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.

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming back to Resoundingly Human long-time INFORMS member Jim Cochran, professor with the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business. In addition, I’m joined by Ryan McNeill, deputy editor for the Reuters global data journalism team. Jim and Ryan are members of an investigative team that was recognized with the 2024 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Multimedia Journalism for their work on The Bat Lands, a groundbreaking science series exploring the origins and potential outbreak sites of bat-borne viruses.

Welcome to the latest episode of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world. I’m your host, Ashley K. and thank you for joining me to explore how INFORMS members are saving lives, saving money and solving problems. I’m pleased to introduce Tom Stephenson, director of services and strategic partnerships at Simul8 Corporation, who joins me today to take a look at how simulation is being leveraged to help to improve healthcare outcomes in a wide variety of applications.

We’re continuing our countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  In this episode, I’m joined by Cynthia Rudin, with Duke University, Charles Isbell, with the University of Wisconsin, and Michel Littman, with the National Science Foundation, for a preview of their plenary session, “Making the Most of this AI Moment: A Fireside Chat.” Charles serves as the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs with the UW-Madison, and Michael is the division director for information and intelligent systems at NSF.  Cynthia, the session moderator, is a longtime INFORMS member and the Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Duke University, as well as heads the Interpretable Machine Learning Lab.

We’re continuing our countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year’s meeting is Harriet Nembhard, professor and president of Harvey Mudd College. Harriet is Harvey Mudd College’s sixth president, and a nationally recognized leader in the field of industrial and operations engineering, an expert in health systems, a voice on the national level for transforming undergraduate STEM education, and a champion for Harvey Mudd’s mission. She is leading the development of an ambitious strategic plan to fortify Harvey Mudd’s standing as a distinctive liberal arts college for science, engineering, and mathematics. Harriet will be presenting the plenary session – Preparing Interdisciplinary Leaders: Reimagine Your Department As A Place For Educating Future Operations Research Leaders Who Can Tackle Complex And Nuanced Problems – at the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

We’re in the countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year’s meeting is Koen Peters, head of optimization for the World Food Programme’s Supply Chain Planning & Optimization branch. For the last decade he has been leading initiatives in the area of optimization and analytics, including tools that are now used to inform the design of food baskets, sourcing strategies, and delivery networks. These user-friendly solutions ensure that WFP can reach as many people in need as possible with available resources, and were awarded with the 2021 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science. Koen holds a Master of science degree in operations research and management science from Tilburg University, and is pursuing a PhD in humanitarian analytics at Tilburg University’s Zero Hunger Lab.

We’re in the countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year’s meeting is Ann Tracy, Colgate-Palmolive’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Ann leads Colgate’s Global Sustainable Strategy and Key Initiatives, integrating a strong technical foundation across their Enterprise Sustainability and Social Impact Strategy Core Ambition Pillars – driving social impact, helping millions of homes, and preserving our environment.

In this episode, I’m joined by a longtime member of the INFORMS community, Richard Larson, post-tenure professor with MIT, past-president of both ORSA and INFORMS, recipient of the INFORMS Lanchester Prize, and author many times over, including his most recent book, Model Thinking for Everyday Life. What’s wonderful about Dick’s latest book, is its innovative and accessible approach to showing you how to think like, well an INFORMS member! The book combines real life examples with Dick’s own personal experiences to show you how to shift the way you problem solve and improve your own decision making processes. But most of all, it’s a fun and entertaining read!

This episode of the podcast was recorded live in Phoenix at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Keynote speaker Dr. Les Servi shared special insight on his talk, ‘Operations Research and National Security,’ which provided an informative, and dare I say fun, first-hand look at the role of O.R. in National Security! Les is the Chief Scientist Cyber Operations Research at The MITRE Corporation and the immediate Past President of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), as well as an INFORMS Fellow.  This video has been created with the approval and consent of The MITRE Corporation. The views and opinions expressed in the video are those of the individual featured and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MITRE.

I am thrilled to welcome back to Resoundingly Human the 2024 INFORMS President Julie Swann, who is also the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor and Department Head of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, to share some behind the scenes updates on all that’s been happening with INFORMS!

The opioid epidemic is a decades long public health crisis that is only continuing to grow in severity and impact. It is currently the foremost public health crisis in the United States, with its roots tracing back to mid to late 1990s when the highly concentrated prescription pain killer Oxycontin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in conjunction with the controversial pain as the fifth vital sign campaign, among other factors. As the U.S. government, healthcare system, and general public struggle to combat this epidemic, members of the OR/MS and analytics community are leveraging data and research to help provide support and solutions. Joining me to share their unique insight into a data-driven approach to help combat the opioid epidemic are Joyce Luo with MIT and Bartolomeo Stellato with Princeton University. Their study, “Frontiers in Operations: Equitable Data-Driven Facility Location and Resource Allocation to Fight the Opioid Epidemic," was recently published in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

Welcome to today's episode! We have an exciting discussion lined up as we dive into a fascinating study on TikTok, the wildly popular consumer-to-consumer media platform. My guests today explore how the length of videos impacts their performance on the platform. By modeling viewer behavior and analyzing market performance, they uncover intriguing insights including different optimal video lengths for maximizing viewer traffic. Stay tuned as we unpack these findings and their implications for content creators and platforms alike! I’m excited to introduce Xuying Zhao with Texas A&M University and Jane Gu with the University of Connecticut, to discuss their study in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research, called Content Length Limit: How Does It Matter for a Consumer-to-Consumer Media Platform?