Delightful Surprises During My Visit to Speak at RPI on Disaster Relief

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, New York, at 10AM, so the day began quite early with a two hour drive from Amherst, MA. I was hosted by two Engineering departments and had been invited to give a talk there a year ago but my schedule did not permit a visit until now.
                                                  
I had given my host, Professor David Mendonca, a list of topics that I could speak on and the one selected was: Game Theory Network Models for Disaster Relief.
 
My talk is available for download and it was exciting to polish it since, in just the past three weeks, three of our papers on the topic have been published in journals, including: An Integrated Financial and Logistical Game Theory Model for Humanitarian Organizations with Purchasing Costs, Multiple Freight Service Providers, and Budget, Capacity, and Demand Constraints,  Anna Nagurney, Mojtaba Salarpour, and Patrizia Daniele, International Journal of Production Economics 212: (2019), pp 212-226.

The drive on the Mass Pike was smooth, despite the rain, and my husband was the designated driver. He had not been to RPI since he had been accepted there for Grad School, but ended up matriculating at Brown University, so he was eager to go back. I had to check my cv to see when was the last time I had spoken at RPI and found that I had given a seminar at RPI at the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department,  December 5, 2001! I recall a lavish holiday party with white roses and shrimp that I viewed in passing.

Once the technology for my presentation was set up, I heard some footsteps behind me and was absolutely thrilled to see one of my Operations and Information Management students from the Isenberg School of Management - Emily Agoglia! She had been a student in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class at Isenberg, is from Philadelphia, and is a world traveler, having most recently taken part in an academic program in Cuba! And she presented me with the lovely memento from Cuba below.

She had been in Cuba, when I was speaking and taking part in the amazing Congreso Futuro in Chile, so when we get together, we cannot stop comparing experiences. Her father is Professor Chris Agoglia, a renowned Accounting faculty member at Isenberg.

And, there was another delightful surprise - Professor William "Al" Wallace, who is now the Chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at RPI, came to my talk. He was the doctoral dissertation advisor of the incoming Isenberg School Dean - Dr. Anne P. Massey! Dr. Massey will be the first female Dean of the Isenberg School and it has an illustrious history of over 70 years. In fact, this coming Friday, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of our PhD program! I am very excited since many of my former PhD students will be coming back to campus. I am preparing a talk and have organized the Management Science PhD alumni panel for that day.

The photo below is of me with Professor Wallace and Emily.

After my talk, I had the pleasure of meeting with Professors Sergio Pequito, Thomas Sharkey, and Kristin Bennett. Sergio and I talked about our love of interdisciplinary work. With Thomas "Tom" we discussed his thrilling NSF project on the Arctic and he recently returned from Alaska, so I had to take the photo below. We also chatted about colleagues Dr. Renata Konrad of WPI (a fellow Ukrainian, whom we hosted in our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series) and Dr. Kayse Maas of Northeastern (and, of course, we then talked about the NSF workshop on human trafficking). Professor Bennett remembers me from way back when when she was in Amherst and from one of her first INFORMS conferences and thanked be for being an inspiration (that and many other surprises  made that rainy day a very bright one)! She received her PhD from University of Wisconsin Madison and Dr. Olvi Mangasarian was her PhD advisor.

The lunch was at the RPI Faculty Club where I enjoyed great conversations with Professors David Mendonca, Kristen Schell, and Cara Wang,  and ate a spicy lunch with purple rice!

Dr. Cara Wang is a Professor of transportation and her advisor was Professor Kara Kockelman of UT Austin. I know Kara from the regional science community. Interestingly, Cara had been at Bucknell University and then moved to RPI. Coincidentally, we recently hosted Dr. Thiago Serra in our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series and he is off to Bucknell University as an Assistant Professor in the Fall. Also, Dr. Kristen Schell is a relatively new faculty member of ISE at RPI and received her PhD from CMU in engineering policy. Our IE/OR doctoral student, Destenie Nock at UMass Amherst, defended her dissertation recently and will be joining that program as an Assistant Professor in the Fall.

