www.orsp.org.ph November 2018 APORS 2021: Wins Bid to Host the 2021 Asia Pacific Regional Meeting by Francis Miranda During the recently-held Associa- speakers included Edward H. tion of Asia Pacific Operations Re- Kaplan from Yale University who search Societies (APORS) regional talked about “Operations Research meeting last August 2018 in Kath- and Public Health”, and Matthias mandu, Nepal, ORSP won its bid to Ehrgott from Lancaster University host the APORS 2021 meeting in who spoke about “Considerations Cebu. of Sustainability in Transportation Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu—home away from home for the APORS 2018 participants. – A Case for Multi-objective Optimi- The APORS meeting is held every zation”. three years and is hosted by one of lowing members in his team: the member societies which in- Nezam Madhavi-Amiri from the There were also more than 100 clude the national OR societies of OR Society of Iran as Vice Presi- papers presented during the con- dent, Adibah Shuib from the OR ference, which made up for a very Society of Malaysia as Secretary, varied and enlightening academic and Xudong Hu from the OR Socie- program. ORSP’s own Francis Mi- ty of China as Treasurer. randa served as chair in one of the parallel sessions on “Applications The APORS 2018 held in Nepal of OR in Management”. from August 6 to 9 at the Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu was a suc- The social activities were equally . Stage is all set for the conference cess. More than 150 participants interesting, which included a cul- from 22 countries attended. IFORS tural program on the third day of Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, was present through its IFORS the conference. On the fourth and Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Distinguished Lecture delivered last day, the Nepal OR Society or- Zealand, the Philippines, Singa- by Leo Liberti on the topic: ganized a tour within the Kath- pore and South Korea. The last “Random Projections in Mathemat- mandu valley, which was very time ORSP hosted the regional ical Programming”. James Mac- well-appreciated by the interna- meeting was in January 16 to 18, Gregor Smith gave the IFORS Dis- tional participants. 2006 at the Dusit Hotel in Manila. tinguished This time around, the venue pro- Tutorial on posed by the organizing commit- the topic: tee led by Director Jed Loma, was “Evacuation Cebu, from February 16 to 19, Network 2021. Perfor- mance Mod- In line with this development, elling and ORSP Immediate Past President Optimiza- Francis Miranda was elected Pres- tion”. Other APORS Council meeting members (l to r): Adibah Shuib, Soong Joo Park, Govinda Ta- ident of the APORS, with the fol- mang, Sunity Shrestha, Nezam Madhavi-Amiri, Yuhong Dai, Chang Won Lee and Francis keynote Miranda discuss regional matters and strategies.

1 Forum Features OR Applications in the Food, Delivery, Airline and Banking Sectors by Janni Boydon

OR in the Service sector came alive focused on the importance of con- dience of students, teachers, and as four speakers talked about OR sidering last mile logistics, i.e., practitioners. in the food, delivery, airline and bringing goods and services to the banking sectors during the 2018 exact point of delivery after going Vicente Reventar, last speaker for ORSP Technical Forum held last through the forum and also currently a lec- September 29, 2018 at the Leong the main turer at the Ateneo de Manila Uni- Hall, Ateneo de Manila University. networks. versity, discussed applications of It was an eye-opening treatment of With chal- Opera- a subject from speakers who have lenges of a tions had extensive experiences in their customer Re- industries. As one participant com- base de- search mented, “Daming sustansya sa sem- manding and inar na to. The best! Gamit na gamit more ser- Analyt- sa thesis namin. More speakers pls”. vice at a ics in cheaper the V. Reventar after his talk on the bank- The first speaker is Restaurant G. Estabaya deals with the last cost, cou- ing and finance sectors receives his Bank- Systems Officer of Jollibee Foods mile of delivering goods to cus- plaque from organizers J. Boydon, A. tomers. pled with a Domingo and M. de Guzman U. ing and Corporation highly vari- Finan- Benjamin able density distribution of cus- cial Sectors. By demonstrating an Santiago, Jr., tomers spread across 7000+ is- actual application using a particu- who talked lands of the Philippines, this indus- lar software, he showed the huge about initia- try has been served well by Opera- impact that optimization and man- tives for tions Research, along with Data agement of cash-in-vaults of Auto- optimiza- Analytics. mated Teller Machines can do in tion in the providing service to customers of Quick Ser- The third speaker was Felix Cruz, the banking industry. vice Restau- former chairman of PAL, who B. Santiago tackles the quick service restaurant industry. rant Indus- talked about the role of Operations Past and present ORSP directors try. He Research in the Philippine airline Malu De Guzman, Vic Reventar, showed actual examples of im- industry. The numerous applica- Alleli Domingo, and Janni Boydon, proving service performance tions of Op- moderated the forum. The event through simulation especially with erations was a success with a total of 528 the recent introduction of self- Research participants from different order kiosks. He was also particu- practices lar about little improvements that schools, namely: Poly- ranging technic University, University of can create big impacts such as the from Southern Mindanao, Colegio de simple practice of optimizing table scheduling San Juan de Letran, Baliuag Uni- -chair mix in dining areas. He of flights, made this clearer by highlighting pilots, and versity, PUP Manila, De La Salle that a 1% cost reduction for a mul- airplane University, San Sebastian College ti-billion dollar company amounts units, plan- Recoletos de Cavite, UP Diliman, to a big contribution. F. Cruz focuses on the various ning of , Adamson roles that OR plays in the air- line industry. routes University, UP Los Ban os, St. Dom- Cost reduction was also the key across Phil- inic College of Asia, and Mapua principle of the next speaker, Glo- ippine islands and to other nations, Institute of Technology. At the end ria Estabaya, Vice President for as well as managing promotions of the forum, all the participants Operations and Business Analytics like seat sales and overbooking to from practitioners, academics and of Airfreight 2100, Inc. Emphasiz- optimize opportunities for profit students, gave the forum high ing that logistics cost is actually were eye-opening for the large au- 27% of total shipment cost, she marks! ! 2 Participants Learn about Machine Learning by Elise del Rosario

