The 2025 RAS Problem Solving Competition
Operations Research and Advanced Analytical Approaches Applied to Real-World Rail Problems
First Prize: $2,000 -- Second Prize: $1,000 -- Third Prize: $750
Predicting the Remaining Useful Life of Wheelsets
Full description of the competition
The INFORMS Railway Applications Section is pleased to announce the 2025 Problem Solving Competition.
TTX Company has generously volunteered to sponsor the prizes and provide the problem, including data drawn from its operations. TTX Company was formed in 1955 and has grown to provide 175,000 railcars to North American railroads, investing $13 billion since 2000 and spending $800 million annually to maintain its fleet.
The 2025 Railway Application Section Problem Solving Competition focuses on failure prediction of wheels using detector data and wheel mileage. Wheelsets are critical components of railway vehicles, and their condition significantly impacts the safety and efficiency of railway operations. Participants will use data from Wheel Profile Detectors (WPDs), Truck Hunting Detectors (THDs), Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILDs), wheel mileage, and repair history. The dataset includes seven years of information on car details, car mileage, wheel information, wheel mileage, and detector data. Failures are defined using FRA/AAR condemnable failure rules as High Flange, High Impact, Thin Flange, and other. Developing an accurate predictive model for failure detection will enhance the maintenance and safety of railway operations by enabling proactive interventions and reducing the risk of wheelset failures.
Awards:
- First Prize: $2,000
- Second Prize: $1,000
- Third Prize: $750
Eligibiliity:
Practitioners of operations research and management science who are interested in solving problems in the railroad domain using Operations Research and Analytics tools are welcome to participate. Registration is open to all except for INFORMS Rail Applications Section (RAS) officers and organizing committee members. Likewise, members of the organizing committee may NOT help or guide any participating team. Teams of up to five members can participate. At least one member of each finalist team must be available in-person or virtually to answer questions at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Winners will be announced after the session.
Can I publish?
Yes, you can. In fact, RAS encourages you to do so. Anyone can use the RAS competition problem and provided datasets in their publication. References to year-specific problem competitions are given in the URL, and as such you can reference the year-specific competition URL which will not be changed.
Important dates:
- Release of Full Problem and Datasets: April 4, 2025.
- Registration Deadline: June 17, 2025.
- Q&A Period: Open from May 5, until August 19, 2025.
- Solution Submission Deadline (Paper + Results): August 19, 2025.
- Announcement of Finalists: September 3, 2025
- Finalists send video of presentation: September 30, 2025
- Finalists video conference judges, October 6-10, 2025.
- Finalists’ Presentations and Winner Announced (if no travel restrictions, in person): October 26-28, 2025, at INFORMS Annual Meeting (RAS Cluster).
Registration:
Send a message to the competition e-mail address rasproblemsolving2025@gmail.com with the subject line RASPSC2025. Include your team name, affiliation, members, and members' e-mail addresses. You will be provided with a link which will enable access to the data.
Usage and licensing of competition submissions:
INFORMS hereby grants, and will cause Participants to grant, to TTX a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, fully-paid, irrevocable right and license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, install, perform, distribute, display, modify and create derivative works of, any concepts, drawings, works, information, data, computer programs, algorithms, and other ideas and materials developed, invented, prepared, or discovered by INFORMS or any Participant, either alone or in collaboration with others, which, directly or indirectly, result from or are suggested by the problem statement or data shared by TTX, and any trademark, trade secret, copyright, patent, common law right, title, or slogan or any other proprietary right.
See the letter agreement between TTX and INFORMS RAS [Link].
Competition chairs:
Marty Schlenker, INFORMS RAS Vice Chair and Problem Solving Competition Chair
marty@schlenkerllc.com and 817-374-2762
Masood J. Kang, Equipment Advanced Analytics Manager, TTX Company
masood.jafarikang@ttx.com and 224-301-3139