The UPS George D. Smith Prize, is awarded annually to an academic department or program for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research and analytics.
Any academic unit that includes OR/MS/Analytics in its program is eligible. The applicant must specify the scope of the academic unit that is applying. The cash award must go to the unit that is applying. The parent academic institution of the winner, as a condition of accepting the cash award, must agree not to deduct institutional overhead or to reduce the budget of the program as a result. As part of the application process, the applicant will indicate how they would use the money, preferably in a way that would benefit their students. Although this proposal of use may be general in description, the applicant will be bound by their intent unless they receive permission from the prize committee for specific changes that are proposed in the use of the prize money.
Previous non-winning applicants are encouraged to reapply. Each year's competition will be judged based on the comparative quality of the applicant pool for that year without prejudice for or against an entry based on its possible status as a previous applicant or finalist. Cases for innovation will not be discounted if they have been described in a previous non-winning application.
To learn more about the prize, or to begin a submission, click here.
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Christy Blevins
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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