The Workshop on Machine Learn- track my learning of the language, Participants included: Arman Loui ing using Python held from June which I had started taking up in Arquilada, Arian A. Rabino, Gina 22 to 23 at the Mapua University Coursera.” The workshop leaders Tumang, Maria Elena Timbang, R- attracted 31 participants. With the cited the various resources to get Jay Quiambao, Kimberly Hazel aim of introducing Machine Learn- participants started in serious pro- Serrano, Ruselle An- ing and introducing Python, the gramming. In cooperation with drew Manalang, Elmer Perez, Workshop was successful in get- Cypher Learning, participants Gerard Cortez, Flor Mangalino, ting participants acquainted with were provided access to all the ma- Renilda S. Layno, Hardy D. Sierra, the various applications of Python. terials – slides, programs, data sets Ronald Arciaga, Raymond Sedilla, – which they could use after the ORSP Past President Francis Mi- Workshop. Gloren Fuentes, Joel De Goma, randa led the team consisting of Josseline Nolasco, Marjorie Na- Trixie de Guzman, Vanessa Ber- Earlier, ORSP had also conducted a vales, Martha Lauren Tan. mudez and Danielle Hizola in Workshop in R, and many partici- guiding participants as they went pants acquainted with both com- through pre-worked Python code mented on the advantages they see that covered 5 cases. Cases ranged in shifting to Python. Other partici- from predicting: auto. Insurance pants appreciated the opportunity levels, house prices, credit scores, to add to their set of Analytics survivors of a ship wreck, birth tools. In general, participants gave weight, and geographic clusters. the course and the trainers a score This was preceded by an extensive indicating satisfaction with the introduction of real-life uses of conduct of the Workshop and re- machine learning. quested for additional training in other Analytics topics. Even as the introduction clarified that the two-day training is not a Participants came from: Cagayan programming course, participants State University, De la Salle – Col- got an idea of the language syntax lege of St Benilde, Holy Angel Uni- and worked their way through versity, Mapua (Intramuros), Ma- changing some codes to see the pua University, Sunlife, Technopo- effects on the output. Participants ly, Inc. An annual offering of the were exposed to a multitude of ORSP, the Workshop this year was built-in Python libraries that they held in partnership with the Ma- could call for their applications. As pua University and Cypher Learn- Board Director Rex Robielos ing. quipped, “This will certainly fast

Workshop participants pose for a photo after receiving their certificates: (top to bottom): Holy Angel University, De La Salle College of St. Benilde and Sunlife; and participants from the host school, Participants listen to F. Miranda give the Introductory Lecture. Mapua University; and all participants with the organizers. 3

Conference Looks Back at the Last 30 Years of OR in the Philippines by Iris Martinez

