Recap of Tuesday’s General Member Meeting
Thank you to everyone who attended Tuesday night’s Member Meeting! As always, this event provided members and staff the opportunity to mingle and connect while hearing the latest news from INFORMS. The 2019 Annual Meeting has had a record-breaking attendance and it has been wonderful seeing so many new faces!
Following opening remarks from the 2019 INFORMS President Ramayya Krishnan, recognition of the 2019 INFORMS Fellows Class and the INFORMS Volunteer Service Award recipients, and the introduction of the 2020 INFORMS Board of Directors, Melissa Moore, Executive Director of INFORMS, shared the many exciting accomplishments and milestones of the past year, and a look ahead at what is to come as INFORMS prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and updates on several INFORMS key programs.
In 1995, The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) was created through the merger of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS). In the past 25 years, INFORMS has grown tremendously while continuing to spread the word that O.R. and analytics saves lives, saves money and solves problems through multiple channels.
August 2019 marked the one year anniversary of the INFORMS podcast, 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. The podcast continues to perform well, and attract new listeners. At the time of the 2019 Annual Meeting, episodes of the podcast have been downloaded more than 12,000 times in 53 countries around the world, and is continuing to grow.
The INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics Pro Bono Analytics, a 100% volunteer effort, matches members with nonprofit organizations to help improve their processes and outcomes. Since its launch in 2015, the volunteers with Pro Bono have 22 completed 22 projects since it’s launch in 2015, 12 active projects, and five projects in the currently in the pipeline. In fact, our meeting attendees had the opportunity to give back to our host city of Seattle by assembling hygiene kits and blankets for homeless students in Seattle.
Submissions to INFORMS 16 journals continues to increase, as do published pages, and Melissa shared that INFORMS expects to reach 20,000 published pages and exceed 2.6 million downloads by the end of the year! Next spring, INFORMS will host the inaugural INFORMS Conference on Security, which will be held February 9-11, 2020 in Monterey, CA. The Conference will bring together leading analytics professionals, decision-makers in national defense and security, and first responders to share tools, techniques, and best practices to address the broad spectrum of challenges to U.S. national security.
The 2020 INFORMS Business Analytics Conference, to be held in Denver, CO, April 26-28, will feature Dr. Kate Darling, a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, where she investigates social robotics and conducts experimental studies on human-robot
The INFORMS Development effort continues to grow, with the initiation of four new endowments this year, to included a $200,000 donation from the Gaver family to fund a new award named the Donald P. Gaver Early Career Excellence in Operations Research Award. In addition, the INFORMS Roundtable donated $200,000 for a limited endowment to provide funds each year to support a plenary speaker at the Analytics Conference.
In the spring, INFORMS will be launching the Analytics Capability Evaluation (ACE) program, to develop a coaching program to train professionals to help organizations start or mature their analytics capability. A recent episode of the Resoundingly Human podcast, “Helping businesses up their O.R. and analytics game,” featuring ACE Chair, Norman Reitter takes a closer look at the INFORMS Analytics Maturity Model and the development of the ACE program.
Inspired by the winning entry of the 2019 OR What? Student Video Competition, submitted by the Virginia Tech University Student Chapter the professionally produced video, “Bright Future, Big Opportunities in O.R. and Analytics” was debuted to attendees will be utilized by INFORMS, faculty, and student communities will use this video to reach undergraduates around the world, creating awareness of the field and the career opportunity in O.R. and analytics that awaits STEM students who want to make a difference.
INFORMS is excited to share with you our proud milestones and exciting new initiatives, and as we enter our 25th year, we are thrilled to celebrate with our members all of the exciting things to come!