On March 30th, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Burcu Balcik from Ozyegin University in Istanbul, Turkey. The title of her talk was: Site Selection and Route Planning for Post-Disaster Rapid Needs Assessment Operations. Dr. Balcik talked about needs assessment in the post disaster phase, especially for the short-term. She explained her solution techniques, which are on robust optimization. We really enjoyed her talk and meeting with her in person, and here are some pictures from her talk.
Our chapter’s advisor Professor Nagurney introduced Dr. Burcu Balcik. 
Dr. Burcu Balcik worked on disaster management and presented a case study from Van, Turkey, where an earthquake hit in 2011.
We had a tremendous audience, which included professors and students from all over the world (Turkey, India, Iran, Mexico, Bangladesh, Greece, South Korea and the United States).
After the lunch, as our tradition, Professor Nagurney took Dr. Burcu Balcik, Dr. Senay Solak (Isenberg OIM) and Dr. Chaitra Gopalappa (MIE), and two other students (Deniz and Pritha) for lunch at the UMass University Club. The food is, as always, amazing there! We love the crab cakes on top of a salad.
After the lunch, we came back to our office to hold the interview with Dr. Balcik. The interview is soon going to be available on Youtube. Our officers are working on the editing. We thank Rodrigo for his efforts. In the picture below, we are holding a present that Carlos Zetia from Concordia University sent!
On April 13th, we are organizing the STEM Slam Competition and looking forward to post some good news about that event!