Resoundingly Human

In this episode we will explore three different applications of O.R. and analytics in sports, from basketball, to baseball, and beyond! Joining me for this episode are Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois to discuss NCAA March Madness basketball brackets, Michael Trick of Carnegie Mellon University to give insight in to Major League Baseball game scheduling, and Walt DeGrange of CANA Advisors and past chairman of the INFORMS SpORTS Section to discuss current and developing applications of O.R. and analytics in sports.

In this episode we will learn how O.R. and analytics are helping the men and women of law enforcement and the corrections systems, from improving the health of prison inmates, to simplifying the assignment of inmates to the appropriate prison, to helping New York city police men and women better predict and respond to crime. Joining us for this episode are Tamas Terlaky, president of Optamo and professor at Lehigh University, Mohammad Shahabsafa, chief operating officer at Optamo and Anshul Asharama, Chief Information Officer at Optamo, who share their INFORMS Wagner prize award winning research on improving inmate scheduling for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. In addition, we will hear from Alex Cholas-Wood, former Director of Analytics for the NYPD and Evan Levine, Assistant Commissioner of Data Analytics at the Office of Crime Control Strategies with the NYPD, who have created a new system called Patternizr to aid the NYPD in identifying and predicting crime patterns. Finally, we are joined by Turgay Ayer of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who will discuss his research to identify a protocol for treatment that could significantly reduce the number of Hepatitis C infected prisoners.

In this episode we will hear from the new INFORMS president Ramayya Krishnan who will share some insight on what exciting things are in store for INFORMS in the coming year, Shane Henderson and David Shmoys of Cornell University on their INFORMS Wagner Prize winning research on bike share programs, and Alina Sorescu of Texas A&M university whose research takes a deep dive into the ups and downs of the financial stock market over a period of nearly 200 years.

In this episode, I am joined by a very special guest, Santa Claus, who called into the podcast all the way from the North Pole to share the role that O.R. and analytics plan in his annual journey to deliver toys around the world. In addition, you will hear from the INFORMS volunteers and the nonprofit leadership of the INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics projects for the Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap and Young Audiences: Arts for Learning of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, who share how O.R. and analytics helped these organizations better serve their communities.

This is the second of two special podcasts produced this month, both recorded during the INFORMS 2018 Annual Meeting. We will be speaking to a number of INFORMS member who are presenting during the meeting on topics that highlight the ways O.R. and analytics are being used to save lives, save money and solve problems. In this episode, we will be discussing how O.R. and analytics are providing valuable insight into some of the most complex problems facing our world today, including improving aviation security precheck procedures, protecting the security of elections in the U.S., and increasing the success rates of kidney transplants in underserved populations.

This month, we will be producing two special podcasts, both recorded during the INFORMS 2018 Annual Meeting. We will be speaking to a number of INFORMS member who are presenting during the meeting on topics that highlight the ways O.R. and analytics are being used to save lives, save money and solve problems. In this episode, we will be discussing how O.R. and analytics are providing valuable insight into some of the most complex problems facing our world today, from calculating the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., to using drones to  provide healthcare to patients with chronic illness in rural settings, to  helping improve outcomes for human trafficking victims. 

In this episode, we will be taking a sneak peek at our upcoming Annual Meeting, and some of the exciting topics and sessions that will be covered, as well as diving into some of INFORMS' unique programs and efforts. Joining us for this episode are James Cochran of the University of Alabama to discuss the newly published INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge; Carrie Beam of the University of Arkansas to introduce an exciting new competition, Freestyle O.R. Supreme, that will debut at this year’s Annual Meeting; and Alan Briggs from Data Robot, to share the impact of the Certified Analytics Professional certification on his career path.

In this episode, we explore three unique ways that operations research and analytics are being used to save lives, save money, and solve problems. Our guests include John Dickerson of the University of Maryland and Tuomas Sandholm of Carnegie Mellon University whose research on improving kidney exchange success could significantly improve the number of successful kidney transplants; Eva Lee of the Georgia Institute of Technology whose research in pediatric heart surgery has unexpectedly provided new insight to help fight America’s opioid epidemic; and Tallys Yunes of the Miami Business School who has some very valuable insight that can help all the fantasy football fans out there use O.R. to improve their lineups.

INFORMS is very excited to share the launch of our brand new podcast series, Resoundingly Human, which is dedicated to bringing O.R. and analytics to life by highlighting the incredible contributions of our members who are using O.R. and analytics to save lives, save money, and solve problems. Our first episode features members of INFORMS leadership to explore different ways that INFORMS is helping to spread the word on the important role that O.R. and analytics play in our everyday lives. Our guests in this episode include the 2018 INFORMS president Nicholas Hall, Brian Denton, who served as the 2017 president, and the Director of public affairs and marketing for INFORMS, Jeff Cohen. Each will provide special insight into INFORMS current objectives and goals, as well as new initiatives and a look ahead to next steps.

Each year, organizations from around the world demonstrate how advanced analytics and operations research are solving real problems at massive scale – and are recognized and celebrated by the INFORMS community with the Franz Edelman Award competition. Joining me today are members of the team from NVIDIA, a global leader in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence. As companies grow and their products evolve, the demand–supply networks that support them often become incredibly complex. To stay ahead of this complexity and remain responsive in fast-moving markets, organizations need smarter and more adaptive supply chain management systems. To tackle this challenge, NVIDIA developed an AI-powered planning platform designed to maintain stability, responsiveness, and agility across their global supply chain. The platform brings together a full stack of advanced technologies, all working together to support intelligent supply chain planning at scale. Today, we'll hear more about how this powerful combination of AI and optimization is transforming supply chain decision-making.

