Resoundingly Human

Looking back, when you were younger, do you wish you had some guidance when it came to making the really important decisions for your future? What college should I attend? Should I buy the reliable hatchback or the fire engine red mustang? Is this job offer right for me and my future? My guest today has created a tool that can do just that, by leveraging decision science technology to support and empower students as they make these important choices! Joining me today is Matthew Brady, tech entrepreneur, whose career has spanned both sides of the aisle from industry to education.

Welcome to the latest in our special series of Resoundingly Human podcasts highlighting the finalist teams for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, the Nobel Prize of Analytics, which will be awarded at the upcoming 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference in Indianapolis this April. These finalist projects represent teams from around the world who have leveraged advanced analytics to transform their organizations, address their most significant challenges, and better serve their customers and communities. Today I'm joined by members of the team representing Amazon to discuss their finalist project in the leadup to the Franz Edelman competition.

Welcome to the latest in our special series of Resoundingly Human podcasts highlighting the finalist teams for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, the Nobel Prize of Analytics, which will be awarded at the upcoming 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference in Indianapolis this April. These finalist projects represent teams from around the world who have leveraged advanced analytics to transform their organizations, address their most significant challenges, and better serve their customers and communities. Today I'm joined by members of the team representing WM to discuss their finalist project in the leadup to the Franz Edelman competition.

Welcome to the latest in our special series of Resoundingly Human podcasts highlighting the finalist teams for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, the Nobel Prize of Analytics, which will be awarded at the upcoming 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference in Indianapolis this April. These finalist projects represent teams from around the world who have leveraged advanced analytics to transform their organizations, address their most significant challenges, and better serve their customers and communities. Today I'm joined by members of the team representing USA Cycling to discuss their finalist project in the leadup to the Franz Edelman competition.

Welcome to the latest in our special series of Resoundingly Human podcasts highlighting the finalist teams for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, the Nobel Prize of Analytics, which will be awarded at the upcoming 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference in Indianapolis this April. These finalist projects represent teams from around the world who have leveraged advanced analytics to transform their organizations, address their most significant challenges, and better serve their customers and communities. Today I'm joined by members of the team representing Lufthansa to discuss their finalist project in the leadup to the Franz Edelman competition.

Welcome to the latest in our special series of Resoundingly Human podcasts highlighting the finalist teams for the 2025 Franz Edelman Award, the Nobel Prize of Analytics, which will be awarded at the upcoming 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference in Indianapolis this April. These finalist projects represent teams from around the world who have leveraged advanced analytics to transform their organizations, address their most significant challenges, and better serve their customers and communities. Today I'm joined by members of the team representing SF Express to discuss their finalist project in the leadup to the Franz Edelman competition.

We're in the countdown to the 2025 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference, in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 6-8, when more than 700 leading analytics professionals and industry experts will come together to discover new solutions to business problems, connect and network, and celebrate excellence in the field.   Joining me to help build the excitement for this year's conference is Dick den Hertog, professor of Operations Research at the University of Amsterdam, who will be sharing a sneak peek of his keynote presentation titled, “Analytics for a Better World,” which will showcase the transformative potential of analytics in enabling non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to make a greater impact on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Welcome back to part two of a very special interview with our 2025 INFORMS President Dave Hunt. Earlier this month, we released part one of our conversation, during which we took a look at Dave's goals and objectives for INFORMS in the year ahead, as well as answered some informative but FUN questions about Dave to help our listeners and INFORMS members get to know him a little better. Today, we continue our conversation with a look at how Dave came to be into the field of OR/MS and analytics, what shaped his career path, and what the exciting new ways he sees INFORMS members continue to contribute to making smarter decisions for a better world.  

Welcome to a brand-new year of Resoundingly Human podcasts! Whether this is your first episode, or you are a long-time listener, thank you for joining us and I hope you'll subscribe for even more great content highlighting the incredible contributions of INFORMS members. To kick off our first episode of the new year, joining me is the 2025 INFORMS President Dave Hunt, vice president at Oliver Wyman, and a 30+ year INFORMS member who received the INFORMS President's Award for his role in founding INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics and chairing the INFORMS Ethics Guidelines committee.

As we close out another year of Resoundingly Human podcasts, I am joined once again by the 2024 INFORMS president Julie Swann, to share a final look back over the past year at INFORMS and reflect on Julie's time as president.

