Highlights and Photos -- The First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference at UMass Amherst

It takes a lot of planning and hard work to put on a conference and any successful conference is a major collaborative effort that takes months of preparation and careful attention to detail and logistics.

The First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference, which took place May 6-7, 2011, at UMass Amherst is now over and from all the comments that we have received, it was clearly a success.

Below I feature, through photos, some of the highlights of our conference.

Mornings at UMass Amherst Before the Sessions Began



Mary Magrogan and Tracy Byrnes of INFORMS with Some Members of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter in the Registration Area

The Introductions by Dr. Hari Balasubramania, Chair of the Conference, and Dean Mark Fuller of the Isenberg School



The Plenary Talks by Dr. David Simchi-Levi of MIT, Dr. Alex "Sandy" Pentland of the Media Lab at MIT, and Dr. Brenda Dietrich of IBM




The Interesting Panels, Some of the Speakers, and Coffee Breaks






Poster Session, Reception, and Informal Get-Togethers






Special thanks to the institutions that provided financial support, including the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst, and to Dr. Hari Balasubramanian of the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and to Dr. Les Servi of MITRE, for their extraordinary efforts in making this conference a success. It was such a pleasure to work with them.

Also, thanks to all those who traveled to our campus and gave such wonderful presentations and engaged everyone in stimulating conversations and discussions.

Thanks and applause to Mary Magrogan and Tracy Byrnes of INFORMS for spending several days at UMass Amherst and for doing so much before and doing the conference.

I would also like to thank the officers and members of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter who helped out with the projectors, the session notices, by giving directions, etc. Plus, many of the members presented their research and some even were panelists!

The Beginning of the New School Year

The beginning of the new school year is filled with new faculty and faces, receptions and introductions, and even elections (and, sometimes, appointments to new positions, including administrative ones).

Last Friday, we had our Fall 2010 reception in the atrium of the Isenberg School of Management, which had a terrific attendance. At this event, new faculty and staff were announced, and some administrative changes noted plus thank you's given by the administration to those who have put out an extra effort for the school. One of the highlights for me, every year, at this special occasion, is the introduction of our new doctoral students. This year we have a class of 20 new doctoral students that come to us from various parts of the US, from China, Egypt, Turkey, and even Bulgaria!

As the PhD Coordinator for the doctoral students in the Management Science track (some of the other tracks are: Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Organizational Studies, and even Sports Management) it is very exciting to see the new group of doctoral students who will be working closely with the faculty on research and, ultimately, teaching 2 or so courses at our school, before they received their PhDs.

And as Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Student Chapter I am delighted that the students already held an election and elected their 2010-2011 chapter officers!

Plus, we have thousands of new undergraduate students (4,500 freshmen, to start, at UMass Amherst) that have arrived. With neighboring colleges such as Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith, and Mount Holyoke also beginning the new academic year, this area of western Massachusetts is teaming with energy (and more traffic, I might add).

Last Friday night, with the reception at the Isenberg School and the one honoring Anna Schuleit and her "Just a Rumor" painting on the side of the Fine Arts Center, there was no need to cook dinner.