Blogs

Photos of the TSL Conference 2023

By Layla Martin posted 08-07-2023
... and it's a wrap! TSL 2023 was a blast (once again), and I was so happy to see more than 200 transport enthusiasts in Chicago. A big thank-you goes to the organizers, headed by Sandra for the TSL conference committee and Mike from Loyola University. You turned this into an amazing conference! Also, we owe a big thank you to all sponsors which made this conference possible! Lastly, the conference would not have happened without so many speakers, and of course the many attendees! In total, we had over 150 presentations, two keynotes, and one tutorial. I believe I speak for everyone if I say that ...

TSL Cross Regional Grants 2023

By Jan Fabian Ehmke posted 07-13-2023
The application window is open for TSL Cross Regional Grants. These grants were created as part of our efforts to generate more collaboration across the four TSL regions (North America, Central and South America; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and Asia, Australia, and New Zealand). The grants and application process are described below, with one grant aimed at doctoral students to study abroad and two others more broadly focused on driving collaborative research. Note that one Cross-regional Collaborative Grant is funded in partnership with VeRoLog . The deadline for submission is August 31, 2023. The awards will be announced at ...

Spotlight on: Matthias Soppert (Winner of the Doctoral Dissertation Award 2022)

By Layla Martin posted 06-29-2023
For many years, we have been selecting the best doctoral dissertation. Last year, Matthias Soppert from the University of the Armed Forces in Munich (Universität der Bundeswehr) won this prestigious award. Matthias currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at his Alma Mater and combines this position with frequent extended research stays, for example, to Portugal and Canada. TSL: What do you think is the best thing about transportation science? Matthias: The discipline of operations research offers plenty of challenging problems, and I believe that the joy of cracking these tough nuts is one of the main drivers for researchers in this ...

New book (free download) Sequential Decision Analytics and Modeling

By Warren Powell posted 06-01-2023
I am pleased to announce that my book Sequential Decision Analytics and Modeling: Modeling with Python (SDAM) is now available for free download from https://tinyurl.com/sdamodeling/ The print version is also available from the webpage at a discounted price of $50 (use the special code on the webpage). SDAM was written for my undergraduate course at Princeton University. It uses a teach-by-example style - with the exception of chapters 1 and 7, each chapter describes a different application using the same outline, making the book very easy to skim. The book is designed to illustrate a fundamentally different way of approaching and solving sequential ...

TSL Best Paper Award: Extended Deadline

By Layla Martin posted 05-31-2023
2023 TSL Best Paper Award – Call for Submissions Extended Submission Deadline: June 15, 2023 The TSL Best Paper Award is given once a year to an outstanding paper in the field of transportation science and logistics. The paper must be published in a refereed journal and present innovative approaches for solving complex problems in transportation and/or logistics, with an emphasis on operations research, analytics, and quantitative methods. An author can submit only one paper; in addition, no individual may be a co-author on more than two papers submitted to the competition. Eligibility Criteria A paper is eligible for the competition ...

Transportation Science Editorial Review Survey

By Layla Martin posted 04-19-2023
Dear Members of the TSL Community, Transportation Science is undergoing its regular editorial review. As part of this review, the TSL community has a chance to weigh in via the editorial review survey. It recently came to our attention that many members of the community did not get this message when it first went out. If you have not filled out the survey yet, you can do so via this link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/CZJ5FK2 Note that the survey automatically tracks whether you have already answered it. The updated deadline to answer the survey is Friday, April 28. Best regards, Alejandro Toriello on behalf of the TS Editorial Review Committee

Spotlight on: Niels Agatz (Winner of the Stella Dafermos Award 2022)

By Layla Martin posted 04-04-2023
Last year, we introduced a new award for mid-career researchers, the Stella Dafermos award. Today, we want to introduce last year's winner, Niels Agatz. Niels is a professor of Last-Mile Supply Chain Analytics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Beyond serving as our treasurer at TSL and as an associate editor at TS, he is also the Scientific Director of the Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics. TSL: Why did you go into transportation science? What was your path towards our field? Niels: I always liked mathematics in school, especially creatively solving word problems. Later, as an industrial engineering student, I was immediately attracted to courses ...

2023 J. Steinhardt Prize

By Gregory Parnell posted 04-02-2023
The J. Steinhardt Prize is sponsored by the CNA Corporation. The prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to military and security areas within operations research and is awarded for life work rather than for any particular contribution. The selection committee is composed primarily of previous award winners. The award is accompanied by a plaque and a $2,000 honorarium. Nomination Process The nomination should include a dossier of the candidate's achievements and eligibility for the award and should be accompanied with a curriculum vita and/or a biography. Candidates may self-nominate or be nominated by a colleague. ...

Odysseus 2024

By Layla Martin posted 03-20-2023
First announcement for ODYSSEUS conference 2024 We are happy to announce that the ninth international workshop on freight transportation and logistics, ODYSSEUS 2024, will be held in Carmona (Spain) on May 20-24, 2024. ODYSSEUS workshops are among the leading scientific meetings for the development of the Logistics and Freight Transportation field. ODYSSEUS 202 4 will be the 9 th edition in the series of ODYSSEUS meetings after Crete 2000, Sicily 2003, Altea 2006, Çeşme 2009, Mykonos 2012, Ajaccio 2015 , Cagliari 2018 and Tangier 2021 (postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) . This international ...