Each year, organizations from around the world demonstrate how advanced analytics and operations research are solving real problems at massive scale – from retail and logistics to healthcare systems, public services, and the complex networks that keep our world moving. Joining me today are members of the team from India's Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), working in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme in India and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Together, they developed Anna Chakra, an operations research–based decision support system designed to strengthen India's Public Distribution System by optimizing the logistics that move food across the country. Today we'll hear how this ambitious project came together – and how operations research is helping transform food distribution at national scale.

Each year, organizations from around the world compete in the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award competition, demonstrating how advanced analytics and O.R. are solving real problems at massive scale. In this episode, members of the team from Chewy, the largest online pet retailer and pharmacy in the United States, share how they tackled a challenge that sounds simple on the surface but becomes incredibly complex at scale: replenishment. Using a science-driven suite of models, supported by a custom engineering platform and continuous analytics monitoring, the team transformed how Chewy manages purchase orders, safety stock, and inventory placement – all while accounting for unreliable data, supply uncertainty, and vendor constraints. The result? Improved inventory placement, fewer split shipments, shorter shipping distances, and meaningful financial impact in a thin-margin industry.

Each year, finalists in the Franz Edelman Award Competition demonstrate how advanced analytics and operations research are solving real problems at massive scale – from the products we buy and the packages we receive to the healthcare we rely on and the policies that shape our communities. Joining me today are members of the team from ECCO, the globally recognized footwear brand known for its vertically integrated supply chain and retail operations. Managing inventory across hundreds of retail locations around the world is a massive logistical challenge. Historically, store replenishment decisions were made manually, which often led to inconsistent ordering, operational inefficiencies, and missed opportunities to optimize inventory placement. To address this, ECCO's data & AI team developed a powerful analytics system that uses large-scale stochastic mixed-integer programming to automate store replenishment decisions across their global retail network.

Our latest guest brings a voice – and I do mean a voice – that you don't often hear in the data world. He's bold, he's sharp, and he's not afraid to call out the fluff that can cloud today's analytics conversations. Scott Taylor, also known as The Data Whisperer, is a global advocate for strategic data management, the author of Telling Your Data Story, and one of the most honest, and most likeable, truth-tellers in the data space. Whether he's breaking down metadata metaphors or championing the case for master data as the foundation of all things analytics, Scott's mission is crystal clear: No matter how fancy your AI is, it's worthless without the right data underneath. Scott is a keynote speaker at the upcoming 2026 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference, where he'll be shaking things up with his signature style. 

Even though we are are still navigating the AI boom and its growing impact, it's still important to also keepo looking ahead to what's next. In this episode, we're diving into a topic that sparks imagination, confusion, and maybe even a little fear: quantum computing. Joining me in this episode is Tamás Terlaky, a longtime INFORMS member and a global leader in optimization, interior point methods, and – more recently – the future of quantum computing. Tamás is a professor at Lehigh University and a passionate advocate for preparing the OR/MS community for the next technological wave.

The 2026 INFORMS President Mark Lewis brings not just technical brilliance to his role as president, but a deep care for the people who make this field so impactful. His vision reminds us that analytics isn't just about solving problems – it's about building communities, growing opportunity, and creating a better world through smarter decisions.

I'm so excited to be joined by someone whose name is deeply woven into the fabric of the INFORMS community – Dr. Jim Cochran, Professor of Applied Statistics and the Mike & Kathy Morone Research Chair at the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Business. Jim is a longtime INFORMS member, past recipient of the INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice and INFORMS Presidents Award, and a Fellow of INFORMS, the American Statistical Association, and the African Academy of Sciences, and a tireless advocate for analytics education, international collaboration, and community engagement. He's attended more INFORMS meetings than most of us can count – and today we're talking about what has changed, what has stayed the same, and why INFORMS remains such a meaningful home for so many members like Jim.

We close out another terrific year of Resoundingly Human podcasts with our 2025 INFORMS President Dave Hunt, for a look back over his time as president, milestones, and what activities he's looking forward to getting back to in 2026.

In this episode, we're continuing our special relaunch series by welcoming one of this year's INFORMS Annual Meeting plenary speakers – a pioneer in the fusion of machine learning and optimization, and a leader in advancing AI for real-world engineering challenges. Pascal Van Hentenryck is a Fellow of INFORMS and AAAI, and has made groundbreaking contributions to constraint programming and optimization systems that are still used in industry decades later. His current research focuses on integrating AI with mathematical optimization to solve incredibly complex and large-scale problems in energy, transportation, supply chains, and more. At the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, he delivered a plenary address titled "Learning to Optimize: Foundations and Industrial Impact," exploring how machine learning and optimization can work hand-in-hand to meet real-time demands in today's dynamic systems. 

In our latest episode in the Resoundingly Human podcast refresh, Ramayya Krishnan, Carnegie Mellon University, and plenary speaker at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, shares how today's rapid advances in AI technology create new opportunities for synergy with OR/MS, with broad implications for workforce development, public policy and education.