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming back to Resoundingly Human long-time INFORMS member Jim Cochran, professor with the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Business. In addition, I'm joined by Ryan McNeill, deputy editor for the Reuters global data journalism team. Jim and Ryan are members of an investigative team that was recognized with the 2024 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Multimedia Journalism for their work on The Bat Lands, a groundbreaking science series exploring the origins and potential outbreak sites of bat-borne viruses.

Welcome to the latest episode of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world. I'm your host, Ashley K. and thank you for joining me to explore how INFORMS members are saving lives, saving money and solving problems. I'm pleased to introduce Tom Stephenson, director of services and strategic partnerships at Simul8 Corporation, who joins me today to take a look at how simulation is being leveraged to help to improve healthcare outcomes in a wide variety of applications.

We're continuing our countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  In this episode, I'm joined by Cynthia Rudin, with Duke University, Charles Isbell, with the University of Wisconsin, and Michel Littman, with the National Science Foundation, for a preview of their plenary session, “Making the Most of this AI Moment: A Fireside Chat.” Charles serves as the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs with the UW-Madison, and Michael is the division director for information and intelligent systems at NSF.  Cynthia, the session moderator, is a longtime INFORMS member and the Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Duke University, as well as heads the Interpretable Machine Learning Lab.

We're continuing our countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year's meeting is Harriet Nembhard, professor and president of Harvey Mudd College. Harriet is Harvey Mudd College's sixth president, and a nationally recognized leader in the field of industrial and operations engineering, an expert in health systems, a voice on the national level for transforming undergraduate STEM education, and a champion for Harvey Mudd's mission. She is leading the development of an ambitious strategic plan to fortify Harvey Mudd's standing as a distinctive liberal arts college for science, engineering, and mathematics. Harriet will be presenting the plenary session – Preparing Interdisciplinary Leaders: Reimagine Your Department As A Place For Educating Future Operations Research Leaders Who Can Tackle Complex And Nuanced Problems – at the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

We're in the countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year's meeting is Koen Peters, head of optimization for the World Food Programme's Supply Chain Planning & Optimization branch. For the last decade he has been leading initiatives in the area of optimization and analytics, including tools that are now used to inform the design of food baskets, sourcing strategies, and delivery networks. These user-friendly solutions ensure that WFP can reach as many people in need as possible with available resources, and were awarded with the 2021 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science. Koen holds a Master of science degree in operations research and management science from Tilburg University, and is pursuing a PhD in humanitarian analytics at Tilburg University's Zero Hunger Lab.

We're in the countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting, in Seattle, Washington, October 20-23, when more than 6,000 INFORMS members, students, prospective employers and employees, and academic and industry experts will share the ways O.R. and analytics are fueling Smarter Decisions for a Better World.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year's meeting is Ann Tracy, Colgate-Palmolive's Chief Sustainability Officer. Ann leads Colgate's Global Sustainable Strategy and Key Initiatives, integrating a strong technical foundation across their Enterprise Sustainability and Social Impact Strategy Core Ambition Pillars – driving social impact, helping millions of homes, and preserving our environment.

In this episode, I'm joined by a longtime member of the INFORMS community, Richard Larson, post-tenure professor with MIT, past-president of both ORSA and INFORMS, recipient of the INFORMS Lanchester Prize, and author many times over, including his most recent book, Model Thinking for Everyday Life. What's wonderful about Dick's latest book, is its innovative and accessible approach to showing you how to think like, well an INFORMS member! The book combines real life examples with Dick's own personal experiences to show you how to shift the way you problem solve and improve your own decision making processes. But most of all, it's a fun and entertaining read!

This episode of the podcast was recorded live in Phoenix at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Keynote speaker Dr. Les Servi shared special insight on his talk, ‘Operations Research and National Security,' which provided an informative, and dare I say fun, first-hand look at the role of O.R. in National Security! Les is the Chief Scientist Cyber Operations Research at The MITRE Corporation and the immediate Past President of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), as well as an INFORMS Fellow.  This video has been created with the approval and consent of The MITRE Corporation. The views and opinions expressed in the video are those of the individual featured and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MITRE.

I am thrilled to welcome back to Resoundingly Human the 2024 INFORMS President Julie Swann, who is also the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor and Department Head of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, to share some behind the scenes updates on all that's been happening with INFORMS!

