Operations Research and Management Science Experts to Speak at UMass Amherst

Feb. 6, 2007

Contact:

Trisha Wooley

AMHERST, Mass. – Mathematical modeling of pandemic flu, coke and steel production in China and transportation simulations are among the topics to be covered in the Operations Research/Management Science Spring Speaker Series at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Sponsored by the UMass Amherst student chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in the Isenberg School of Management, the series begins Feb. 23.

All talks take place on scheduled Fridays at 11 a.m. in 112 Isenberg School of Management and are open to the public. After the talks, attendees may join the presenters for lunch at the University Club to discuss topics of interest and enjoy a meal.

The six speakers are:

* Asu Ozdaglar of the department of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who will lead a seminar on “Competition and Efficiency in Congested Networks” (Feb. 23).

* Richard C. Larson, the Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering and the founding director of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals at MIT, will speak on “Simple Models of Influenza Progression and Control” (March 9).

* Karen R. Polenske of the department of urban studies and planning at MIT will speak on “Coke and Steel: The Strategic Significance of their Regional Development in China in the Global Supply Chain” (March 16).

* Daiheng Ni, assistant professor in the UMass Amherst department of civil and environmental engineering, will deliver a talk titled “Transportation Modeling and Simulation: an Effort of 50+ Years” (March 30).

* David Parkes, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences and associate professor of computer science at Harvard University, will speak on “Adaptive Online Allocation Mechanisms for Single-Valued Domains” (April 13).

* David J. McLaughlin, professor in the UMass Amherst department of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere, will speak on “Chasing Interdisciplinarity while Chasing Tornadoes” (April 27).

Support for the speaker series is provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the department of finance and operations management and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund. Anna Nagurney, the John F. Smith Memorial Professor at the Isenberg School of Management, serves as the faculty advisor to the speaker series.

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