Anyone who thinks that professors have a life of routine and their weeks are just punctuated by the classes that they teach are completely wrong.
If you like a predictable routine each day then being an academic is certainly not for you.
On the other hand, those of you who crave novelty, excitement, interactions with fascinating people, the exchange of new ideas as well as dynamism and being surrounded by energy and activity, then being an educator and a college professor is a dream job.
What makes being a college professor so special is the students and all that we do is really for the students!
This week is one of those weeks that highlights the span of activities that a fculty member is engaged in so let me tell you what we have been up to.
On Monday, I was videotaped by a UMass Amherst undergrad who is a member of the Isenberg School of Management Marketing Club for an Isenberg Youtube series that the club started on Meet the Professors. The students are editing my interview and it will be posted soon. I got to hear about the student's major and we reminisced about New Jersey, where he is from. The extracurricular activities that our students are engaged in are diverse and they acquire numerous skills through them.
Then, after meetings with advisees and doctoral students, it was time to march across campus for a search committee meeting. I am serving, with my great colleagues in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, on a faculty search for an Assistant Professor in Systems Engineering. We went over the piles of applications and reached a consensus as to the top candidates, which was gratifying. There are fabulous PhD students out there. We will be very busy with their visits and interviews in the coming weeks. And if you want to see how in demand systems engineering expertise is just read about UTC's gift of $10 million to UConn to create an institute with faculty positions.
On Tuesday, I taught my OIM413 Logistics and Transportation class, which I love teaching and will soon be teaching a class today, as well. The students are now identifying the topics that they will be doing their project papers on. These will be individual projects, rather than team projects, due to the late Thanksgiving this year and only one week of classes afterwards. I worked on a rubric (never had one of these in my Brown University days) to help them with their papers. Then, after more meetings it was time for our "weekly" National Science Foundation (NSF) project teleconference. Our project: Network Innovation Through Choice is one of 5 Future Internet Architecture projects selected by NSF. Our project team, consisting of Professor Tilman Wolf of the College of Engineering, me, and our doctoral students, with Professors Ken Calvert and Jim Griffoen of the U. of Kentucky, Professors Rudra Dutta and Georre Rouskas of NCState, and Dr. Ilia Baldine of the Renaissance Institute at UNC, and their students, is working on a new Internet. We discussed the recent Principal Investigators Meeting that took place in San Diego and you can view the presentations (ours was given by Dr. Dutta) here.
Then it was time to complete my talk for the TEDx UMassAmherst Professor Speaker Showcase, which takes place next Monday, November 25, in ISOM's Flavin Room. Students had nominated me for this special event and I am so honored and excited to be part of it. On Tuesday, some students had made an elaborate colorful announcement in chalk in my classroom, which was such a surprise -- I was redder than the bright red jacket I wore that day!
On Wednesday, I received a wonderful message from the Founding Editor of the Goteborg Daily, which is an English language newspaper published in Sweden's second largest city, sometimes also spelled and pronounced as "Gothenburg." My interview was published with photos and it brought back so many memories. Many nice messages followed from colleagues and students in Sweden, Austria, and the U.S. (and even from a few thoughtful top administrators) who had seen the article -- Thanks for the support!
My TEDx talk "completed," I met with several of the organizers of this event -- the students are so creative and their attention to detail is impressive -- there will be a red carpet, a spotlight, and even music provided by a group from the Berklee College of Music in Boston! We went through my talk and discussed the background, etc. Plus, I was videotaped also for this event. As one of my doctoral students said, "You always have to look fresh, Professor!"
Then it was time to discuss another pending project with fellow faculty and when I arrived home, after also meeting with a student about her doctoral dissertation proposal, I found in my mailbox a new book that I will be blogging about -- will keep you in suspense as the TEDx folks are doing in announcing one professor speaker each day before next Monday's gala event!
Plus, I heard wonderful news from a student in Vienna, Austria, who had taken my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare intensive short course that I taught at the Vienna University of Economics and Business last March (while on sabbatical in Europe). He had been accepted into its doctoral program to work under my former doctoral student, Tina Wakolbinger, who is now a Full Professor there -- I had written him a letter of recommendation -- so happy about this great outcome!
