Cybersecurity Risk Analysis for Enteprise Security - Great Presentations Now Online!

I would like to thank the Advanced Cyber Secuity Center (ACSC) for funding the second phase of our project at UMass Amherst, which focused on Cybersecurity Risk Analysis for Enterprise Security.

As part of the project, with Co-PIs Professor Mila Sherman and Senay Solak of the Isenberg School of Management and Professor Wayne Burleson of the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst, we organized a workshop at the MIT Sloan School on September 19, 2014. I had blogged about the workshop and am delighted that the ACSC has now made all of our presentations online so that you can read and reflect at your leisure!

The full agenda is here.  I have posted the first page of each presentation below along with the link to the presentation in the order of presentations, so enjoy. Cybersecurity is not only a topic filled with  fascinating research questions but also one of great practical importance for businesses and organization and their very security.

Link to Guenther's presentation.

Link to Burleson's presentation.

Link to Clark's presentation.

Link to my presentation.

Link to Devadas' presentation which was part of a panel.

Link to Lo's presentation.

Link to Getmansky Sherman's presentation.

Link to Solak's presentation.

Photos from the Fabulous Supply Chain Workshop in Switzerland

Yes, it was a whirlwind trip -- I flew from Boston to Zurich on September 10 and returned yesterday, September 15, with new research ideas, great new contacts, and visual scenes and experiences that were simply fabulous.

Below, I present, in photos, some of the highlights. The purpose of my trip was to deliver the talk Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma at the Workshop on Supply Chain Vulnerability and Resilience. The Workshop was organized by the ETH Risk Center and the Zurich Insurance Group.

The view from my room at the Zurich Development Center (ZDC) (Lake Zurich and the Alps with the green landscape in the foreground):

Some of the art displayed at the ZDC, which was a former sanitarium and where Bircher invented bircher muesli -- delicious -- soccer fans will appreciate the photos, I am sure:

 Some photos from the conference:

 Scenes outside the workshop venue:

Thanks to the organizers of this Supply Chain Workshop for such an extraordinary workshop in a perfect venue!

Looking forward to the Vulnerability and Resilience of Supply Chains Workshop in Zurich

The other day I saw a colleague of mine and asked him what was he looking forward to, given that the new academic year was about to begin. 

The response surprised me -- he said "January."  He was serious and was not joking.

I know that, sometimes, perhaps, one may not feel valued by one's immediate organization and that can include one's school or university but one has to look at the bright side of things and make the most of any situation.

As an operations researcher and management scientist, I try to optimize the resources that I am given and to take advantage of any opportunities and, of course, make opportunities for students and colleagues (as much as is feasible).  One needs to be resilient!

I have written a lot on network vulnerability and robustness from supply chains to transportation networks and the Internet with fabulous former students, who are now great colleagues at other universities from Dr. Patrick Qiang to Dr. June Dong, as well as with my collaborators from Dr. Patrizia Daniele of the University of Catania in Italy and Dr. David Parkes of Harvard University, among many others.

Besides getting ready for the new academic year, which begins at UMass Amherst next week, I am also working on a presentation for a workshop that I am very excited about. The workshop is on Vulnerability and Resilience of Supply Chains and it will take place at the ETH Risk Center in Zurich, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2013. Below, I have posted the agenda, which looks fabulous, and should be an outstanding workshop in terms of presentations and discussion -- so looking forward to it!

 More information on the workshop is available from the workshop website.

Many thanks to all those who have put the agenda and associated activities together!
 

Organizing Committee

• Dirk Helbing (ETH Zurich) 
• Wolfgang Kröger (ETH Zurich)
• Benno Keller (Zurich Insurance Company)

Organizing Team

• Petra Monsch
• Hilary Woodard
• Matthias Leiss

Vulnerability and Resilience of Supply Chains

Resilience is a theme that resonates among researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. Michael Batty, in his editorial,  Resilient cities, networks, and disruption,  in the latest issue of Environmental & Planning B, argues that: Resilience is a more precise term than sustainability and, although it has some rather ill-defined properties, resilience can be defined relatively unambiguously, making it somewhateasier to apply to complex systems like cities.

I would argue that sustainability is a key building block of resiliency whether it comes to cities or supply chains, which span our globe and, interestingly, my paper, "Design of sustainable supply chains for sustainable cities," is now in press in Environment & Planning B.

I have written a lot on network vulnerability, including that of supply chains, as well as robustness and synergies associated with partnerships and teaming and even mergers and acquisitions. So, when the invitation to attend the ETH Risk Center Workshop on Vulnerability and Resilience of Supply Chains -- see information below came -- I was very intrigued and accepted to speak.

I am honored to be in such a great lineup and I am sure that there will be many stimulating presentations and discussion!

The talk that I am preparing for this workshop is: Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma. I will discuss some o fthe major methodologies, models, and applications in our latest book Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products.

Hope that some of you can join us in Zurich, Switzerland for the workshop next month! 

Risk Center: Vulnerability and resilience of supply chains

Workshop 2013 - ETH Risk Center: Vulnerability and resilience of supply chains

ETH Zurich (Switzerland), September 12-13, 2013

Topics

• Supply chains as economic networks and “critical infrastructures”
• Response to external shocks and inherent instabilities
• Risk reduction, disaster response management, and insurance issues

The following questions will be addressed:

• What kinds of hazards are there? What are the challenges?
• What does the interaction of regulators and the industry look like during a critical event?
• What are the critical parts in supply chains seen from the different perspectives? How can one identify them, what could be improved?

Speakers

• Prof. Dr. Yossi Sheffi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Prof. Dr. Paul Schönsleben, ETH Zurich
• Prof. Dr. ManMohan Sodhi, Cass Business School London
• Prof. Dr. Anna Nagurney, University of Massachusetts
• Prof. Dr. Uta Jüttner, Cranfield University
• Dr. Till Becker, Jacobs University Bremen
• Dr. Robert de Souza, Executive Director of the The Logistics Institute - Asia Pacific
• Dr. Kamil Mizgier, UBS
• Adrian Clements,  General Manager Asset Risk Management, ArcelorMittal
• Phillip Kriegbaum, Fraport AG
• Otto Kocsis, Global Head of Technical Center Business Resilience, Zurich Insurance Group

Program

The workshop will run for two days, with an evening dinner cruise on Lake Zurich after the first day. Two sessions each day will consist of talks by invited speakers and there will be a panel discussion at the end of each day.

Preliminary program.

Poster session

The poster session offers an opportunity for an interactive presentation of your work.

If you want to present a poster, please submit a pdf file of it (max. 5 megabytes) to info-riskcenter@ethz.ch. The best posters will be selected for the poster exhibition by the program committee. The submission deadline is July 31.

Registration

Please click here for your registration to the workshop. There is a participation fee of 200 CHF. Note: The number of participants is limited.

Organizing Committee

• Dirk Helbing (ETH Zurich) 
• Wolfgang Kröger (ETH Zurich)
• Benno Keller (Zurich Insurance Company)

Organizing Team

• Petra Monsch
• Hilary Woodard
• Matthias Leiss

The workshop is sponsored by the ETH Risk Center and the Zurich Insurance Group.