And I would be remiss to forget to mention that Professor David Mendonca is an undergrad alumnus of UMass Amherst, and my Management colleague, Professor Emeritus Art Elkins, had convinced him to go to CMU since the Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences Herbert Simon was there (I had had dinner with Dr. Simon in Amherst at the Lord Jeffery Inn a while ago.) Dr. Mendonca collaborates with a cognitive psychologist, Dr. Wayne Gray at RPI, who is a Lafayette College alumnus, from the same class as my husband, so he kindly kept my husband busy and very entertained while I was speaking and meeting with colleagues!

On our journey back, we turned on the radio, only to hear UMass Amherst hockey score its first goal in its game against Harvard University and they won 4-0; they repeated their amazing performance yesterday evening against Notre Dame University, also with a score of 4-0, and are now off to the NCAA Frozen Four for the first time in the history of UMass Amherst hockey! The first game in the final will be on April 11, right when we are having a special banquet at the Isenberg School for the $62 million Business Innovation Hub celebration with the official unveiling (although we have been using it already a lot since late January) on April 12.

Great Time Speaking at the University of Michigan on Game Theory and Disaster Relief

I'd like to thank the INFORMS Student Chapter at the University of Michigan, its fabulous Chapter Officers and members, Professors Marina Epelman and Mariel Lavieri, and the INFORMS Speaker Program, for making my visit to the University of Michigan so memorable and wonderful! It was a pleasure to speak at the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE).

I had been invited by the Chapter President, Gian-Gabriel Garcia, last Spring, and due to too many engagements at that time, we settled on the date of October 5 for my talk.

This was my first time at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor so I was very much looking forward to presenting my work on game theory network models for disaster relief.

The trip on Delta from Bradley airport to Detroit was smooth and comfortable (although for some reason I got assigned a middle seat), and I was picked up in a big black SUV limo at the airport and then driven to my hotel. The chauffeur had been to the UMass Amherst graduation in May 2018 with his children since he had a nephew graduating (and his niece also graduated from UMass Amherst) so this was clearly a good sign! He shared with me how his children enjoyed the delicious food at UMass (indeed, we have been ranked #1 in this dimension for three years in a row).

My hosts had organized a delightful schedule for me, beginning with a pickup yesterday morning by Professor Mariel Lavieri, and a session with interested students. I was actually speaking in their diversity seminar series.

The students, which included even an undergrad student, along with graduate students plus a graduate student who had driven from Wayne State University and was a UMass Amherst alum (rather wonderful, I must say), came up with individual questions that they were interested in my answers to and Professor Lavieri wrote them down on a white board as below.

The questions were excellent - professors could stay for the first 30 minutes and then were asked to leave so the students could engage in further discussions. The hour flew by much too quickly. It was a treat to meet face to face doctoral students that I had been following through Twitter: in addition to the Chapter President Gian-Gabriel Garcia, I met Emily Tucker,  Lauren Steimle, and Karmel Shehadeh and later in the day - Adam VanDeusen and Ann aWhite.

Then, after perhaps a 5 minute break, it was time for my seminar and I have posted my presentation slides here.


It was an honor to have Professor Brian Denton, the 2017 President of INFORMS, come to my talk. He is now the Chair of the IOE Department and I also had a chance to speak with him later in the afternoon..

Many thanks to Lauren Steimle for sharing the photos below.

During my talk I mentioned my new book, which had been shipped and was supposedly had been delivered to the Isenberg School according to the publisher, Springer, while I was in Michigan (still have not seen the hardcopy).

Lunch was delicious and was served in the IOE building, which has to be one of the most beautiful engineering buildings I have ever been in, complete with artwork and beautiful decorations plus views. Many alums were back for Homecoming events.

It was wonderful to also see Professors Amy Cohn, Romesh Saigal, and Stephen Pollock plus Professor Larry Seiford. Professor Seiford,  who had been a colleague of mine at UMass Amherst before going to NSF and then to the University of Michigan, treated me to a cappuccino that he made!