The opioid epidemic is a decades long public health crisis that is only continuing to grow in severity and impact. It is currently the foremost public health crisis in the United States, with its roots tracing back to mid to late 1990s when the highly concentrated prescription pain killer Oxycontin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in conjunction with the controversial pain as the fifth vital sign campaign, among other factors. As the U.S. government, healthcare system, and general public struggle to combat this epidemic, members of the OR/MS and analytics community are leveraging data and research to help provide support and solutions. Joining me to share their unique insight into a data-driven approach to help combat the opioid epidemic are Joyce Luo with MIT and Bartolomeo Stellato with Princeton University. Their study, “Frontiers in Operations: Equitable Data-Driven Facility Location and Resource Allocation to Fight the Opioid Epidemic," was recently published in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

Welcome to today's episode! We have an exciting discussion lined up as we dive into a fascinating study on TikTok, the wildly popular consumer-to-consumer media platform. My guests today explore how the length of videos impacts their performance on the platform. By modeling viewer behavior and analyzing market performance, they uncover intriguing insights including different optimal video lengths for maximizing viewer traffic. Stay tuned as we unpack these findings and their implications for content creators and platforms alike! I'm excited to introduce Xuying Zhao with Texas A&M University and Jane Gu with the University of Connecticut, to discuss their study in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research, called Content Length Limit: How Does It Matter for a Consumer-to-Consumer Media Platform?

Looking back, I think we can all recognize and appreciate the role that our parents played in shaping who we are. But have you ever thought about the impact you had on your parents, how they view themselves and others? For this episode, we're going to turn the tables and take a look at the role that children can have on shaping and influencing their parents, specifically, how having daughters can shape how men view and interact with women in the workplace, especially men in leadership roles. This is also known as the daughter effect. I'm thrilled to introduce Zhiyan “Z” Wu with Erasmus University and Lucia Naldi with Jönköping University, who collaborated with their fellow authors on a study recently published in the INFORMS journal Management Science titled “Learning from Their Daughters: Family Exposure to Gender Disparity and Female Representation in Male-Led Ventures.”

As we start to gear up for the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle later this year, this week's interview is the latest episode in a special series of the Resoundingly Human podcast, recorded in person at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. For this episode I am absolute delighted to be joined by Jeff Camm with Wake Forest University. Jeff is delivering the Omega-Rho Lecture: Reflections on the Profession of Operations Research and Some Thoughts on its Future and he is joining me today to share a special behind the scenes look at his presentation.

Welcome to the latest episode of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology, and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world.  I'm your host Ashley Kilgore and thank you for joining me for the next episode in a special series highlighting the 2024 Franz Edelman Award finalist teams! The Franz Edelman Award is presented each year to an organization that has made a transformative contribution to society, all with the power of advanced analytics. In the leadup to the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in sunny Orlando this April, we'll be highlighting the incredible contributions of this year's finalists. The winner will be announced at the conference, during the Edelman Gala.   Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with representatives of the Edelman Award finalist team from American Airlines to share some special insight into their project, which utilizes optimization and AI techniques to develop industry-leading technology called HEAT, which is short for Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool, that helps the airline more effectively manage irregular operations during severe weather.

Welcome to the latest episode of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology, and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world.  I'm your host Ashley K. and thank you for joining me for the next episode in a special series highlighting the 2024 Franz Edelman Award finalist teams! The Franz Edelman Award is presented each year to an organization that has made a transformative contribution to society, all with the power of advanced analytics. In the leadup to the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in sunny Orlando this April, we'll be highlighting the incredible contributions of this year's finalists. The winner will be announced at the conference, during the Edelman Gala.  Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with representatives of the Edelman Award finalist team from Transvision to share some special insight into their project, which developed an analytics solution to improve mobility for elderly and disabled citizens in the Netherlands.

With the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in Orlando, FL, now just weeks away on April 14-16, here at INFORMS we are looking forward to welcoming more than 700 leading analytics professionals and industry experts for opportunities to connect, network, and celebrate excellence in the field.  Joining me for a special behind the scenes look at one of this year's conference sessions is keynote speaker Colonel Kristin Saling, Acting Director, Innovation Directorate, United States Army Recruiting Command, who has been introducing analytics, automation, and transformational business processes into Army human resources for years.  She is an Army operations research and systems analyst with experience as an assistant professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She has led modernization programs at US Indo-Pacific Command, Headquarters Department of the Army, and is currently with Army Recruiting Command.