Today, Thursday, after teaching my class, I will be getting ready for two big events tomorrow. I am serving as a co-supervisor of a doctoral dissertation at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, and, tomorrow, Friday, the student, Niklas Arvidsson, will be defending his dissertation. I will be Skying in early in the morning for the defense. I have been very much enjoying reading his dissertation and attended his Kappa when I was in Gothenburg. The dissertation includes 5 papers that he has published on the overall theme of sustainable freight, which I am very interested in.
After Niklas' defense I will be off to support the students of the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, since we are hosting Master Inventor Dr. Mary Helander of IBM with a reception at 10:30AM in the Isenberg School followed by a one hour Q&A. Then Mary and I will go out to lunch. She has a PhD from Sweden so her visit will be quite special for all of us!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Why Operations and Information Management at the Isenberg School of Management Just May Be the Best Major
Do you remember when you had to choose your major in college? Perhaps you knew before you even were a freshman your passion and what you wanted to concentrate in and you just charged forward. Maybe you knew what you liked in general (and what you did not like, which is very useful to know and can save you a lot of wasted time and effort) but you needed several courses in college to identify your focus.
Now is the time at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, where I teach, when students declare their major. Those who are lucky enough to already be enrolled at the Isenberg School have sampled a spectrum of business courses as well as other courses as part of the curriculum. With our rigorous curriculum that emphasizes both breadth and depth students quickly identify whether they are quant and analytical types, or, perhaps, more interested in behavioral and managerial issues, or focused on specific industries -- at the Isenberg School we also have the renowned Hospitality & Tourism Management Department and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management.
But this post is about Operations and Information Management (OIM).
My regular readers know that what was the Department of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School is now two departments, so my new "home" within the school is Operations & Information Management.
OIM students, faculty, and professional are problem-solvers who apply state-of-the-art concepts, methods and tools, as well as technology. OIM is about systems, that is, firms, organizations, or networks of firms as in the case of supply chains, and in making them operate better, whether through cost reduction, enhanced efficiency and profits, improved product quality and innovations, redesign, improving sustainability, or even making more timely deliveries. Students learn about exciting industries from pharmaceuticals and healthcare to transportation and logistics to food and even fashion! They learn optimization techniques and analytics! Some courses, but not all, are highlighted here.
For example, the methodologies that students learn and apply can be used also in other problem domains, including in humanitarian logistics, a course that I developed and teach and have even offered last Spring, while on sabbatical, in Europe.
The OIM major is challenging, and hands-on with truly gifted and dedicated educators who are at the frontiers of their disciplines and are dynamic and engaged.
We bring in guest speakers and have also student clubs from the newly formed OIM Club to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, that I have been a Faculty Advisor of for almost a decade (time to celebrate).
Our students have fascinating internships at such companies as IBM and UTC, to start, and get excellent jobs -- thanks, in part, to our terrific Chase Career Center. We have been told that OIM majors command the second highest average salaries among the majors at the Isenberg School, after graduation! You can try to guess the top salary earners (and it is not Finance).
And the best part of the OIM major is the caliber, energy, and dedication of the students that we attract.
Our students are wonderful and I am so glad to be part of this community!
After they graduate, they continue to succeed and to make the world a better place.
Many stay in touch and, after a few years, some even apply to grad school.
Now is the time at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, where I teach, when students declare their major. Those who are lucky enough to already be enrolled at the Isenberg School have sampled a spectrum of business courses as well as other courses as part of the curriculum. With our rigorous curriculum that emphasizes both breadth and depth students quickly identify whether they are quant and analytical types, or, perhaps, more interested in behavioral and managerial issues, or focused on specific industries -- at the Isenberg School we also have the renowned Hospitality & Tourism Management Department and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management.
But this post is about Operations and Information Management (OIM).
My regular readers know that what was the Department of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School is now two departments, so my new "home" within the school is Operations & Information Management.
