Key speakers
Prof. Marco LübbeckeRWTH Aachen University, Chair of Operations Research Title: Branch-and-Price Abstract: Many practical optimization problems can be formulated with models with an enormous amount of variables. These variables typically represent combinatorial objects like subsets, configurations, or permutations. We are able to solve such models, even to optimality, because variables can be dynamically generated via column generation. Embedded in branch-and-bound we obtain branch-and-price. Formally, one may arrive at such models via a Dantzig-Wolfe refomulation of some integer program. One benefit of the reformulation is a potentially stronger relaxation. We describe efforts to develop a generic solver that is able to automatically perform the reformulation, and solve the latter by branch-and-price. An important part of this is to detect exploitable model structure, where we present our state of knowledge and identify blind spots where more research is needed. Bio: Marco Lübbecke is a professor and chair of operations research at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He is interested in computational integer programming, and has a research focus on decomposition-based methods (e.g., Dantzig-Wolfe reformulation, column generation, and branch-and-price) applied to large-scale and complex optimization problems. Many of these directly come from industrial applications in production, logistics, transport, energy, politics, healthcare, and education. He is currently Vice President for Information Technology in the INFORMS board of directors. 
Prof. James CochranDepartment of Information Systems, Statistics, and Management Science Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration University of Alabama Title: Active Learning in the Modern Operations Research Classroom: Reengaging and Reenergizing your Students and their Instructor! Abstract: We in the operations research community understand that Analytics (and specifically OR and Statistics) are inherently interesting, relevant, important, and enjoyable disciplines - unfortunately many of our students (particularly those in introductory Analytics courses) don't seem to share this understanding with us! So how do Analytics instructors help students appreciate that Analytics is interesting and relevant and important and enjoyable? Professor Cochran discusses several classroom cases and active learning exercises he has developed and regularly uses to accomplish this goal when teaching introductory Analytics courses. Throughout this session Professor Cochran will emphasize his points with live demonstrations and discussions of several interesting and novel active learning exercises and cases. Card tricks, classroom versions of television game shows, and a teaching case with integrated active learning will be featured. Because many of these exercises are easily transferable across topics, instructor/classroom styles, cultures, national borders, institutions, faculties, programs, and class sizes, it is very likely you will walk away from this session with ideas on how to improve your own teaching (indeed, Professor Cochran will be very disappointed if you don't!). Be prepared – audience participation is an integral part of this session, and Professor Cochran may call on you during the session! Bio: James J. Cochran is Professor of Statistics, Rogers-Spivey Faculty Fellow, and Head of the Department of Information Systems, Statistics and Management Science at The University of Alabama. He earned a PhD in Statistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1997, and he has been a Visiting Scholar with Stanford University, the University of South Africa, the Universidad de Talca, and Pôle Universitaire Léonard De Vinci. Professor Cochran was a founding co-chair of Statistics Without Borders and a member of the founding committee for INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics initiative. He established INFORMS’ Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium series and annual case competition. In 2005 Professor Cochran established the International Education Workshop series; through this series colloquia have been held in Uruguay, South Africa, Colombia, Tanzania, Argentina, Kenya, India, Fiji, Croatia, Nepal, Cuba, and Mongolia (with plans for upcoming colloquia in Moldova, Madagascar, and Romania). In 2008 he organized the 2008 ORPA Conference on Using Operations Research to Address Urban Transport and Water Resource Management Issues in Africa. Professor Cochran is founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the Wiley Series in Operations Research and Management Science as well as the forthcoming Guide to the Analytics Body of Knowledge. He has published over forty research articles and a dozen book chapters, and he is coauthor of seven textbooks in statistics, operations research, and analytics. He has served as a consultant to a wide variety of corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations around the world. He served as Editor-in-Chief of INFORMS Transactions on Education and serves on the boards of several journals. In 2006 Professor Cochran was elected to the International Statistics Institute, in 2008 he received the INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice, in 2010 he received the Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award, and in 2011 he was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. In 2014 he became the 86th recipient of the American Statistical Association’s Founders Award, and in 2015 he received the Karl E. Peace Award for outstanding statistical contributions for the betterment of society. |