My guest today is going to help us explore the fun side of data analytics. Evan Wimpey is not only an analytics professional with Elder Research but is also a stand-up comedian! After spending years analyzing data and delivering statistical models, Evan realized that humor is often the most effective way to make dry or technical topics more accessible ... and more fun! Now in addition to his analytics day job, he performs data science comedy at conferences and events around the world, to include the upcoming 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference, April 14-16 in Orlando, FL.

We're in the countdown to the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference, in Orlando, FL, April 14-16, when more than 700 leading analytics professionals and industry experts will come together to discover new solutions to business problems, connect and network, and celebrate excellence in the field.  Joining me to give a sneak peek of this year's conference is Tom Koulopoulos, the INFORMS Roundtable-sponsored keynote speaker. Tom is an author, futurist, and leader who serves as chairman and founder of Delphi Group, a 30-year-old Boston-based think tank named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine, and the founding partner of Acrovantage Ventures, which invests in early-stage technology startups. He is also the author of 14 books, an inventor with several patents, an Inc.com columnist, the past Executive Director of the Babson College Center for Business Innovation, the past director of Dell Innovation Lab, and a professor at Boston University. I'm excited for the opportunity to get to know Tom, explore his own professional journey, and share an exciting sneak peek at what he'll be presenting at the upcoming conference.

Welcome back to Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology, and analytics to make smarter decisions for a better world.  I'm your host Ashley Kilgore and thank you for joining me for the next episode in a special series highlighting the 2024 Franz Edelman Award finalist teams! The Franz Edelman Award is awarded each year to an organization that has made a transformative contribution to society, all with the power of advanced analytics. In the leadup to the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in sunny Orlando this April, we'll be highlighting the incredible contributions of this year's finalists. The winner will be announced at the conference, during the Edelman Gala.   For the next episode in this year's Edelman finalist series, I have the pleasure of speaking with the team from McDonald's China to share some special insight into their finalist project, which accurately forecasted and delivered on record growth in the Chinese market for McDonalds.

The Franz Edelman Award is awarded each year to an organization that has made a transformative contribution to society, all with the power of advanced analytics. In the leadup to the 2024 INFORMS Analytics Conference in sunny Orlando this April, we'll be highlighting the incredible contributions of this year's finalists. The winner will be announced at the conference, during the Edelman Gala.   To kick off this very special series, which just so happens to feature my favorite episodes throughout the entire year, I have the pleasure of speaking with the team from Tata Steel Limited to share some special insight into their finalist project.

Welcome to a brand-new year of Resoundingly Human, the podcast brought to you by INFORMS, the leading association for professionals and students who apply science, math, technology and analytics to solve the world's most critical challenges. Basically, our member's work informs smarter decisions to make our world a better place and the Resoundingly Human podcast is dedicated to sharing their amazing stories. I'm your host Ashley Kilgore and thank you for joining us as we kick of another great year of thought-provoking and inspiring content!  Joining me for our first episode of the new year is the 2024 INFORMS President Julie Swann, the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor and Department Head of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University.

As 2023 draws to a close, it's a great time to reflect on the past year with our 2023 INFORMS President Laura Albert, professor and department chair of industrial & systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Welcome to the latest episode in a special series of the Resoundingly Human podcast, recorded in person at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. For this episode I am joined by Hamsa Balakrishnan with MIT. Hamsa is delivering the keynote session, “Advanced Air Mobility: Are We There Yet?” and she is joining me today to explore this topic.

In a special episode recorded at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, I have the opportunity to sit down with long time INFORMS member and professor and dean with the Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama, Jim Cochran. We cover a lot of ground from adventures abroad with Visiting Scholar opportunities, to combatting urban blight and human trafficking, to increasing access to dental care and food donations for those in need, but most importantly explore the power of analytics to give back and make a difference.  

If you're anything like me, a glass of wine at the end of a long day is a terrific way to relax and unwind. And whether your glass contains a deep, rich Cabernet, a crisp, floral Sancerre, or a dry, refreshing Pinot Grigio, they all share one thing in common, and that is – you guessed it – analytics! That's right! Just like a delicious charcuterie or cheese plate, analytics also pairs great with wine! From the grape all the way to the glass, analytics play an important role in the modern production of wine. Joining me to walk us through the wonderful world of wine analytics is Burak Kazaz, professor of supply chain management, and the executive director of the Brethen Institute  at Syracuse University.