OIM students, faculty, and professional are problem-solvers who apply state-of-the-art concepts, methods and tools, as well as technology. OIM is about systems, that is, firms, organizations, or networks of firms as in the case of supply chains, and in making them operate better, whether through cost reduction, enhanced efficiency and profits, improved product quality and innovations, redesign, improving sustainability, or even making more timely deliveries. Students learn about exciting industries from pharmaceuticals and healthcare to transportation and logistics to food and even fashion! They learn optimization techniques and analytics! Some courses, but not all, are highlighted here.
For example, the methodologies that students learn and apply can be used also in other problem domains, including in humanitarian logistics, a course that I developed and teach and have even offered last Spring, while on sabbatical, in Europe.
The OIM major is challenging, and hands-on with truly gifted and dedicated educators who are at the frontiers of their disciplines and are dynamic and engaged.
We bring in guest speakers and have also student clubs from the newly formed OIM Club to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, that I have been a Faculty Advisor of for almost a decade (time to celebrate).
Our students have fascinating internships at such companies as IBM and UTC, to start, and get excellent jobs -- thanks, in part, to our terrific Chase Career Center. We have been told that OIM majors command the second highest average salaries among the majors at the Isenberg School, after graduation! You can try to guess the top salary earners (and it is not Finance).
And the best part of the OIM major is the caliber, energy, and dedication of the students that we attract.
Our students are wonderful and I am so glad to be part of this community!
After they graduate, they continue to succeed and to make the world a better place.
Many stay in touch and, after a few years, some even apply to grad school.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
It's All About the Scholarship and Collegiality -- Great Regional Science Conference in Atlanta
I returned from Atlanta, Georgia around 1AM this morning.
As I wrote in my previous post, I was at the 60th North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) .
I flew out this past Thursday, after teaching my undergraduate Logistics &Transportation class at the Isenberg School. I had a very busy time at this great conference.
I think that Professor David Plane of the University of Arizona, who is an RSAI Fellow, and a wonderful regional scientist, geographer, and demographer, said it best in his essay in the November 2013 RSAI newsletter about what is great about regional science intellectually. He stated that: I believe regional science offers “an almost perfect disciplinarily neutral meeting ground.” As in Walter’s vision, it continues to attract top minds bringing technical prowess from many directions to important societal issues of space and location. And the plain and simple style of regional science – it’s all about the scholarship and collegiality without the extraneous trappings of other disciplines and groups – has engendered remarkable loyalty among its adherents.
Of course, "Walter" is none other than the founder of Regional Science, Walter Isard, and, in Atlanta, we honored his memory in two special sessions, the second of which took place yesterday and at which I delivered the paper, An Integrated Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model with Time Targets and Demand Uncertainty, Anna Nagurney, Amir H. Masoumi, and Min Yu. I also discussed the recent Haiyan typhoon in the Philippines during my presentation and the relevance of our model to the preparedness and response phases of disaster relief.
The photo below was taken after the session and includes the speakers, an organizer, and discussants.
And, the day before, I had the pleasure of listening to the great presenters in a special session that I organized in honor of Professor David E. Boyce's 50th consecutive attendance at this conference, dating back to his first in 1964!
We had the photo below taken of the presenters after this special session.. Professor Boyce is in the bright red tie and smile.
Detailed information on these sessions, the speakers, and their paper titles can be found in my previous post.
Also, Professor Boyce was recognized with a special plaque at yesterday at the Awards Luncheon in Atlanta and a major donation was given in his name to the Benjamin Stevens Graduate Fellowship Fund. Professor Ben Stevens was Professor Boyce's dissertation advisor at UPenn and Boyce spoke about how Isard and Stevens mentored him and how now he does the same for others (and has done so for many years).
I definitely concur with David Plane's statement about the scholarship and collegiality surrounding the discipline of regional science and I would also add the mentorship of many of its senior members who are also terrific advocates of colleagues, both junior and senior.
It was great to see friends from around the globe and to get such positive and worthwhile comments on the papers presented. This conference has a very nice model of also having a discussant for a paper.
Professor Walter Isard would have been very proud at the success of this conference (the lunch was also delicious) and to see his amazing legacy living on after his passing.
