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Lally School of Management
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, U.S.A.
Dear INFORMS Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to the 2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Nashville, the capital city of the state of Tennessee and the second most
populated. In addition to being a major music production center, Nashville’s economy is powered by the healthcare industry
along with other important industries such as automotive, financial, insurance and publishing industries. The conference theme,
“Fine-Tuning Decisions in the Music City,” reflects the broad scope of what will be covered in the conference, from applications
in industries such as healthcare, finance and risk, entertainment, and supply chains to methodologies and analysis in advanced
computing, big data, and new challenges in the optimization of systems.
An intriguing blend of topics from academics and practitioners fill the plenary and semi-plenary presentations. Guruduth Banavar, VP
and Chief Science Officer at IBM, is the distinguished speaker for the opening plenary on Sunday, presenting an overview of cognitive
computing, the technology breakthroughs, and the practical applications that are transforming every industry.
Margaret L. Brandeau, Professor of Engineering and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, delivers a Monday plenary on
effective public health preparedness and national security implications with a view to answering very complex questions using
operations research. A Tuesday plenary is offered jointly by Professors Suvrajeet Sen and Gareth James, University of Southern
California, on big data and big decisions.
Omega Rho’s 40th Year Anniversary is celebrated with a Monday plenary lecture given by an expert panel consisting of Professors
Alfred Blumstein (Carnegie Mellon University), John Birge (University of Chicago), Ralph Keeney (Duke University), and John
Little (MIT). Moreover, the IFORS Distinguished Lecture is given by Professor Rolf H. Möhring, Beijing Institute for Scientific and
Engineering Computing. The winners of the Franz Edelman, UPS George D. Smith, and Daniel H. Wagner Prizes will present their
accomplishments in separate keynote presentations.
The lineup of keynote lectures also includes: Jeff Nichols, Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on creating the Exascale
ecosystem for science; Jason Murray, Vice President of World wide Retail Systems, Amazon, on optimizing supply chains; Edmund
Jackson, Chief Data Scientist, Hospital Corporation of America, on analytics in healthcare; Stephen Prather, on sports analytics and
the pursuit of usefulness; and Gerald Brown, Naval Postgraduate School, on what the goals of analysis should be.
Please take advantage of the many opportunities to network, including the Welcome Reception on Sunday evening, the General
Reception on Tuesday evening, and the gathering areas at the conference exhibits and the Career Center. Also, do not forget to
indulge yourself in the “The Coolest, Tastiest City in the South” food offerings from southern fare to haute cuisine to quite literally
everything in between.
I am grateful to the INFORMS Meetings Committee for their support, and to the highly professional and efficient INFORMS staff
members for their dedication to success. I am indebted to the organizing committee members for their unwavering support and hard
work to put together a high quality program. The Program Chair, Bogdan Bichescu, University of Tennessee, has been my right-hand
person persevering for success for over two long years, along with James Primbs, California State University, who served as Plenary
and Keynote chair. Tutorial co-chairs, Aparna Gupta and Agostino Capponi; Invited sessions chair, Shabbir Ahmed; Poster sessions
co-chairs, Melissa Bowers and Oleg Shylo; Contributed sessions co-chairs, Scott Mason and Justin Yates; Sponsored sessions chair,
James Ostrowski; Practice program co-chairs, Mingzhou Jin and Sean Willems; and Arrangements co-chairs, Christine Vossler and
Anahita Khojandi, all contributed immensely to the meeting’s success. Organizing this event would not have been possible without
their creative spirit and steadfast support.
I would also like to thankfully acknowledge the generous support received from our sponsors for the success of this conference. My
special thanks go to the Platinum sponsor, Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee; Gold sponsors, AIMMS, Caterpillar,
IBM, and Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Tennessee; Bronze sponsors, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and
SAS; and various Contributor sponsors, a long list that includes Rensselaer-Lally School, UT Dallas-Jindal School, Georgia Tech-ISyE,
Lehigh-Engineering, PennState, Northwestern-Engineering, SUTD-Singapore, UTenn-Business Analytics, UT Austin-Engineering,
GAMS, AMPL, and LINDO Systems.
It is my great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to INFORMS 2016! I hope you will enjoy the conference.
Chanaka Edirisinghe, General Chair
Professor, Lally School of Management,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Welcome from the General Chair