It's been a busier (and more exciting) summer than usual for INFORMS! INFORMS president Laura Albert, professor and department chair of industrial & systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides an update on the latest and greatest at INFORMS.

This episode is a continuation of our previous episode, featuring our incoming 2024 INFORMS president, Julie Swann, our current president Laura Albert, and two past presidents, Radhika Kulkarni and Ramayya Krishnan, in which we'll be discussing their recent meetings on Capitol Hill related to artificial intelligence. 

INFORMS as an organization has a mission of elevating our members and our brand. As part of that goal, we work to educate policymakers about the value of operations research and analytics in decisions that they make that impact the American people. We have had great success in nurturing relationships in Washington and making a real difference. As of late, a big focus has been on artificial intelligence and some of INFORMS most prominent members are involved in the work. On this episode, I'm pleased to welcome our incoming 2024 INFORMS president, Julie Swann,, our current president Laura Albert, and two past presidents, Radhika Kulkarni and Ramayya Krishnan, to discuss their recent meetings on Capitol Hill related to artificial intelligence. 

Human trafficking is a global crime, impacting an estimated 27.6 million individuals each year. And while we might think that trafficking is a problem present in distant locations far from home, the sobering fact is that it is everywhere including in our own communities.  And while I think most are familiar with the existence of some of the perhaps better recognized forms of human trafficking – including sex trafficking and labor trafficking - it might surprise listeners that organ trafficking – in particular, kidney trafficking – is another significant form of human trafficking. In fact, it's a $1.7 billion industry worldwide. Joining me to share some insight into organ trafficking, it's prevalence and impact, and the complications in combatting it, is Naoru Koizumi with George Mason University. A specialist in in medical policies – including those relating to organ transplantation and end-stage kidney and liver diseases – Naoru is leading a team of researchers awarded NSF funding to learn more about organ trafficking and most importantly, how to combat and disrupt the associated supply chains.

With members in more than 90 countries, INFORMS truly represents a global and diverse community of OR/MS and analytics students, researchers, educators, practitioners and industry leaders. Members whose work is saving lives, saving money and solving complex problems, through ground-breaking research and transformative applications. And if you are part of this community, you know just how significant opportunities to connect, collaborate and grow your professional network are for furthering this incredible work. But for some, especially students or those just starting out in their career, or even experienced researchers who want to branch out into new areas, you might feel uncertain or even uncomfortable taking the first steps towards building professional relationships with new people. Luckily, events like the upcoming 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting, which will bring together thousands of members of the INFORMS community from October 15-18 in Phoenix, AZ, provide myriad opportunities to meet potential collaborators and friends from around the world. Now, if you listened to the most recent episode of the podcast, you'll already have heard me discuss this week's guest, a professor with Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil, and host of my new favorite podcast, Subject To: as well as author of the new OR/MS Today column of the same name, Anand Subramanian. Anand and I will be discussing the importance of meeting and connecting with others in your field for idea exchange, collaboration, or even just sharing admiration for another's work, and how to best leverage both in-person and virtual networking opportunities in order to do so.

Summer is here and the time is right … for getting the heck out of dodge! With temperatures soaring and kids off for summer break, scores of people are planning to travel at some point this summer. In fact, 85% of Americans are planning to take a trip this summer and of those more than 50% plan to travel to their destination by plane.  But in their efforts to get away from it all, many might be experiencing more of a stressful scenario than they had anticipated, as airports across the country are experiencing at worst, canceled flights and at best significant delays. What's surprising is that these disruptions are even extending to folks who are registered for TSA PreCheck. Joining me today to take a look behind the scenes at what is causing these delays and cancelations, what can be done to address them, and what would-be vacationers can do to limit the impact and stress on their vacations, is Laura Albert, professor and department chair of industrial & systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the 2023 INFORMS president.

It feels like in the blink of an eye, ChatGPT is everywhere. This AI-driven natural language processing tool can answer questions and help you create written content at lightning speed and is proving a valuable tool that is transforming content creation across the board. But where the heck did it come from?! How long has this technology actually been around? And while this is a fantastic tool, as with all things, is there the potential that this technology that could be leveraged negatively? Joining me from Temple University is Subodha Kumar, to share special insight on how ChatGPT came to be, how its currently being leveraged and where it is taking us!