And, as for the Memorial volume that is being guest edited by Professors Peter Nijkamp and Adam Rose, we are so honored that our paper, noted above, will be in it (after we incorporate some feedback) and the Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, also will have a chapter in it, which I noted previously on this blog.
As I wrote in my previous post, I was at the 60th North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) .
I flew out this past Thursday, after teaching my undergraduate Logistics &Transportation class at the Isenberg School. I had a very busy time at this great conference.
I think that Professor David Plane of the University of Arizona, who is an RSAI Fellow, and a wonderful regional scientist, geographer, and demographer, said it best in his essay in the November 2013 RSAI newsletter about what is great about regional science intellectually. He stated that: I believe regional science offers “an almost perfect disciplinarily neutral meeting ground.” As in Walter’s vision, it continues to attract top minds bringing technical prowess from many directions to important societal issues of space and location. And the plain and simple style of regional science – it’s all about the scholarship and collegiality without the extraneous trappings of other disciplines and groups – has engendered remarkable loyalty among its adherents.
Of course, "Walter" is none other than the founder of Regional Science, Walter Isard, and, in Atlanta, we honored his memory in two special sessions, the second of which took place yesterday and at which I delivered the paper, An Integrated Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model with Time Targets and Demand Uncertainty, Anna Nagurney, Amir H. Masoumi, and Min Yu. I also discussed the recent Haiyan typhoon in the Philippines during my presentation and the relevance of our model to the preparedness and response phases of disaster relief.
The photo below was taken after the session and includes the speakers, an organizer, and discussants.
We had the photo below taken of the presenters after this special session.. Professor Boyce is in the bright red tie and smile.
Also, Professor Boyce was recognized with a special plaque at yesterday at the Awards Luncheon in Atlanta and a major donation was given in his name to the Benjamin Stevens Graduate Fellowship Fund. Professor Ben Stevens was Professor Boyce's dissertation advisor at UPenn and Boyce spoke about how Isard and Stevens mentored him and how now he does the same for others (and has done so for many years).
I definitely concur with David Plane's statement about the scholarship and collegiality surrounding the discipline of regional science and I would also add the mentorship of many of its senior members who are also terrific advocates of colleagues, both junior and senior.
It was great to see friends from around the globe and to get such positive and worthwhile comments on the papers presented. This conference has a very nice model of also having a discussant for a paper.
Professor Walter Isard would have been very proud at the success of this conference (the lunch was also delicious) and to see his amazing legacy living on after his passing.
And, as for the Memorial volume that is being guest edited by Professors Peter Nijkamp and Adam Rose, we are so honored that our paper, noted above, will be in it (after we incorporate some feedback) and the Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, also will have a chapter in it, which I noted previously on this blog.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Packing Up for the Regional Science Conference in Atlanta
I am getting ready for the 60th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, which are taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, November 13 -16, 2013.
My two talks are prepared and a session organized. My presentations are uploaded to the Supernetwork Center website.
The session that I organized is in honor of Professor David E. Boyce, who is both an RSAI Fellow and an INFORMS Fellow (He and I are the only Fellows of both of these societies). This will be Professor Boyce's 50th consecutive such conference -- He considers himself lucky and we are thrilled to be honoring him in Atlanta for his scientific leadership and mentorship.
Formal Paper Session In Honor of Professor David E. Boyce ‐‐ His 50th NARSC Conference ‐‐ His Scholarship and Mentorship Friday Nov 15 | 10:30 AM‐12:30 PM |Grand Ballroom 3
Organizer and Chair: Anna Nagurney, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts
One of my talks will be in the second Memorial Session in honor of Professor Walter Isard and I have reposted both sessions below:
Special Session Water Isard Memorial Session I Thursday Nov 14 | 1:30 PM‐3:30 PM | Grand Ballroom 3
Organizers: Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois; Adam Rose, USC
Chair: David Boyce, Northwestern University
David Boyce, Northwestern University
Karima Kourtit, Free University, Amsterdam
Kingsley E Haynes, George Mason University
Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois.
