It’s the time of year again! Colleagues will come together and mull over recent analytical achievements to decide whether or not this is the year they will apply for the Edelman Award. My advice to you – DO IT! The process can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your professional career. Prior applicant? Share your thoughts!
Here's the application process:
Submit a document containing a three page summary (a maximum of 1500 words) that describes what you accomplished, in just enough detail to let us judge the appropriateness of your work for the competition. Include a cover page with the title, authors' names and affiliations, and a 60-word abstract of the achievement. We require that the document be submitted electronically as a pdf file that is up to four pages long (use 12-point font text and normal margins). This Summary of Achievement is due to me (Anne Robinson (anne.robinson@stanfordalumni.org)) by Wednesday, October 19, 2016.
Entrants will be expected to report on a completed, practical application and must describe results that had significant, verifiable and preferably quantifiable impact on the performance of the client organization. The criteria used in judging the entries include the following:
- Implementation. Is the work implemented and in use?
- Impact/Value. What are the major quantified (e.g., dollars saved, revenue increased) and non-quantified (e.g., process streamlined, customer satisfaction improved) impacts of the work? How important was the work to the client?
- Technical Solution. Is there a technical innovation in the project? Innovation may stem from the creation of new methods as well as the application of existing methods to new problems or new environments.
- Difficulty. What political, technical, and managerial challenges had to be overcome in completing the project?
- Transportability. Is this work portable to other applications or industries?
Meeting criteria 1 and 2 above is essential; the work must have been implemented and resulted in significant benefit. Criteria 3 to 5 are important but finalists need not necessarily be strong in all categories. The competition welcomes entries from every type of organization, worldwide, including business, government, military, healthcare, education, and non-profit.
Finalists work will be published in a future Issue of Interfaces.
Any work you have done in recent years is eligible unless it has already been described by a Franz Edelman Award finalist. Previous publication of the work does not disqualify it. Anyone is eligible for the competition except members of the judging panel.
The purpose of the competition is to bring forward, recognize, and reward outstanding worldwide examples of operations research, management science and advanced analytics in practice. The prize is awarded for implemented work, not for a submitted paper or for the presentation describing the work. The client organization that used the winning work receives a prize citation; the authors of the winning work receive a cash award.