I attended a fascinating session yesterday on using OR to improve equity in allocating donated organs for transplants, because the current policy results in severe geographic disparities. The country is divided into regions, but the supply and demand are greatly unequal between regions. Baris Ata of the University of Chicago highlighted this disparity by relating Steve Jobs’ […]

Open bar! delicious desserts! the best cappuccino in town!

Both Guru Banavar’s plenary on Sunday and Margaret Brandeau’s today put health(care) center stage. Exciting area to be working in these days – from cognitive computing to data-driven public health decision making, the future looks promising! Many challenges remain, however, and yesterday, several very successful researchers offered their tips for “getting work done in healthcare”: […]

What could be more pleasant than seeing colleagues from around the globe at our great INFORMS conference? Operations researchers have taken over Nashville and it is a delight to be greeted by hellos and hugs at every turn. Extra special is having so many of my former PhD students from UMass Amherst here, a total […]

I was sitting in an INFORMS talk on analyzing textual data from a funded project on studying HIV/AIDS responses. HIV/AIDS is a much less controversial topic than it used to be, thankfully. But it made me wonder, what is the most controversial talk being given at INFORMS this week? Whether it be in terms of […]