Special Session Water Isard Memorial Session II Saturday Nov 16 | 10:30 AM‐ 12:30 PM | Grand Ballroom 3
Organizers: Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois; Adam Rose, USC
Chairs: Karima Kourtit, Free University, Amsterdam; Adam Rose, USC
Adam Rose, USC
T. R. Lakshmanan, Boston University
Roger Stough, George Mason University
Geoffrey Hewings, University of Illinois ‐ Urbana‐Champaign.
The full conference program can be directly accessed here.
My two talks are prepared and a session organized. My presentations are uploaded to the Supernetwork Center website.
The session that I organized is in honor of Professor David E. Boyce, who is both an RSAI Fellow and an INFORMS Fellow (He and I are the only Fellows of both of these societies). This will be Professor Boyce's 50th consecutive such conference -- He considers himself lucky and we are thrilled to be honoring him in Atlanta for his scientific leadership and mentorship.
Formal Paper Session In Honor of Professor David E. Boyce ‐‐ His 50th NARSC Conference ‐‐ His Scholarship and Mentorship Friday Nov 15 | 10:30 AM‐12:30 PM |Grand Ballroom 3
Organizer and Chair: Anna Nagurney, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts
- Conventional Transportation Planning Models: Review and Prospects for Alternatives, Tschangho John Kim, University of Illinois
- A Corridor‐Centric Approach to Planning Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, Marco Nie, Northwestern University
- David Boyce, RSAI Archivist, Kieran Donaghy, Cornell University
- Shrinking Global Population ‐‐ a Futuristic Scenario or a Current Challenge, Hillel Bar‐Gera, Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev.
One of my talks will be in the second Memorial Session in honor of Professor Walter Isard and I have reposted both sessions below:
Special Session Water Isard Memorial Session I Thursday Nov 14 | 1:30 PM‐3:30 PM | Grand Ballroom 3
Organizers: Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois; Adam Rose, USC
Chair: David Boyce, Northwestern University
- Rise of Megalopolis as a Mega Knowledge Region: Interactions of Innovations in Transport, Information, Production, and Organizations, T. R. Lakshmanan, Boston University; William Anderson, University of Windsor; Yena Song, University of Southhampton
- Framework for Spatial Models for Future Cities, Tschangho John Kim, University of Illinois
- Demographic Challenges to Regional Development, Geoffrey Hewings, University of Illinois ‐ Urbana‐Champaign; Euijune Kim, Seoul National University
- Cluster Dynamics: Structural Properties of Cluster Life‐Cycles and Public Policy, Roger Stough, George Mason University.
David Boyce, Northwestern University
Karima Kourtit, Free University, Amsterdam
Kingsley E Haynes, George Mason University
Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois.
Special Session Water Isard Memorial Session II Saturday Nov 16 | 10:30 AM‐ 12:30 PM | Grand Ballroom 3
Organizers: Tschangho John Kim, University Of Illinois; Adam Rose, USC
Chairs: Karima Kourtit, Free University, Amsterdam; Adam Rose, USC
- An Integrated Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model with Time Targets and Demand Uncertainty, Anna Nagurney, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts; Amir H. Masoumi, Manhattan College; Min Yu, University of Portland
- Impact of Transportation Infrastructure in the US Northeast: A Spatial Econometric CGE Assessment, Zhenhua Chen, George Mason University; Kingsley E. Haynes, George Mason University
- High‐speed Railroad Passenger Services: What Market Sizes and Station Spacings Are Indicative of Success? David Boyce, Northwestern University; Satish Ukkusuri, Purdue University; Jacqueline Lo, Northwestern University; Jiwon Kim, Northwestern University
- The Process of Regional Economic Growth: A Modeling Perspective, Richard S. Conway, Jr.
Adam Rose, USC
T. R. Lakshmanan, Boston University
Roger Stough, George Mason University
Geoffrey Hewings, University of Illinois ‐ Urbana‐Champaign.