I had the pleasure of listening (while we ate lunch) to Dr. Robert Sargent of Syracuse University reflect on his career in simulation and he was given the alumni award from Professor Bran Denton.

After the Q&A I got to meet Professor Sargent's daughter, who works for Intel, and just happens to be a UMass Amherst alumna in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research.

It is quite a special, wonderful academic OR world, I must say.

Thanks also to Professors Siqian Shen and Ruiwei Jiang for a great conversation after the guest lecture.

It was hard to say good-bye because there was still so much to discuss and I thank the students that have reached out to me even after my return.

And, to make a perfect visit even more perfect, although my flight from Detroit was supposedly fully booked, I got switched to a comfort aisle seat from a middle seat and just behind business class - thank you, wonderful Delta agent! For those of you who have not been to the University of Michigan (I have quite a few colleagues and even neighbors with Michigan degrees), it is worth the trip. The Detroit Airport is also a hidden gem with great restaurants and shops and an elevated, quiet red tram zipping past the gates.

The present and future of Operations Research are in good hands with the outstanding student leaders and scholars at the Department IOE at the University of Michigan. I did miss not seeing Professor Mark Daskin, but he had told me while we were at CORS in Halifax last summer, that he would be on sabbatical, and Professor Jon Lee was away at the US Naval Academy.

Also, a BIG thanks to the staff of the Department of IOE for their hospitality and for making all the logistical connections for me.

Fabulous Logistics Conference in Bogota, Colombia - over 8,000 Feet Above Sea Level

I returned last night from Bogota, Colombia where I had very memorable experiences.

I was in South America to give a plenary talk at the 2nd Industry and Organizations Congress - Logistics, Innovation and Technological Development. I was invited by the PhD program in Industry and Organizations Engineering of the National University of Colombia. The Department of Indiustrial Engineering also served as a host since it was celebrating its 15th anniversary.

 Bogota is at an elevation of about 8,300 feet and is situated on what was a savannah with the stunning Andes mountains in the background. The climate is perfect - about 65 degrees Fahrenheit all year round during the day time.

The city now has over 8 million residents so it was very interesting to see the traffic flow and the articulated busses in special bus lanes  as we were shuttled from the Radisson Airport Hotel, where the other plenary speakers and I were housed,  to the university. The hotel is actually 15 minutes from the airport and it is stunning and so comfortable. The first day, Gustavo, in the photo below with me, accompanied us on the shuttle. He is matriiculating this Fall in the  Master's degree program in Supply Chain Management that my former doctoral student at the Isenberg School, Professor Tina Wakolbinger co-directs at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.What a small academic world!

There was a very elegant opening session to the conference (congress)  with welcomes from academics and other dignitaries. The two announcers were also excellent.
 

It was a pleasure to see colleagues from RPI (Abhi Deshmukh), Purdue (Jose Holquin-Veras), and Montreal (Teo Crainic), and to make many new connections with researchers and practitioners, as well as delightful students,  from Colombia, Mexico, France, Chile, the US, and other countries.

There were about 500 in attendance and two rooms were used to seat the audience for the plenary talks, and the lectures were videostreamed. 

The program even had a musical interlude with the duo even singing a Ukrainian song (I found out that the guitarist's mother was Ukrainian). This certainly made me feel welcome since Ukrainian is my first language!

About 70% of the lectures were in Spanish so I had a mini Spanish refresher immersion course. I had lived in Mexico between high school and college so I understood a lot and can communicate in basic Spanish. I enjoyed my time in Bogota so much that I hope to have more opportunities to practice this beautiful language and to return to Colombia.

My lecture on Sustainable Supply Chains for Sustainable Cities was translated simultaneously as were the others. The last time I had a plenary or keynote talk of mine translated was when I spoke in China and in Russia a few years back.

