Month: October 2024

On October 11, 2024, we hosted a Tune-Up session where five of our student members presented their research and received valuable feedback from peers and faculty. Notably, for many of these students, this year’s INFORMS Annual Meeting will be their first experience attending this prestigious conference focused on Operations Research and Management Science.

The session began with lunch as everyone helped themselves to pizza and coffee while the speakers prepared to get their presentations set up.

Professor Nagurney also congratulated the student chapter officers for winning the Magna Cum Laude award for their activities. She further thanked all the presenters, faculty, and peers who showed up to give feedback to the students.

Our president, Ismael Pour, introduced the first presenter, Solmaz Abbaspour, who gave an illuminating talk on equitable supply-demand balancing.

Following Solmaz, Samira gave an exciting talk about trade network models under commodity losses. Ismael’s presentation on the price network equilibrium paradox was highly engaging. This was followed by Busra, who spoke about strategic frameworks for social welfare programs. Finally, Dana presented his work on multi-period, multi-commodity, capacitated international trade network models.

The audience was engaged throughout all the interesting presentations and had many questions, feedback, and suggestions for the speakers.

The session ended on a positive note, and all the presenters felt encouraged and prepared for their future presentations at the conference. We extend our sincere gratitude to all the students who volunteered to present at the Tune-Up session, as well as to the students and especially the faculty who attended and provided the presenters with valuable feedback. The insights shared during the event will help refine the research presentations, which will be showcased at this year’s INFORMS Annual Meeting.

Be sure to stay connected by regularly checking our blog and social media platforms, where we’ll continue to share updates on upcoming events and other exciting news.

As the new academic year begins and students return to campus, UMass INFORMS is excited to organize a variety of engaging events once again. On September 27, 2024, we kicked off the semester with our first event featuring Dr. Muge Capan, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Capan delivered an insightful presentation titled “Improving Diagnostic Equity in Ambulatory Settings: Research to Practice.”

Our new president, Ismael, welcomed Professor Capan and provided a brief introduction to her background.

Our faculty advisor, Professor Anna Nagurney, welcomed Dr. Capan and expressed our gratitude for her acceptance of our invitation. She also congratulated Professor Capan on being featured on the university website for two consecutive days.

During her presentation, Dr. Capan shared an overview of her ongoing research projects across three key areas: diagnostic decision-making, provider workload, and maternal health, with a focus on diagnostic decision-making for this talk. Her project is structured into three parts: identifying and conceptualizing tools for addressing diagnostic errors and conducting chart reviews; analyzing the incidence of diagnostic errors and decision-making under uncertainty; and quantifying distributional disparities among patient subpopulations.

Following the presentation, the audience engaged with Dr. Capan by asking many thoughtful questions. There were several inquiries from PhD students in both the Isenberg School of Management and the MIE department, as well as questions from Professor Solak, the Chair of the OIM Department, Professor Hari Balasubramanian, and Professor Nagurney.

Refreshments, including coffee and bagels, were provided for both the speaker and the audience. Although the delivery was a bit late, our new officers handled the situation calmly, as one would expect from those in the operations research field. While the food was delightful, it was the company that truly made the occasion memorable.

As always, stay tuned for more exciting events at UMass Amherst, whether during this fall semester or in the future. Our next planned event will be the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting Tune-Up, and we hope to see you there!