April 11th was an inspiring day for members of the UMass Amherst community and the UMass INFORMS Student Chapter, filled with outstanding research talks on the latest developments in supply chain management. The day began with a CORS Micro-Event, organized by the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) and its Montreal Local Section, which several of our members attended virtually. The session featured two distinguished researchers.
The first talk was delivered by Professor Anna Nagurney, Faculty Advisor to our UMass INFORMS Student Chapter. Her presentation, titled “Agricultural Supply Chain Networks Under Uncertainty,” explored how optimization and game theory are being used to model and enhance agricultural supply chains, particularly under disruptions caused by pandemics, climate change, and geopolitical events. Professor Nagurney discussed the challenges of maintaining fresh produce quality, modeling multitiered supply networks, and developing resilience metrics. She also emphasized the importance of effectively communicating research to influence real-world policies and drive positive change.
Following her talk, Dr. Emma Frejinger from the University of Montreal presented “A Model-Free Approach for Solving Choice-Based Competitive Facility Location Problems Using Simulation and Submodularity.” Dr. Frejinger showcased her novel methodology that merges simulation techniques with submodular optimization to solve large-scale facility location problems under uncertainty. Her work demonstrated significant performance improvements over traditional methods and offers promising applications across the transportation and supply chain industries.
The talk is available at the following link:
In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to attend an in-person talk at UMass Amherst as part of the OIM Distinguished Speaker Series, featuring Dr. Burak Kazaz, Steven Becker Professor of Supply Chain Management and the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence at Syracuse University.
Dr. Kazaz’s talk, titled “Wine Analytics,” introduced the audience to a fascinating new field focused on applying advanced analytics to wine supply chains. He explained how winemakers use predictive models to estimate the value of wine futures and how distributors can optimize investment portfolios using these insights. Dr. Kazaz also presented prescriptive models that help winemakers decide how much wine to sell as futures and at what prices, presenting an exciting blend of finance, analytics, and agriculture. His dynamic presentation style energized the audience and led to a lively Q&A session, covering topics such as investment strategies, climate impacts on chateaus, and the broader applications of wine analytics.
We would like to thank the organizers of the CORS Micro-Event and the OIM Distinguished Speaker Series for making these enriching talks possible. Special thanks also to Professor Anna Nagurney, Dr. Emma Frejinger, and Dr. Burak Kazaz for sharing their expertise and research insights with the community.
The UMass INFORMS Student Chapter looks forward to more inspiring events this semester — stay tuned to our blog for updates!