It is my pleasure and honor to send the following conference report for OR@Africa (contact@oratafrica.org). It is a slightly simplified preprint of a future IFORS News conference report.
The 1st Edition of OR@Africa Day –
OR at AFRICA: Challenges & Opportunities
<contact@oratafrica.org>
On January 20, 2025, OR@Africa organized the first edition of the OR@Africa Day at GERAD, Montreal, and online. The event brought together passionate OR researchers, students, and professionals from various parts of the world. This event was an opportunity to witness the potential and the role that could be played by OR in tackling several challenges in the African continent.
Inspiring Talks: OR Potential in Africa
The event started with an opening speech by our guest of honor, Prof. Gilbert Laporte, who highlighted his continuous support of OR@Africa and the efforts made to bring more OR momentum to the continent.
After Prof. Laporte's inspiring speech, the OR@Africa team explained the high ambition of using OR to tackle emerging challenges in Africa. Following that, renowned Professors Issmail El Hallaoui, Hanane Dagdougui, and Nadia Lahrichi presented their research. They all presented interesting projects, some of which took place in Africa, and span healthcare, energy systems, transportation, and agriculture. In OR@Africa's efforts to bring more youth into the OR scene, we held another session where young researchers shared their works. The topics include resource optimization, counterfactual explanations in machine learning, and dynamic programming for complex knapsack problem variants.
The Promise of a Collaborative Future
The First Annual OR@Africa Day was not only a resounding success but also opened the door to future OR collaborations that could benefit the African continent. The discussions around OR applications in Africa showed how powerful this discipline can be in solving complex problems, whether it is optimizing resources or improving infrastructures.
Looking ahead, OR@Africa is eager to explore emerging collaborations with global organizations such as IFORS, INFORMS, EURO and especially AFROS. These partnerships could be pivotal in advancing operations research in Africa, helping to connect researchers and practitioners worldwide to tackle critical challenges on the continent.
The OR@Africa team would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to Prof. Laporte, Prof. El Hallaoui, Prof. Lahrichi, Prof. Dagdougui, Ibrahim Dan Dije, Awa Khouna, and Sarah Nouri, as well as all the other participants. Their enthusiasm, expertise, and commitment made this first edition a true stepping stone for more OR@Africa initiatives.
For more details about the event, visit our LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/oratafrica. The next OR@Africa Day will take place in 2026, and we look forward to making it an annual event, continuing to bring together OR professionals, researchers, and students to collaborate on pressing issues in Africa.
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Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber
Professor
Poznan University of Technology
Poznan
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