Outstanding Future BA (Business Analytics) Prof Workshop at the University of Iowa

I recently returned from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. I was there to give an invited talk on research at the 3rd Future BA (Business Analytics) Workshop. Many thanks to Professor Ann Melissa Campbell for inviting me and congratulations to her and to her workshop co-organizers Professors Kang Zhao and Beste Basciftci on the success of the workshop!

There had been 80 applicants with 28 selected and participating with advanced PhD students and postdocs from many universities taking part including: UC Berkeley, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Clemson, University of Oklahoma, University of Buffalo, Harvard, MIT, and UMass Amherst.  It was my first time in Iowa and it was great to see the faculty and to also hear from the other invited speakers: Professor Tallys Yunes, who spoke on teaching, and Professor Bin Gu, who also spoke on research. 

Below is a photo that was taken of the group. It was quite remarkable that I had met several of the PhD students previously. 

I was also thrilled that my PhD student, Dana Hassani, took part. It was great to hear him give the elevator speech on his research and to hear from the others.

What impressed me was the enthusiasm and passion of the participants for their research, which I found uplifting and inspiring. 

The workshop kept us all very busy with the presentations, nice lunches and coffee breaks, networking sessions, and a dinner at a winery.

We could not resist taking a few more photos and the smiles on everyone's faces show how rewarding this workshop was.

I have posted the slide deck of my presentation here.

I wish all those who took part best of luck on their research and completing their dissertations, if they have not done so, plus successful academic job interviews!

I was very touched by the number of nice email messages I received from the PhD students and participants - they were very heartwarming and I appreciate the politeness and the reaching out.

This group has established a very nice and supportive network and I warmly thank Professors Campbell, Zhao, and Basciftci. It was also terrific to hear from Professor Barrett Thomas and to see Professor Thiago Serra, who has just joined the Tippie Business Analytics faculty after spending 5 years at Bucknell University.

Some background on this workshop on its website here.

Beginning of My Sabbatical and My Twelfth Year of Blogging

It is hard to believe that this month I am celebrating 11 years of writing on this blog. My first post  was on the New Year - New Administration - New Blog. In that post I also noted a Letter to the Editor that I had had published in The New York Times on the students in my Transportation and Logistics class that I teach at the Isenberg School.  It is quite interesting to look back at the posts. Many provide timely advice. Interestingly, my third post was on my interview with Linda Baker on the Braess Paradox, for an article that she wrote for the Scientific American. And, coincidentally, my most recent article is on The Braess Paradox, an invited chapter for The International Encyclopedia of Transportation.

My blog has over 1,600 posts that I have written!

I am about to start my sabbatical, which means that I will not be teaching this Spring 2020 semester. I must admit that I will miss not teaching Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare and also my PhD Seminar but there are many projects to start and others to finish up and also numerous very exciting speaking engagements and visits. Some service activities to the Isenberg School (and beyond, of course), will still be on my plate.

I am very excited about the INFORMS Security Conference, which takes place next month in Monterey, California. The website is live and the speakers and talks look fabulous - I am especially delighted that all speakers get a 50 minute time slot, so one can really share insights and also gain some!

At this conference, I will be speaking on: Game Theory Network Models for Disaster Relief. Coincidentally, the first conference presentation that I ever gave was when I worked in the high tech sector for the Naval Underwater Systems Center in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island, and it was at an MIT/ONR Conference at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey! I was the only female presenter. In addition to working, I was also pursuing a Master's at Brown University at that time. It will be very special to be back there.

Some other highlights of my sabbatical, in terms of conferences and visits are the following:

In March, I will have the honor of giving a plenary talk at the Netgcoop Conference in Corsica, France, while my PhD student, Deniz Besik, presents on our work on tariffs, quotas, and trade at the INFORMS Optimization Society Conference in Greenville, South Carolina.

In April, I will have the pleasure of being an invited speaker at an International Workshop at the University of Brescia in Italy on Variational Analysis and Applications for Modelling of Energy Exchange. There I will see many wonderful Italian colleagues!

In May, it will be time to fly to Iowa, a state that I have never been to. Many thanks to Professor Ann Campbell for inviting me to give a plenary talk at a very exciting 2-day workshop - Future BA (Business Analytics) Prof! This workshop will take place at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa and all expenses for accepted applicants will be covered. The workshop is for advanced PhD students and post-docs —especially women and individuals from underrepresented groups — who are interested in academic careers in Business Analytics.