The full conference program can be directly accessed here.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Hosting Master Inventor Dr. Mary Helander of IBM
Dr. Helander will be welcomed with a reception in Isenberg School Room 206 beginning at 10:30AM and the Q&A will follow at 11:00AM until noon.
I met Dr. Helander at an INFORMS Conference in Puerto Rico and, a few years back, in the Fall of 2009, she visited us and spoke at the Isenberg School on Food Safety in a Global Supply Chain.
I wrote about her previous visit on this blog.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Helander on her receipt of the 2013 Minerva Award from SUNY Potsdam!
Friday, November 8, 2013
Integrated Supply Chains for Disaster Relief
Yesterday, I reminded the students in the undergraduate Logistics and Transportation class that I am teaching this semester of recent natural disasters that affected us regionally from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, to the freaky Halloween snowstorm in 2011 (with power out for days on our area), to the once in 500 years flood, as a consequence of Hurricane Irene, also in 2011.
I also remarked that, thus far, this academic year has been relatively free of natural disasters in New England and Massachusetts.
I was speaking on how what we have learned in the course, to-date, including the network performance measure that I described yesterday, based on work done with Dr. Patrick Qiang. The network performance measure is known as the N-Q measure (for Nagurney-Qiang) and can be applied to identify the most important nodes and links in transportation and logistics networks, including supply chains, since their removal from the network has the biggest impact on the network's performance.
The most important nodes and links are those that should be protected the most and also restored post disaster the quickest. Our measure has been applied to identify the most important highways in Germany by Schultz, whether to build a new subway line in Dublin, Ireland, and even to assess the impacts on transportation of the major fires that struck Greece several years ago.
However, just because your region or even country is not presently experiencing (or working to recover from) a disaster, does not mean that people elsewhere are not either preparing, enduring and suffering from, or working towards recovering from one disaster (or several).
And, indeed, yesterday and today, in the Philippines, what may be the biggest level 5 storm ever recorded is taking place, as reported on CNN.com
Our presentation may be downloaded here. The paper is co-authored with Professors Masoumi and Yu, two of my former doctoral students.
Our disaster relief supply chain network model captures both the preparedness phase and the response phase of the disaster management cycle (with the other two phases being mitigation and recovery). Also, in contrast to many of the models in the existing literature, our model does not consider targets for cost; instead, it minimizes the total operational costs of the activities in the supply chain network. This, we believe, makes more sense in that the relief operations budget largely depends on the intensity of damage and the fatality toll which may be difficult be determine a priori. In addition, our model allows for the pre-disaster and the post-disaster procurement of relief items, and involves the time and the cost associated with each strategy or a combination of both. Also, we handle nonlinear costs, which capture congestion effects, a big issue in disaster relief, and an aspect that has been missing from much of the literature on the topic.
According to The Washington Post: The Philippines, which is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms a year, has in recent years become more serious about preparations to reduce deaths. Public service announcements are more frequent as are warnings issued by the president and high-ranking officials, regularly carried on radio and TV and social networking sites.
Provincial governors and mayors have taken a hands-on approach during crises, supervising evacuations, inspecting shelters and efforts to stockpile food and relief supplies.
After this megastorm has passed, we will see whether the efforts minimized losses in life, if not property, given the severity of the winds and rain.
I also remarked that, thus far, this academic year has been relatively free of natural disasters in New England and Massachusetts.
I was speaking on how what we have learned in the course, to-date, including the network performance measure that I described yesterday, based on work done with Dr. Patrick Qiang. The network performance measure is known as the N-Q measure (for Nagurney-Qiang) and can be applied to identify the most important nodes and links in transportation and logistics networks, including supply chains, since their removal from the network has the biggest impact on the network's performance.
The most important nodes and links are those that should be protected the most and also restored post disaster the quickest. Our measure has been applied to identify the most important highways in Germany by Schultz, whether to build a new subway line in Dublin, Ireland, and even to assess the impacts on transportation of the major fires that struck Greece several years ago.
However, just because your region or even country is not presently experiencing (or working to recover from) a disaster, does not mean that people elsewhere are not either preparing, enduring and suffering from, or working towards recovering from one disaster (or several).
