A Thank You to the School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma

I made it back late last night from the University of Oklahoma where, on April 1, I had had a whirlwind day, as part of the Dream Course, Understanding and Engineering Systems, that I had been invited to speak in. I delivered two lectures, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening, on supply chains and network vulnerability, respectively.

This post is to thank the School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma for the outstanding hospitality!

I stayed two nights in a Sooners Suite, which is actually a  large cabin. My suite had 2 bedrooms,  a huge livingroom, kitchen, and dining area, and I could not resist taking the photos, which feature a lot of University of Oklahoma (OU) decorations and memorabilia. Plus, there was a welcome bag for me upon my arrival.

One of the high points of my visit to OU included getting a quick  (my schedule was packed with meetings with faculty and students) drive around tour of campus by Dr. Randa Shehab, the Director of the School, and I managed to take a few snapshots below. The flowers were blooming, the sun was shining, it was warm (in contrast, it was snowing back home in Massachusetts), and the buildings and landscaping are simply stunning at OU!

 

Several groups of Master's and doctoral students presented overviews of their research projects to me -- very impressive and interesting work that is pushing both conceptual and methodological frameworks as well as applications from supply chains to energy to material science.

I also met with some faculty from the School of Computer Science and the Director of the School of Computer Science and had heard that my UMass CS colleague, Professor Don Towsley, had given a talk there a few months ago. It is such a small world in academia!

After my Dream Course lecture, and prior to my evening public lecture, I had dinner with the Faculty Advisors of the University of Oklahoma INFORMS Student Chapter, Professors Kash Barker and Hillel Kumin, in a room in the beautiful Student Union building -- to prove that I was actually there the photo below is of me standing in one of the rooms -- yes, those are oriental carpets and real flowers and plush chairs:

 

 

The Faculty Advisors for the OU INFORMS Student Chapter are standing to the right of the student chapter team leaders  in the photo above that I took after our dinner. The student chapter was very happy to have received the cum laude award from INFORMS (for the second time) at the Phoenix Annual meeting last Fall. We discussed the activities of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter that I have been the Faculty Advisor of for the past 9 years and compared notes and activities, including taking advantage of the great INFORMS Speakers Program!

Finally, I have to thank my host and the one resposible for this Dream Course, Professor Janet K. Allen, the John and Mary Moore Chair, for such outstanding hospitality. It even included a sumptuous buffet of Indian food at the Himalayas restaurant in Norman on Sunday evening, with her husband, Professor Farrokh Mistree, the Director of the School of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, and L.A. Comp Chair.

They also made sure that I saw the stunning engineering practice building (as told to me if athletes have practice buildings, engineers, should, too) in which I captured some of the student projects that will be entered in various competitions. Would you believe that the College of Engineering at OU has 200 National Merit Scholars!

I carried back an autographed copy of the book, A Letter to America, by David Boren, the President of the University of Oklahoma, given to me by Dr. Shehab.

The University of Oklahoma set new standards for academic hospitality -- thank you and congratulations on all the achievements from research scholarship to education!

Looking Forward to Speaking at the University of Oklahoma

Tomorrow (yes, Easter Sunday), I will be flying to Oklahoma through Dallas, Texas.

I was invited by Professor Janet K. Allen to take part in a Dream Course, Understanding and Engineering Systems, at the University of Oklahoma. As I wrote in an earlier post, President David L. Boren, who has been the University of Oklahoma's long-serving President, is an avid supporter of this initiative.

On Monday (yes, April Fools' Day), I will be giving two lectures. The first lecture will be in the Dream Course  class and is entitled: "Grand Challenges and Opportunities in Supply Chain Networks: From Analysis to Design."

The second lecture is a public lecture: "Assessing the Performance and Vulnerability of Networks from Transportation to the Internet, Financial Networks, and Supply Chains: Which Nodes and Links Really Matter?

 The notice for the public lecture is online on the page of the Vice President for Research.

I am very much looking forward to seeing a part of the USA that I have never been to.

Plus, the itinerary that has been prepared for me is wonderful and I will be meeting with faculty from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering there and the School of Computer Science and the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, as well as with administrators.

I will certainly be kept busy!

Another highlight will be meeting with some students of the University of Oklahoma INFORMS Student Chapter over dinner and before my public lecture on Monday night! As the Faculty Advisor of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, this will be an added treat.
 
Tomorrow evening should be an especially exciting time at the University of Oklahoma since the women's basketball team will be playing against Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen NCAA 2013 event in Oklahoma City, which is very near Norman.

I will post the full presentations after I return back to Massachusetts from Oklahoma.

Go, Sooners!

Dream Course

The invitation came through email from a chaired professor and I was very intrigued.
 

The invitation stated: It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the Presidential Dream Course titled “Understanding and Engineering Systems”.  

Dream Courses at the University of Oklahoma (OU) were initiated beginning in 2004 by President David L. Boren. The Dream Course program provides extra resources to enhance educational aspects of certain courses, in part for use to invite distinguished external speakers to campus. OU is particularly interested in courses that cover important topics for concerned and engaged citizens in the 21st century.

Recognizing the increasing importance of systems, our School has recently re-configured itself to become a School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. This lecture series will help us to focus attention on systems and systems engineering. 

We expect attendees to include students and faculty from various colleges from the OU Norman and Tulsa campuses.   We expect between 20 to 50 people to attend this lecture.

On behalf of the course coordinators it is my pleasure to invite you to be one of the key note speakers. 

In addition, we invite you to offer a lecture to the public during your stay with us.  We expect between 50 and 100 people to attend this lecture, including faculty, students, and the interested public, with backgrounds in engineering, economics, business, political science, humanities, and business. If time and travel constraints allow, these lectures are often accompanied by a reception and are covered by the daily university newspaper.

The invitation came from Professor J. K. Allen, who is also the Chair of the Dream Course Committee. She is an MIT grad and a UCBerkeley PhD and had previously been at Georgia Tech -- a great role model!

Since I work on network systems, the theme of the Dream Course was perfect and, since I have never, ever been to Oklahoma, this was a great opportunity. 

I also commend OU and its President for such a wonderful initiative!

 

In doing some additional research, I found that Dr. Boren has been President of OU since 1994 and he has had an amazing professional career, having graduated from Yale and then going on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, after which he obtained his law degree. He has been a Senator and has advised President Obama, among others.

Of course, I said yes to the invitation and, in early April, after returning from Sweden, I will give a lecture in Professor Allen's Dream Course entitled: Grand Challenges and Opportunities in Supply Chain Networks: From Analysis to Design. My public lecture will be on: Assessing the Performance and Vulnerability of Networks from Transportation to the Internet, Financial Networks, and Supply Chains: What Nodes and Links Really Matter?

I am very much looking forward to this speaking engagement.

Interestingly, President Boren is also on the Board of Directors of Mayor Bloomberg's Foundation.  Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of NYC, and his philanthropy, especially to his alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University, were the subject of my most recent post.