A huge highlight of my sabbatical will be the CORS Conference in Toronto in June. Also at this conference I will have the immense honor of delivering the Harold Larnder Prize plenary talk. The list of previous recipients of this prize can be found here. I am absolutely thrilled by this recognition and am the only the second female to receive this prize, which dates to 1986. The title of my Larnder lecture is: Trade Wars: OR in the Economic Battlefields.

I spoke at the CORS Conference in Halifax and had a tremendous time. Having been born in Canada, and having lived for a few years in Toronto, it will be great to be back. 

I will also be giving a seminar at the University of Toronto in March.

There will be other conferences in June and I will be busy also co-editing a new Dynamics of Disasters volume with Panos M. Pardalos and Ilias S. Kotsireas. We have received a contract from Springer and work has already begin with refereeing some of  the contributions, etc.

And, in late August, as my sabbatical is coming to a close, it will be time for the CLAIO 2020 Conference in Madrid, Spain. In 2019, I had the pleasure of speaking in Chile,  Colombia, and Mexico, and am so honored to have been selected the IFORS Distinguished Lecturer (IDL) at CLAIO. I will give my IDL plenary at this conference with the title: NetwORks: Changing Our WORld for the Better. This will be my first visit to Spain.

Of course, as my schedule and time permit, I will still be supporting the great UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter and its Speaker Series and also directing the Virtual Center for Supernetworks and working with my PhD students! Updates on my sabbatical will certainly be posted on this blog.

Many thanks to everyone for 11 great years of support of this blog!

Succeeding with Business Analytics - Great Talk by Dr. Kulkarni of SAS

Today we had the great honor and pleasure of hosting Dr. Radhika Kilkarni, the VP of R&D Analytics at SAS in Cary, NC.

Kudos to the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter for organizing her visit. The students and chapter officers did a great job and I thank them! Special thanks to the Chapter President, Michael Prokle, for all the planning and attention to detail and logistics!

Dr. Kulkarni is both an INFORMS Fellow and a WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Award recipient and one of the highest technical females in her company, which has 11,000 employees and is consistently ranked as one of the top companies to work for in the US.

She began her day in the Isenberg School of Management with a meeting with students in the Elkins Boardroom. The school's  atrium was decorated with flags, which was perfect.

The conversations and questions and answers were so interesting that the session began at 8:30AM and lasted until almost the reception prior to her talk, at 10:30AM.

The free exchange of ideas, ranging from courses that should be offered in analytics curricula, to the training of doctoral students in the hot field of business analytics, to the kinds of projects that Dr. Kulkarni has been involved in from models of churning to ATM cash flow optimization for different banks in different countries, to hotel revenue management and price optimization, were so interesting! She spoke of the integration of different tools and the benefits of harnessing social networks data even in the modeling of fraud. Some of the themes she then further discussed in her presentation: Succeeding with Business Analytics: Key Challenges, that began at 11AM and that was streamed live to our online and part-time MBA students.

In her presentation she spoke of the challenges such as Big Data and the Internet of Things. She spoke of the need for speed in terms of algorithms, for example, which is also calling for high performance computer architectures and greater storage. With sensors interacting, there is a need for time series as well as statistical multivariate methods.

She emphasized the "mixing and matching" of different techniques, an idea that I very much appreciate.

Do you have the right date, the right process, and the right people, she asked?!

I also enjoyed hearing her say how important it is to exploit network data and information, including that gained from social media.

In the education of analytical experts, cross-disciplinarity is needed and the ability to collaborate.

Of course she emphasized the importance of knowledge of statistics, optimization and operations research, as well as mathematical modeling.

She ended on a highly enthusiastic note saying how lucky students are who are in this era of analytics.

There were great questions and I was delighted to also see some students from my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class in the audience and even one of our OIM alums, Jonathan Farland, who came in from Boston to hear Dr. Kulkarni speak - a disclosure - he works in energy forecasting and uses SAS software.

At our lunch at the University Club we had such a great time (although the service was painfully slow and we finally got our lunch around 1:30PM) because the conversations were so much fun. We laughed so much with the stories that we exchanged.

Afterwards we had a roundtable in my Supernetworks Lab but there was some anxiety since Dr. Kulkarni's flight out of Bradley was delayed and it looked as though she would miss her second legged flight from Philly to Raleigh later this evening. We bid her farewell, all feeling so energized and intellectually stimulated.