The discussions on sustainability and supply chains that I had afterwards with fellow conference attendees were stimulating and provocative on topics from life cycle assessment to sustainable fish supply chains and corporate social responsibility. We discussed freight consolidation, cooperation among stakeholders in supply chains, and, of course, freight deliveries at night among other "policies." I had many students and faculty come up to me afterwards to be photographed with me and I very much appreciated the warmth and hospitality.

I enjoyed all the lectures that I attended and below are a few photos of the plenary talks: My colleagues were brilliant and I hope that the presentations get posted by the conference organizers.

Once the conference was over on Thursday at noon I then met with a former Isenberg School of Management MBA student of mine who gave me a private tour of the city and historic district. This truly magical experience I will write about in a subsequent blogpost.

Below, I have posted additional photos from the conference, some scenes of Bogota and the university, as well as our scrumptious breakfasts at the Radisson with papaya, fresh pineapple, and even watermelon juice.

Colombia has had a very challenging history and security is fairly tight. For example, the guards and explosive sniffing dog (whose name I found out is "Mark"), were situated next to the gate in front of the Radisson.

Plus, on my flight yesterday from Bogota to Atlanta I sat next to a female executive who works at Cargill in Minneapolis,  and who has a degree in Industrial Engineering from Colombia, and an MBA. Our conversations on topics ranging from risk management to being a professional female, who travels a lot, were fascinating. My collection of business cards has grown.

Many, many thanks to our wonderful hosts at this Congress for their warmth, attention to detail, hospitality, and for putting together such an excellent scientific program! 

Hasta luego!

Join Us for an Academic Career Panel at the Isenberg School of Management

Spring break is almost over and snow is still gracing the landscape of Amherst, Massachusetts!

There are many exciting events and activities that await us once all the students return and classes resume tomorrow.

There will be several events organized by the UMass INFORMS Student Chapter with the first upcoming one taking place on April 3, 2015.

I am delighted that, under the leadership of the chapter President, Michael Prokle, we will be hosting that day an Academic Career Panel: Application Process and Job Expectations. Coming back to the Isenberg School will be 2 of our alums, Dr. Amir H. Masoumi and Dr. Davit Khachatryan, both of whom received their PhDs in Management Science. Amir was my PhD student and did a great dissertation on perishable product supply chains in healthcare. He is now an Assistant Professor at the School of Business at Manhattan College in NYC.  Davit, on the other hand, after receiving his PhD, joined the consulting company PWC in Arlington, Virginia, and did terrific work in analytics for healthcare and financial services clients. He is now an Assitant Professor at Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Also, joining the panel will be the newest faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherst, Dr. Chaitra Gopallapa. I served on the search committee that brought her to campus. She has a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of South Florida. She worked on health issues at the Futures Institute in Glastonbuty, CT, before joining the faculty at UMass.

Questions are now being prepared to ask the panelists and I am sure that the discussions will be terrific. The panel should be especially useful to doctoral students who are interested in exploring academic careers and who may soon be on the job market!

Please join us, if you can!

Very Special Tribute to the Memory of an Operations Research Professor Even by a Nobel Prize Winner

Who has not been inspired, supported, or mentored by a special teacher or professor?

I will forever be grateful to my doctoral dissertation advisor, Professor Stella Dafermos, who gave me a lifetime of advice as my Professor at Brown University but who only lived until age 49.

About 3 years ago, I was asked to contribute to a volume in the Annals of Operations Research in honor of Professor Cyrus Derman, who was a leader in the rise of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University. The invitation came from Professor Michael Katehakis of Rutgers University.

However, during the preparation of the volume, Professor Derman passed away in April 2011 at age 85,  so the volume became a memorial volume, which has now expanded to two volumes.

I recently received the following message from Professor Mchael Katehakis, whose doctoral dissertation advisor was Professor Cyrus Derman.