Advertising DELORES23 - A writing workshop for early-career OR researchers

By Catherine Cleophas posted 03-20-2023
DELORES23 - A writing workshop for early-career OR researchers Publishing high-quality innovative research in OR is challenging. Early-career researchers and Ph.D. students often struggle to publish their papers in top OR journals. Rym M'Hallah, Professor of Systems Engineering at King's College London , and Udo Buscher, Professor of Industrial Management at TU Dresden are offering a new workshop to help early-career researchers work on their current papers in different areas of OR, including Scheduling, Packing, and Routing. It will provide them with good practices and essential writing skills. The workshop will provide step-by-step coverage of the ...

New Book on Heuristic Algorithms

By Andrew Acosta posted 12-11-2022
I found a new book on Operations Research from Éric Taillard which begins with the Traveling Salesman Problem. It is available in print format ( Taillard, 2013) and online as a PDF file. Starting with graph theory, and continuing to Heuristics Design, this volume contains sample Python code to supplement the theory within. For example, a greedy adaptive search procedure (" GRASP") with path relinking implementation for the TSP in pseudocode, Algorithm 10.3: GRASP-PR framework Input: GRASP procedure (with local search LS and parameter 0   1), parameters Imax and Result: Population P of solutions 1 P← 2 while |P| < do 3 s←GRASP( ,LS) 4 if s /∈ P then 5 ...

Call for Papers: 2023 IISE DAIS Best Track Paper Competition

By Haifeng Wang posted 11-22-2022
Call for Papers: DAIS Best Track Paper Competition 2023 IISE Annual Conference & Expo May 20-23, 2023, New Orleans, LA Data Analytics & Information Systems Track The Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS) Division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) announces the DAIS Best Track Paper Competition . The purpose of this competition is to honor outstanding papers in research and practice of data analytics and information systems. Section 1. Eligibility Requirements and Application Process The paper topic should fit the DAIS themes. The paper must present original research results and ...

TSL Business Meeting 2022

By Layla Martin posted 10-24-2022
During the INFORMS annual meeting last week, we held our annual business meeting. Thanks to Jan for leading TSL in the past year, and thanks to Sara and Justin for organising TSL's part of INFORMS! During our business meeting, we (i) presented our new officers, (ii) handed out many awards, (iii) looked back and forth, and (iv) Karen provided an update on our flagship journal Transportation Science. Congratulations to five newly elected officers: Margaretha Gansterer (TSL VP/President-elect), Lavanya Marla (Secretary), Layla Martin (Communications Chair), Heng Chen (SIG Air-Transport Vice Chair), Sibel Alumur Alev (TSL Cluster Vice Chair). Look out for our ...

INFORMS Annual Meeting: What to do?

By Layla Martin posted 10-14-2022
With all of us making our way to the US (Indianapolis, to be exact) for this year's INFORMS, the question emerges: What to do at this massive conference? Which sessions to attend? Within the TSL Communications Team, we (very subjectively), would of course recommend you to attend the many sessions we host! For example, did you know that we're now having a Mid-Career Award (the Stella-Dafermos Award)? Our award sessions will take place on Tuesday between 8:00-9:15AM (Best Paper awards), 11:00-12:15 AM (Mid-career and lifetime awards), 12:30-1:45 PM (Dissertation Award). You can even remain seated in room 209 for that :) A new concept at this INFORMS is Flash ...

Looking back at the TSL Workshop "Transportation and logistics prospects in light of digitalization and autonomous technologies"

By Layla Martin posted 09-01-2022
The 2022 TSL workshop theme focused on "Transportation and logistics prospects in light of digitalization and autonomous technologies". We had the opportunity to discuss how the transportation and logistics landscape is being transformed by technologies such as the Internet of Things and autonomy. Autonomous vehicles, such as cars, trucks, ships, and drones, stay connected and interact in various manners thanks to developments in communication. The contributions to the workshop hit the nail, allowing us to have a rich discussion around the workshop theme. The talks covered and combined topics such as autonomous vehicles, shared mobility, decarbonization, crowd ...

TSL Cross Regional Grants 2022: Extended Deadline

By Layla Martin posted 08-10-2022
The application window for TSL Cross Regional Grants remains open until August 31. These grants were created as part of our efforts to generate more collaboration across the four TSL regions (North America, Central and South America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia, Australia and New Zealand). The grants and application process are described below, with one grant aimed at doctoral students to study abroad and two others more broadly focused at driving collaborative research. Note that one of the Cross-regional Collaborative Grants is funded in partnership with VeRoLog . The deadline for submission is August 31, 2022 . The awards will ...

Special Issue in Networks: Advances in Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization

By Layla Martin posted 07-07-2022
Special issue of Networks on Advances in Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization Guest Editors: Martin Josef Geiger, Asvin Goel VeRoLog is the Working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization within EURO, the Association of the European Operational Research Societies. The VeRoLog conference is an annual meeting bringing together the large community of researchers and practitioners interested in vehicle routing optimization and its relationship with logistics. This call for papers seeks high quality methodological contributions on vehicle routing optimization and logistics optimization to relevant real-world applications in industry ...

TSL Cross Regional Grants 2022

By Layla Martin posted 07-07-2022
The application window is open for TSL Cross Regional Grants . These grants were created as part of our efforts to generate more collaboration across the four TSL regions (North America, Central and South America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia, Australia and New Zealand). The grants and application process are described below, with one grant aimed at doctoral students to study abroad and two others more broadly focused at driving collaborative research. Note that one of the Cross-regional Collaborative Grants is funded in partnership with VeRoLog . The deadline for submission is August 31, 2022 . The awards will be announced at the TSL Business ...