INFORMS Open Forum

Hi INFORMS and all, I came across this interesting blog on INFORMS Diversity Community titled 'STEM Outreach in a Virtual World.'(https://connect.informs.org/diversity/diversity-blog/stem-outreach). The blog talked about this amazing initiative by Dr. Phebe Vayanos, Aida Rahmattalabi, and Caroline Johnston from the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. Recognizing the lack of diversity in STEM, they're doing their part by exposing high schoolers from underrepresented backgrounds to the cool worlds of operations research (OR) and artificial intelligence (AI). It also discussed the the opportunities virtual interactions brought on the table that traditional in-person meets could not. This really matched my experience during the pandemic, when we all tried to tackle the loss of a traditional working area, and still had to keep up the efficiency. We utilized the benefits of virtual meetings and even had a chance to reshape our meetings and discussions as virtual meetings gave us unlimited participants and a new way to facilitate work meetings.  The exposure that Dr. Phebe Vayanos, Aida Rahmattalabi, and Caroline Johnston gave these students were extremely precious as when I recall my high school years, I never had this opportunity to be part of such an insightful, interesting and also practical event.

I feel like virtual interactions has really reshaped our lives, what are your thoughts on virtual v.s in-person interactions?