Move over AI and supply chain, there's a new buzzword in town! Digital twin, a term that's been popping up more and more in mainstream media in recent months. But what is digital twin technology? Basically, it's using data to create a digital version of a real world, physical object, process or system for a wide range of purposes. Now that's a pretty basic explanation of what really is pretty complex technology, so today I'm joined by Michael Heiner, with Heiner Innovation Company, who will help us take a deeper dive into digital twin technology, what it is, why it has recently found itself in the spotlight, the potential for future developments and what makes him excited about the work he is doing in this space.

In honor of Pride month, this week's episode will feature audio from a previous video interview I conducted for the INFORMS Community Showcase highlighting the newest INFORMS community, the PRIDE Forum! In this interview I'm joined by Priyank Arora, President of the INFORMS Pride Forum, and Pritha Dutta, Board Member of the INFORMS Pride Forum. We take a look inside this new forum and its role in the INFORMS membership, and its goals in the larger OR/MS and analytics community. It is truly an honor to work for an organization that not only embraces, but prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion in its membership. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I do!    

Historically, baseball has been described as America's national past time. However, there might be another activity better suited to this title … and that is playing video games. That's right, video games. Over 227 million people in the U.S. play video games for at least one to a few hours per week, which equals out to about 70% of all Americans are video game fans. But what I'd bet most gamers don't know, is the role that operations research (O.R.) plays in nearly every aspect of video game development, from design to production to selling. Joining me today to dive into the world of O.R. and video games is Xiao Lei, assistant professor with the University of Hong Kong, a self-confessed lover of video games who is also lucky enough to get to help advance the role of O.R. in gaming.

The U.S. Coast Guard is the oldest continuously operating naval service of the United States and has deployed to support and fight in every major U.S. war since 1790. In this episode, we explore the role analytics plays in supporting the Coast Guard as it achieves its many missions and learn how the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is preparing the next generation of those serving in its ranks to employ analytics in new and exciting ways. Joining me for this episode are Commander Matthew Williams, head of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's Department of Mathematics; Ian Frommer, professor in the mathematics department; and Elise Birkhaeuser and Clayton Forfinski, who are both first-class cadets majoring in operations research and data analytics at the Academy.

With 2023 well underway, it's time to circle back and check in with the INFORMS president Laura Albert, professor and department chair of industrial & systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for an update on the latest and greatest at INFORMS.

My guest for today's interview is Shima Mohebbi, with the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University who recently completed a collaborative National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study that explored how to improve community and infrastructure resiliency by better understanding and identifying the underlying dynamics and causal relationships to improve responses during disruptions, with a focus on mobility and public water resources.  We'll be taking a look not only at her work, but sharing some insight on the experience of receiving (NSF) funding to support your research. 

So today's interview is going to make – heck it already has made – a lot of folks in INFORMS hometown of Baltimore jealous, because I will be speaking to none other than the Baltimore Orioles assistant GM and head of analytics Sig Mejdal. With Baltimore's 2023 season opener literally on top of us, I am thrilled to sit down with Sig and talk about analytics at the Orioles, as well as his own professional journey to an outstanding career in sports analytics.

We're in the countdown to the 2023 INFORMS Business Analytics Conference, in Aurora, CO, April 16-18, and this year's conference is particularly special for the INFORMS community as this was the site of our 2020 meeting … or it was supposed to be, but unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas. Now, here we are three years later and we've come full circle and I think I speak for many in the INFORMS community when I say that I have never been more excited to attend an Analytics Conference. With that in mind, I'm thrilled to be joined by Hilary Mason, the INFORMS Roundtable sponsored keynote speaker and co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door, a game technology studio using machine learning to build the future of immersive entertainment. We're taking this opportunity to get to know Hilary a little bit, talk about her analytics journey, and get a sneak peek at what she'll be presenting at the upcoming conference.

We're coming up on International Women's Day on March 8 and here at INFORMS we're excited to recognized and celebrate the incredible contributions of women in STEM! This year's theme is Embrace Equity, highlighting how embracing gender equity will help create an inclusive world. Joining me to explore the growing impact of women in the STEM fields, and share her own incredible work is Lauren Czerniak, a PhD candidate with the University of Michigan. Lauren's research focuses on developing and applying stochastic models to address current challenges in healthcare with applications in pharmaceutical drugs, glaucoma, and concussion management. In addition to her incredible work in industrial and operations engineering, Lauren as she is a tremendous advocate and mentor for other women in STEM.