INFORMS Open Forum

  • 1.  Fun Post - Favorite Teacher

    Posted 08-25-2022 13:58
    It's back to school time in many parts of the world, so let's recognize our favorite teachers. Mine was Allen Stockett - my high school English teacher. He genuinely cared about every student - not just how you were doing in his class, but how you were doing over all. He even has a fan page on Facebook! Who was your favorite?

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    Jill Capello
    Membership Associate
    INFORMS
    Catonsville MD
    jcapello@informs.org
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  • 2.  RE: Fun Post - Favorite Teacher

    Posted 08-26-2022 09:02
    This is a fun post! Similarly to Jill, my favorite teacher was one who also truly cared about students' well-being and always made sure class and high school was as enjoyable as possible! Christopher Magyarics was my high school social studies teacher. And a fun fact: he went to high school with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson!

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    Kara Tucker
    Editor, OR/MS Today
    INFORMS
    Catonsville MD
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Fun Post - Favorite Teacher

    Posted 08-29-2022 13:55
    What a great question!

    I want to recognize Mr. Keenan, who taught high school physical at my high school. He started an Junior Engineering Technical Society team during my senior year and asked me to compete in the subject areas of physics and chemistry. That experience and his belief in me helped me develop enough confidence to consider pursuing a degree in physics or engineering in college. I graduated with a B.S. in engineering four years later.

    Laura

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    Laura Albert
    Professor and David H. Gustafson Chair
    University of Wisconsin-Madison
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Fun Post - Favorite Teacher

    Posted 08-30-2022 16:29

    I'll comment on a professor I was fortunate to have several classes with at Lehigh University within the Industrial Engineering Department - Dr. Gary Whitehouse.  Gary later moved from Lehigh to the University of Central Florida and is now (unfortunately) deceased.  My favorite course with Dr. Whitehouse was "Decision Making Under Uncertainty."  He vividly reinforced the concepts being taught by allowing students to weight class deliverables (homework, quizzes, tests, final, project, etc.) as a fraction of their total course grade - but only up to a time when ~ 40% of the class was complete and many deliverable outcomes uncertain, with a minimum number of components being required.  Each homework assignment had both an analytical component (50% of the grade) and a probabilistic component (the other 50%).  The best example I can remember of a typical homework assignment which reinforces "living the course material":  You can buy (at a set cost) observations from a coin flipper that is set to a given % heads.    There is a reward function that values accuracy in a prediction you must make concerning how many heads will result in 10 coin flips.  The question - how many coin flips should you buy?  .. and what is your prediction?  (Keeping in mind 50% of your grade is based on the accuracy of your predicted number of heads in 10 flips.)  As this memory was from 1975, I may have forgotten (or embellished) a few of the specifics, but hopefully you "get the picture."

    .

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    George Freestone
    Lifetime Member of the INFORMS Roundtable
    Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Wyomissing PA
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    Original Message


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