And, indeed, yesterday and today, in the Philippines, what may be the biggest level 5 storm ever recorded is taking place, as reported on CNN.com
Storm has 235 mph wind gusts
Next week, at the 60th Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, which is taking place in Atlanta, GA, I will be giving a presentation on "An Integrated Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model with Time Targets and Demand Uncertainty," based on the paper of the same title, which is an invited paper for the Memorial Volume in honor of Professor Walter Isard, the founder of Regional Science. A preprint of the paper may be accessed here.Our presentation may be downloaded here. The paper is co-authored with Professors Masoumi and Yu, two of my former doctoral students.
Our disaster relief supply chain network model captures both the preparedness phase and the response phase of the disaster management cycle (with the other two phases being mitigation and recovery). Also, in contrast to many of the models in the existing literature, our model does not consider targets for cost; instead, it minimizes the total operational costs of the activities in the supply chain network. This, we believe, makes more sense in that the relief operations budget largely depends on the intensity of damage and the fatality toll which may be difficult be determine a priori. In addition, our model allows for the pre-disaster and the post-disaster procurement of relief items, and involves the time and the cost associated with each strategy or a combination of both. Also, we handle nonlinear costs, which capture congestion effects, a big issue in disaster relief, and an aspect that has been missing from much of the literature on the topic.
According to The Washington Post: The Philippines, which is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms a year, has in recent years become more serious about preparations to reduce deaths. Public service announcements are more frequent as are warnings issued by the president and high-ranking officials, regularly carried on radio and TV and social networking sites.
Provincial governors and mayors have taken a hands-on approach during crises, supervising evacuations, inspecting shelters and efforts to stockpile food and relief supplies.
After this megastorm has passed, we will see whether the efforts minimized losses in life, if not property, given the severity of the winds and rain.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
A Brilliant Talk on Social Media Analytics + Sports by Dr. Les Servi of Mitre
Yesterday, at the Isenberg School of Management, we had the distinct pleasure of hosting Dr. Les Servi of MITRE, who is an INFORMS Fellow (and whom I have known since our days at Brown University as undergraduate students). Dr. Servi delivered a brilliant talk on his latest research on the topic: Analyzing Social Media Data Having Discontinuous Underlying Dynamics.
Dr. Servi's presentation was part of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Speakers Series, which the Student Chapter helps me to organize and to host.
His talk was on his paper in Operations Research Letters, just hot off the press, and published in the November issue.
The paper begins with the statement, which immediately captures your interest (as did his talk): Although physical objects follow well understood Newtonian physics and are free of discontinuous dynamics, emotional intensity dynamics evolve continuously with unknown dynamics until a tipping point or external event triggers a discontinuity.
In his presentation, Dr. Servi asked whether anger has dynamics (the same about sadness and positive emotions). Is there a formula that can capture the anger of citizens and is there a momentum associated with anger? He concluded that sadness (and other emotions) follow dynamics that are different from those of rockets since there are discontinuities. His paper not only presents a model for a more nuanced dynamic for emotions but also a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the associated optimization problem that identifies times of emotional discontinuities. He then illustrated the new method for the analysis of mood shifts reflected in 380,000 Twitter messages related to one of the world’s most popular soccer teams, Manchester United, during their 2011–12 season. He was impressed that so many in the audience at the Isenberg School knew of this team and its sport (a finance audience at a talk he gave in Boston did not recognize the team).
And what Dr. Servi discovered through analyzing the data was fascinating and not what one would expect immediately. The figure below displays the Mood Shift Analysis of the Twitter messages showing a breakpoint on 2/6/2012 and 5/14/2012.
The discontinuities in mood associated with certain dates were not due to wins or losses of one of the world's most popular sport franchises (and one student in the audience had been to Manchester games) but one marked the anniversary of the following event: the tipping point found on February 6, 2012, might be due, according to Dr. Servi, to it being the 54th anniversary of an airplane crash in Munich which killed 8 Manchester United players and 3 staff and injured 9 other players as well as the team manager. Among serious Manchester United fans this event and date are well known despite it happening so long ago.