We now have 50 (!) accepted papers and about 1000 pages. Contributors include: L. Shepp (Wharton), I. Olkin (Stanford), A.F. Veinott Jr. (Stanford), E. Denardo, (Yale), D. Bertsekas (MIT), A. Federgruen (Columbia), R.R. Weber (Cambridge), P. Kolesar (Columbia), P. Zipkin (Duke), H. Vincent Poor (Dean of Engineering School, Princeton Univ.), K. Sigman (Columbia), Flora Spieksma (Leiden) , L.C.M. Kallenberg (Leiden) M. Sobel (Case), Adi Ben Israel (Rutgers), S.M. Ross (Univ. of Southern California and emeritus of Berkeley), A.N. Burnetas (Athens Gr.) W. Powell (Princeton Univ.), Onésimo Hernández-Lerma (Mexico), Feinberg E. (SUNY) , C. Eaves (Stanford)   Melamed, Katehakis (Rutgers)  and many others.

The paper that we contributed to the volume, and that we worked very hard on, is: Supply chain networks with global outsourcing and quick-response production under demand and cost uncertainty, Zugang Liu and Anna Nagurney, in press  in the Annals of Operations Research. Our paper will appear in the first volume.

More information can be found in: Optimization under uncertainty: costs, risks and revenues-  Cyrus Derman memorial volume I Michael N. Katehakis, Sheldon M. Ross, Jian Yang,  who are the Guest Editors.

A very touching tribute to Professor Derman, also scheduled for the memorial volumes, and which contains photos, is:

 On the life and work of Cyrus Derman Michael N. Katehakis, Ingram Olkin, Sheldon M. Ross.

And, not to be missed, is the following: Some memories of Cy Derman by Alvin E. Roth.
 

Professor Roth, who was an Operations Research (OR) major at Columbia, and received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2012, along with Professor Lloyd Shapley, writes in the above essay:

In the manner of undergraduates, I didn’t have a clear idea of what my teachers did. But I recall admiring Cy Derman’s attitude: he seemed not to take himself too seriously. I recall he wore turtleneck shirts and talked about tennis, and summers at Stanford. When it came time to think about graduation, Cy urged me to think about grad school in OR, and volunteered to write a letter for me. Some time later, in a reflective moment, he said something to me like “I wrote you a very good letter. I’m not exactly sure why; you didn’t do all that well in your courses. But I have a feeling that you might be good at research.” Cornell and Stanford were the programs he recommended, and when I was accepted at both, his preference was clear, and I followed his advice, which set me on a path I’m still following.

We look forward to its publication, which I am told, should be soon!

Panel on How to Get an Academic Faculty Position

On April 19, 2013, the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter will be hosting a special panel on how to secure a faculty position in academia.

The students have prepared the nice poster below for the event that will take place at UMass Amherst from 10-11:00AM with refreshments at 9:30AM.

The event will be on the Engineering side of campus (not at the Isenberg School since all available rooms were booked that day).  It is nice to actually have our events alternate locations since our student members come from the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering, primarily, although, not exclusively, with the latter best represented by students in the Industrial Engineering program.

 

The message below is being circulated by the students. We will have two faculty from the Isenberg School on the panel, including yours truly, who is the chapter's Faculty Advisor, two from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and my most recent doctoral student, Amir H. Masoumi, who will be taking part in the graduation ceremonies at UMass Amherst next month at which he will receive his PhD diploma. 

Dear Members,

The UMASS Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS invites you to our "The Process of Applying for and Securing an Academic Position" Panel.
 
The panelists are: Professor Anna Nagurney  and Professor Senay Solak  from the Isenberg School of Management, Professor Ana Muriel and Professor Hari Balasubramanian from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, and PhD Candidate Amir H. Masoumi, who successfully defended his dissertation in February 2013 and will receive his PhD with a concentration in Management Science in May 2013.

The panelists will share their experiences and answer any questions that the audience may have regarding the academic job search.
 
We strongly encourage you to come!

Date and time: 9:30am-11:00am, April 19th
Place: Room #323, ELAB I

UMass Student Chapter of INFORMS

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!