Dr. Kulkarni's visit was co-sponsored by the INFORMS Speaker Program and  the Operations and Information Management Department, with additional support from my Chaired Professorship Fund, and with help from the MBA Programs Office.

Thanks to all involved and with special thanks to Dr. Radhika Kulkarni, an amazing role model and business analytics professional and operations researcher.

The Speaker Has Landed!

I have helped students in the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter to organize the UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series for many semesters.

Of course, associated with bringing speakers from out of towm is the uncertainty as to whether they will be able to make it - things happen - illnesses and weather disruptions, to name just two. And, in fact, a program officer from NSF had to cancel her talk since her flight was cancelled from DC today.

Not only are the INFORMS offices closed in Maryland, but also USA Today is reporting that 20% of the flights in the US are cancelled today due to inclement weather.

Our speaker, Dr. Radhika Kulkarni, just landed a few minutes ago in Bradley Airport, having flown from Raleigh, NC through Pittsburgh to make it to her presentation at the Isenberg School tomorrow, with extra events planned. Needless to say all those involved have breathed a big sigh of relief, including me!

Special thanks to the INFORMS Speakers Program, the Department of Operations and Information Management at the Isenberg School, and the MBA Programs office for assisting in the co-sponsorship and organization of  this event. Her presentation at 11AM tomorrow will be viedotaped and streamed live to our interested MBA students.

The students did a great job  designing the poster below and Dr. Kulkarni's talk is advertised both on the UMass Amherst events page and the Isenberg webpage.

At 8:30AM tomorrow morning, we will be having a Meet and Greet in the Elkins Boardroom Room 111 in the Isenberg School.

Also, and just in time, the Officers of the Student Chapter have updated the student chapter poster on their Isenberg School bulletin board. Many thanks to the Chapter President, Michael Prokle, and the officers.

Who would have thought that the role of a professor is also being an events manager?

A New Business Era for Analytics and Why Math Matters

According to The New York Times, there is a shortage of graduates with math skills, who can analyze the massive amounts of data that are now available for businesses (and other organizations).

Economists are saying that we are entering a new era, similar to the Industrial Revolution, in which the access to huge volumes of data can spur innovation, new products, and new business models.

McKinsey & Company issued a new report, Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition, and Productivity, which bodes well for those of us who, as business professors, teach the quantitative subjects, such as operations research / management science, as well as for our students.

Clearly statistics and experimental design and data mining are essential for filtering out the data streams but, as important, is knowing what to do with the data and how to optimize our business (and other) processes accordingly. We can't just sit and analyze the past but need to work on managing the world's resources for a safer, more secure, and sustainable future. Math matters and, besides, not only is it so much fun but doing and applying math is also rewarding and useful!

Perhaps the US will finally wake up and realize how essential math education is to the present and the future of our country and its very competitiveness.

More on the Northeast INFORMS Regional Conference at UMass Amherst!

I wanted to give you an update on the first Northeast INFORMS Regional Conference that will take place May 6-7, 2011 at UMass Amherst!

The deadline for abstract submissions is fast approaching and it is February 18, 2011!

The committee that is organizing this conference is terrific with Dr. Hari Balasubramanian of the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst as the Chair and Dr. Les Servi of MITRE and Dr. Tamas Terlaky of Lehigh University as the Program Co-Chairs!

Dr. Servi has already confirmed that Dr. Brenda Dietrich of IBM will be giving one of the plenary talks. She is the Vice President of Business Analytics and Mathematical Sciences, which is part of the IBM Research Divisions. She is also an INFORMS Fellow. It will be great to welcome Dr. Dietrich back to UMass Amherst.

We have gotten terrific support for this conference from the University of Massachusetts Amherst from the Isenberg School of Management, the College of Engineering, and even the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement, so thanks to all!!!

I am putting together the Network cluster of sessions and I am pleased to report that Dr. Zugang Liu has already organized the Risk Management: Interfaces between Finance and Operations session, which includes the following presentations:

