The INFORMS Aviation Applications Section will hold a Best Student Presentation Competition at the 2020 INFORMS Annual Meeting. AAS is sponsoring this competition for undergraduate and graduate students who are members of the INFORMS Aviation Applications Section. A certificate of recognition and a cash prize will be awarded.
To enter the competition, the following criteria must be satisfied:
- The presenter must be a member of AAS for the year 2020.
- The presenter must provide an extended abstract (one or two pages in length) as per the Extended Abstract Template provided on the AAS website by July 17, 2020. The extended abstracts should be emailed to Alex Estes (este0100@umn.edu), the Committee Chair, by 5 p.m. CDT on July 17, 2020.
- The presenter must be an undergraduate or graduate student at the time of extended abstract submission deadline (i.e. on July 17, 2020), and the presentation must be based on the research conducted while he/she was a student.
- Each presenter is allowed to submit at most one abstract for the competition.
- The presentation must be in an area relevant to aviation research or practice (e.g. airline operations or air traffic management including unmanned aerial systems).
The winner will be chosen based on both the quality of the presentation itself and the extended abstract.
Past Winners
2020
First Place
Max Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Conservative Selective Redistribution of Airport Delays
Honorable Mention
Jing Gao, University of Minnesota
Collaborative Sensing and Routing in the National Air Space
2019
First Place
Rachael E. Tompa, Stanford University
Rerouting Aircraft during Space Launches using Adaptive Spatial Discretization

Pictured: Andrew Churchill (AAS Chair), Rachael E. Tompa (middle, recipient), Heng Chen (2019 Presentation Committee
Chair)
Honorable Mention
Junhong Guo, University of Michigan.
A Delayed Column Generation Approach for Solving a Cargo Crew Scheduling Problem
2018
First Place
Xiaojia Guo, University College London
Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning

Pictured: Vikrant Vaze (left, chair of the Aviation Applications Section), Xiaojia Guo (middle, recipient), Alexandre Jacquillat (right, secretary/treasurer of the Aviation Applications Section)
Honorable Mention
Maryam Torabbeigi, University of Houston.
Impact of Payload Amount on Battery Consumption Rate in a Delivery Application of Drones
2017
First Place
Behrooz Pourghannad, University of Minnesota
A Static Model in Single Leg Flight Airline Revenue Management
Honorable Mention
Nuno Ribeiro, Carnegie Mellon University
An Optimization Approach for Airport Slot Allocation under the IATA Guidelines
2016
First Place
Mike Wittman, MIT
Customized Offers in Airline RM
Mike Wittman (Center) with the Presentation Award Committee Chair, Lavanya Marla (Left) and the Section Chair, Senay Solak (Right)
Honorable Mention
Reed Harder, Dartmouth College
Two-Stage Game Theoretic Modeling of Airline Frequency and Fare Competition
Reed Harder (Center) with the Presentation Award Committee Chair, Lavanya Marla (Left) and the Section Chair, Senay Solak (Right)
2015
First Place
Chiwei Yan, MIT
Robust Aircraft Routing
Chiwei Yan receives the award from the Section Chair, Senay Solak.
2014
First Place
Heng Chen, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Optimal Metering Point Locations for Optimized Profile Descent Operations at Airports
Honorable Mention
James Jones, University of Maryland at College Park
Managing Terminal Airspace Demand Uncertainty with En-Route Speed Control
2013
First Place
Alexandre Jacquillat, MIT
Airport Congestion Mitigation through Schedule Coordination: An Integrated Approach
Alexandre Jacquillat receives the award from the Section Secretary/Treasurer, Vikrant Vaze.
Honorable Mention
Yi Liu, University of California Berkeley
Cost Optimization under Capacity Uncertainty in Ground Delay Program: Single Airport Case
Yi Liu receives the award from the Section Chair, Thomas Vossen.