With a great talk such as this, our minds just percolated with ideas and questions. I asked whether MITRE had applied for a patent since the possible applications from finance to politics were simply stunning and the answer was ,"Yes," -- see here. One of my colleagues, Dr. Ryan Wright, asked a question about acceleration, which I thought was really interesting -- for example, could the model and algorithm track herding/crowding behavior? Dr. Rod Warnick of our great Hospitality and Tourism Management Department also asked a great question about seasonality with reference to Google as did several of the students. My colleague, Dr. Senay Solak, continued the conversations.
The discussions lasted as time just flew by until close to 4 o'clock and I think the students from the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering that came as well as the faculty will never forget this talk. We thank Dr. Les Servi for the clarity and brilliance of his talk! The previous time that Dr. Servi spoke in our series was in the Fall of 2006 when he talked about tracking pirates (and that was even before such activities hit the news).
Special thanks also to Dr. Bruce Weinberg, the Chair of the Marketing
Department at the Isenberg School, and a social media star, and to Dr.
Weibo Gong of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at
UMass Amherst, whose PhD advisor at Harvard University was Professor
Larry Ho (also Servi's advisor), who joined Dr. Servi and me for lunch
at the University Club.
After lunch, Dr. Servi and many others joined us in a celebration of the 3 awards that we received at the INFORMS conference in Minneapolis. The cake was delicious and the company simply wonderful with even Dr. Amir Masoumi joining us from Manhattan College.
What a great time to be an Operations Researcher living in an era with a proliferation of data. What information will the data reveal and what new discoveries?! And as Dr. Les Servi said, Philip Morse, a pioneer of Operations Research, would be very pleased.
Dr. Servi's presentation was part of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Speakers Series, which the Student Chapter helps me to organize and to host.
His talk was on his paper in Operations Research Letters, just hot off the press, and published in the November issue.
The paper begins with the statement, which immediately captures your interest (as did his talk): Although physical objects follow well understood Newtonian physics and are free of discontinuous dynamics, emotional intensity dynamics evolve continuously with unknown dynamics until a tipping point or external event triggers a discontinuity.
In his presentation, Dr. Servi asked whether anger has dynamics (the same about sadness and positive emotions). Is there a formula that can capture the anger of citizens and is there a momentum associated with anger? He concluded that sadness (and other emotions) follow dynamics that are different from those of rockets since there are discontinuities. His paper not only presents a model for a more nuanced dynamic for emotions but also a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the associated optimization problem that identifies times of emotional discontinuities. He then illustrated the new method for the analysis of mood shifts reflected in 380,000 Twitter messages related to one of the world’s most popular soccer teams, Manchester United, during their 2011–12 season. He was impressed that so many in the audience at the Isenberg School knew of this team and its sport (a finance audience at a talk he gave in Boston did not recognize the team).
And what Dr. Servi discovered through analyzing the data was fascinating and not what one would expect immediately. The figure below displays the Mood Shift Analysis of the Twitter messages showing a breakpoint on 2/6/2012 and 5/14/2012.
The discontinuities in mood associated with certain dates were not due to wins or losses of one of the world's most popular sport franchises (and one student in the audience had been to Manchester games) but one marked the anniversary of the following event: the tipping point found on February 6, 2012, might be due, according to Dr. Servi, to it being the 54th anniversary of an airplane crash in Munich which killed 8 Manchester United players and 3 staff and injured 9 other players as well as the team manager. Among serious Manchester United fans this event and date are well known despite it happening so long ago.
The discussions lasted as time just flew by until close to 4 o'clock and I think the students from the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering that came as well as the faculty will never forget this talk. We thank Dr. Les Servi for the clarity and brilliance of his talk! The previous time that Dr. Servi spoke in our series was in the Fall of 2006 when he talked about tracking pirates (and that was even before such activities hit the news).
After lunch, Dr. Servi and many others joined us in a celebration of the 3 awards that we received at the INFORMS conference in Minneapolis. The cake was delicious and the company simply wonderful with even Dr. Amir Masoumi joining us from Manhattan College.
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