	Supply Chain Outsourcing Under Exchange Rate Risk and Competition
	Presenting Author:	Zugang Liu Assistant Professor of Business Administration Pennsylvania State University 76 University Dr Hazleton PA 08071 United States of America ZXL23@PSU.EDU
	Co-Author:	Anna Nagurney John F. Smith Memorial Professor UMass Amherst Department of Finance and Operations Mgt Isenberg School of Management Amherst MA 01003 United States of America nagurney@gbfin.umass.edu
Title:	Risk Reducation and Cost Synergy in Mergers and Acquisitions via Supply Chain Network Integration
	Presenting Author:	Anna Nagurney John F. Smith Memorial Professor UMass Amherst Department of Finance and Operations Mgt Isenberg School of Management Amherst MA 01003 United States of America nagurney@gbfin.umass.edu
	Co-Author:	Zugang Liu Assistant Professor of Business Administration Pennsylvania State University 76 University Dr Hazleton PA 08071 United States of America ZXL23@PSU.EDU
Title:	The Effects of Social Relationship on Supply Chain Networks Risk and Transaction Cost
	Presenting Author:	Jose Cruz Assistant Professor of Operations Management University of Connecticut School of Business 2100 Hillside Road Storrs CT 06268 United States of America Jose.Cruz@business.uconn.edu
Title:	Econometric Measures of Systemic Risk in the Finance and Insurance Sectors
	Presenting Author:	Mila Getmansky Sherman University of Massachusetts Amherst MA United States of America msherman@som.umass.edu
	Co-Author:	Monica Billio University of Venice Venice Italy billio@unive.it
	Co-Author:	Andrew Lo MIT Cambridge MA United States of America alo@mit.edu
	Co-Author:	Loriana Pelizzon University of Venice Venice Italy pelizzon@unive.it

Hope that you can join us -- Amherst is beautiful in May!

Happy New Year for Business Analytics and Operations Research with Resolutions!

I hope that you have recovered from your New Year's Eve celebrations and are off to a fabulous start of the New Year!

Due to the blizzard of 2010, my family and I did not make it to NYC (and neither could many of our friends fly in) so we will not be attending the Salute to Vienna New Year's Concert 2011 in Lincoln Center with a ballet from Ukraine today, but my 92 year old uncle, who now lives in Manhattan, and was one of only three employees to show up at the bridge design engineering firm where he still works last Monday, will be there!

So, instead of being in NYC, I began 2011 in Amherst with a big bowl of blueberries, Greek yogurt, and muesli, and a delicious cup of Starbuck's coffee (a Christmas gift) and settled down to checking my email when my attention got pleasantly diverted from all the e-list renewals by the blogpost, New Year's Resolutions from Dr. O.R. Field, by Dr. Mike Trick.

I had reflected on last year's events in a recent blogpost, and, frankly, marveled at how many of the highlights were professional conferences around the globe where not only do colleagues reconnect and present their latest scientific discoveries but also exchange personal and professional stories and they do so in exciting venues.

Mike Trick, in his on target post, written with a lot of wisdom and humor, in an interview format, nails the celebratory events of our profession and calls them parties, right in the spirit of the season! He writes: Look at the parties I throw every year (that is “professional meetings” when discussing reimbursements with department heads). The last party I threw in Austin drew more than 4600 people! I remember ten years ago I would hold two parties a year and be lucky to get 2000 at either one of them. Any (of) my European parties (and what parties they are!) are also breaking records every year.

I concur and when I think of what I am looking forward to 2011 -- tops are the terrific conferences that will take place in 2011!

Thanks also to Mike for bringing out the fact that females add so much to both the leadership of INFORMS as well as to so many of its fun and rewarding professional activities from panels organized by WORMS to one of my favorites at the annual INFORMS conference -- the WORMS luncheon (which is a must get-together for many of our PhD graduates, male or female).

The success of Operations Research and Business Analytics is based on the discoveries, achievements, and accomplishments of its professionals, and the numbers (including students) that are attracted to it. The challenges facing our world today cannot be fully addressed nor resolved without the brainpower (past, present, and future) of our field.

The downside of the blizzard and the transportation disruptions was that we did not go to NYC; the upside was that we stayed back in Amherst to a landscape of great snow-covered beauty and tranquility and I wrote a paper on a topic that I had been researching for over a year. All the pieces fit together from the theory to the algorithm and the numerical examples and I was able to show the equivalence between two network equilibrium systems in economics and ecology and the paper cites the first paper (on spatial price equilibrium) that I ever published in the journal Operations Research and it was with my dissertation advisor at Brown, Stella Dafermos. There is nothing like the "Aha!" moment, which makes one soar intellectually (and emotionally)!

So when the going gets tough, go and do research!

Let me end with the beginning quotes from Oh! The Places You'll Go! by the incomparable Dr. Seuss, the nom de plume of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth College, and received his doctorate from Oxford University:

Congratulations!

Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

Happy New Year to everyone!