Dear INFORMS Members,
We are pleased to announce the finalists of the 2018 INFORMS Undergraduate Operations Research Prize Competition. The finalists (in alphabetical order of papers' first authors) are:
Paper Title: "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Strategic Agent in the Pediatric Vaccine Market: An Analytical Approach"
Institution: Pomona College (USA)
Department: Mathematics
Faculty Advisors: Susan Martonosi (Harvey Mudd College) and Banafsheh Behzad (California State University at Long Beach)
Paper Title: "Evolving contact network algorithm: a new simulation method for modeling HIV, a disease with low prevalence but critical public health issue in the US."
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA)
Department: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Chaitra Gopalappa and Hari Balasubramanian
Paper Title: "Numerical Analysis of the Knowledge Gradient for Locally Quadratic Functions in Multidimensional Learning Settings",
Institution: Princeton (USA)
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Advisor: Warren Powell
Paper Title: "Multi-Period Lot-Sizing with Supplier Selection: Structural Results, Complexity and Algorithms"
Institution: Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China)
Faculty Advisors: Woonghee Tim Huh (University of British Columbia)
Paper Title: "Assortment Optimization for a Multi-Stage Choice Model"
Institution: Tsinghua University (China)
Department: School of Economics and Management
Faculty Advisors: Zizhuo Wang (University of Minnesota)
Paper Title: "Limited memory Kelley's Method Converges for Composite Convex and Submodular Objectives"
Institution: Tsinghua University (China)
Faculty Advisors: Swati Gupta (Georgia Tech) and Madeleine Udell (Cornell University)
The judges were extremely impressed with the quality of research being conducted by undergraduates. The finalists reflect the strength of the projects in applied or theoretical domains from the forefront of domestic and foreign undergraduate institutions and students. They also represent a selective cohort of tomorrow's generation of operations research theorists and practitioners. The excellent work by the finalists will be showcased in two designated sessions on Sunday, November 4th at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, SC26 (1:30pm in room 132A North Building) and SD26 (4:30pm in room 132A North Building). Winner and honorable mentions of the competition will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on November 4th at the Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Please join us in congratulating all finalists of the competition during the annual meeting.
Summary of the submission pool: There were 29 paper submissions to the competition from undergraduate researchers across the globe. In addition to industrial and systems engineering, operations research and management science disciplines, the competition also received submissions from undergraduate students enrolled in math and computer science departments. Submitted papers were rich in a variety of methods and application areas. The pool of applications was of high quality and committee would like to thank the authors of all submissions and their faculty advisors for their innovative and outstanding work.
As the committee chair, I would like to thank my fellow committee members for their devotion of time and efforts to the evaluation of the papers. This year's committee consisted of myself, Dr. Nan Kong from Purdue, Dr. Ozlem Ergun from Northeastern University, Dr. Matthew Bailey from Bucknell University, and Dr. Thiago Serra from Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs.
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Jennifer Pazour
2018 INFORMS Undergraduate OR Prize Committee Chair
Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy NY
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