revised recently, have now been officially accepted for publication. One is on electric power supply chains with application to New England. The other paper is on the horizontal integration of multiproduct supply chains and associated synergies. These papers were co-authored with associates and students that I work with through the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst. The former paper will be published in the journal, Naval Research Logistics, and the latter paper, in the International Transactions in Operational Research.