Welcome to the Fall "What's Your StORy?" comprising two interviews with INFORMS members Laura McLay and Harrison Schramm.
Enjoy the Q&A below and feel free to ask more questions on this thread. If you are interested in participating, please contact me or Mary Leszczynski (mary.leszczynski@...).
What’s Your StORy?
Laura Albert McLay
Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
INFORMS member since 2002
What interest do you have outside of work that might surprise us?
I’ve blogged and tweeted about so many of my interests over the years that I’m not sure anything will surprise you. I have three daughters—who are 10, 7, and 4—so I don’t have too many interests outside of work that don’t involve my children. Avid readers know my top interests are running and sports analytics. I am currently revising my College Football Playoff forecasting methodology (“Badger Bracketology”) for the 2015 season.
What is your favorite OR application?
I’ve been fascinated by how important and interesting homeland security problems are. Homeland security—like any application area—waxes and wanes in popularity. Homeland security problems do not always seem shiny and new and exciting, especially so many years after September 11, 2001, but I am frequently reminded that we will always have security challenges. It’s a great application area.
What has been your best INFORMS experience?
I have three; all at INFORMS Annual Meetings over the years. First and foremost, I thoroughly enjoyed serving on and chairing the Doing Good with Good OR committee. Students talking about how their research is making the world a better place is inspiring. Second, INFORMS meetings give us many chances to celebrate the achievements of our colleagues. I am fortunate to have successfully nominated two colleagues (Anna Nagurney and Jason Merrick) for major INFORMS awards, and it was a pleasure to see them honored for their achievements. And finally, the Forum for Women in OR/MS (WORMS) lunch is my favorite part of the INFORMS Annual Meeting. I was president of WORMS in 2013, and it was an honor to organize and host the lunch.
If we were sitting here a year from now celebrating what a great year it's been for you, what would we be celebrating?
I am running for a position on the INFORMS Board, and I am looking forward to the possibility of serving as the VP of Marketing, Communications, and Outreach. It is an exciting time for our OR/MS, and I hope to have the chance to contribute to our field. Next year, I hope we can celebrate some good press and extra visibility for OR/MS and all the wonderful things we do.
If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?
The best part of my job is that I get to work with PhD students on a variety of projects. I could never choose just one project, and I’m glad I don’t have to.
What is the best advice you can give to students in your field?
If you have already decided to become part of the OR/MS community, then you have already accepted some good advice. I recommend learning as much as you can about data structures, algorithms, programming, and analytics while you are a student.
After graduation, I recommend evangelizing early and often. Once you enter the workforce, you will encounter and work with others who have not heard of operations research. Your success—as well as the health and vitality of our field—in part depend on us getting the word out so others know about what we do so can use our tools when they are needed.
Tell us something that not many people know about you.
I like to cook and bake. One of my recipes (“Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins”) was published in the Chicago Tribune. I always joke that this is my most widely-read publication. If you’re interested in the recipe, search for it on my blog!
Harrison Schramm, CAP
Operations Research Analyst, US Navy Headquarters Staff
INFORMS member for 8 years
What was your best INFORMS experience?
Being the “Five Minute Analyst” in Analytics magazine has been a real joy. It lets me dip a toe into problems that I would never otherwise get to think about. Peter Horner and the professionals that put the INFORMS media together are top-notch. I always get interesting – and frequently unexpected –feedback from the articles.
What is your favorite OR application?
OR to me is all about problems, and I think it’s professionally limiting and perhaps even dangerous to have a single ‘favorite’ methodology. I keep from falling too in love with any particular technique by having a variety of diverse projects. Having said this, I think Logistic Regression and Data Envelopment Analysis are two great tools that can be brought to bear against a surprisingly large number of problems.
Briefly, what is the state of the military OR profession?
“In demand.” In military OR, the distance from the analysis to the decision is extremely short. Continued budgetary pressure means that our advice is frequently sought out, and we have to consistently give sound analysis on complex problems with aggressive timelines. So you roll up your sleeves and you give the best answer you can with the time and data available. Our office has one of the most in-depth, no-punches-pulled internal review processes anywhere and it’s the key to our success.
If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?
I prefer to have 99 problems! It’s topical, because I’m retiring from active duty in the spring and am therefore looking for new problems. I’ve always had a side interest in epidemiology, wrote a couple of papers based on it, and would really like to help find optimal policies and strategies to help eradicate preventable diseases around the world.
Which celebrity do you get mistaken for?
Benedict Cumberbatch. Constantly.
What about your career might surprise us?
I started my professional life as a Search-and-Rescue and logistics helicopter pilot, and flew over 2000 hours in a few different aircraft. In 2003 I led a crew that recovered 27 merchant sailors from their sinking ship and I’m eternally in awe of rescue swimmers.
How do you define “analytics”?
It’s the human side of OR. OR is the core of problem solving, and is necessary -- but not sufficient – for making organizations better. Analytics takes that hard mathematical core and wraps it in a soft blanket that is appealing to non-analysts. Without this ‘wrapper,’ executives are back in math class, which is a happy memory for most of us, but not most of them. This is truly where ‘art meets science’ and is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the job to learn.
Where’s Waldo?
If he’s out to sea, we’ll find him. The red and white shirt gives good visibility in the daytime. When the sun goes down, it will help if he turns on his strobe light.
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Kara Tucker
Production Editor/Marketing Content Specialist
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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