Founded in 1987, the Operations including breakthroughs and Research Society of the Philippines ORSP accomplishments and per- celebrated its 30th year anniver- sonal experiences in trying to get sary during its national conference OR to work. All the presidents on November 24 at the Richmonde were unanimous in agreeing that Hotel in the capital city of Metro their OR experience enabled them Manila. Lively plenary sessions to adopt a system view of prob- marked the event, with past presi- lems, structure and define them dents of the Society taking key ple- before embarking on a solution, nary spots. whether for a client or in their personal lives. The topic of OR in Two tutorials were handled by Vi- the Philippines and how it com- cente Reventar on the topic System pares to OR practice in other coun- Dynamics and the Integrated Sus- Francis Miranda deals with a very interesting topic on tries yielded a general view that the use of web crawling and statistics for predicting tainable Development Goals (iSDG) sales. OR practice is lagging, nationally Planning Simulation Model and an- compared with other APORS coun- other one by Francis Miranda on tries such as Australia. The topic of Methodology to Estimate Online whether incorporating “Analytics” Sales Using Automated Web Craw- into the OR name yielded a divided ing, Predictive Analytics and Statis- outcome, with some preferring to tical Extrapolation. Meanwhile, a retain the OR name and others, one-hour “talk show” format was ready to embrace Analytics. conducted during the Plenary Pan- el with Past Presidents. Fielding The keynote given by Department the questions was moderator of Science and Technology Secre- Jaime (Bing) del Rosario. tary Fortunato de la Pen a on The Role of Science & Technology in This talk show session was able to Environmental Sustainability dis- solicit the five presidents’ perspec- cussed the ways in which OR could Vicente Reventar shows how Systems Dynamics can be tives on a wide range of issues, be used to address sustainability put to work for Sustainable Development.

Moderator Bing del Rosario (left) directs the discussion of the Past Presidents Panel consisting of (l to r): Elise del Rosario, Aura Matias, Noli Macalalag, JC Mercado and Alleli Domingo.

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tainable Future through Process Systems Engineering, Kathleen Avi- so discussed her extensive work in the development of mathematical models to aid in decision-making for the design of resource conser- vation networks, identification of energy efficient supply chains, se- lection of sustainable supply chain pathways and disaster risk analy- sis and management. On the other hand, in his talk on Proposing an Operations Research Toolbox to Resolve Problematic Situation in Secretary de la Peña illustrates how the activities of the Wilson Gan tells the audience that figures can be made DOST address the 2020 Sustainable Development a lot easier to understand. Goals. Energy and the Environment, Mi- chael Promentilla illustrated the use of a problem structuring meth- back for the Closing Plenary which od on a case involving industrial tackled a common concern of all parks (EIPs) which are being pro- OR people, namely, How to Present moted as a promising strategy to Data and/or Analytics Results That achieve sustainability in a circular is Easily Understandable by Any economy. Audience delivered by Wilson Gan. This was quickly followed by a The parallel sessions tackled vari- business meeting and fellowship. A ous topics around environment, relief to the organizers, partici- climate, risk, supply chains, manu- pants generally found the confer- facturing and traffic issues. The ence excellent. close to 200 participants gathered Kathleen Aviso relates her extensive use of mathe- matical models for energy efficient networks and supply chains. issues in accordance with the 2030 UN Global Goals for Sustain- able Development. Himself an OR person, the Secretary discussed various optimization projects in the S&T sector.

In her talk on Engineering a Sus- Players in the 30 years of ORSP pose with Secretary de la Pena (left to right): JC Mercado, Fran- cis Miranda, Alleli Domiingo, Aura Matias, Elise del Rosario, F. De la Pena, Shella Mariscal, Nida Africa, Iris Martinez, Dennis Cruz and Rex Robielos.

Michael Promentilla shows how an OR Toolbox can be used to structure problems. Participants raise various points during the Q & A.

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President’s Corner Student Chapter News ♦ Student Chapter News Banner Year Student Federation Elects Ushers in More 2018 Officers Challenges by Alona Moncada by Shella T. Mariscal

The year 2017 came The ORSP Student Federation An- for the posts of Vice President for to a close with the nual Elections was held on Sep- Marketing, Academics and Finance celebration of ORSP's tember 22, 2018 at the Adamson and other director positions was 30th Anniversary University. Officers from respec- opened after the elections. After National Conference tive affiliate organizations of the interviews, the remaining vice which focused on the following schools: Tarlac State president and director positions theme of Sustaining the Environment University, University of Perpetual for each committee team were Through OR. No less than DOST Sec- Health System – DALTA, Bulacan filled. The newly elected board retary dealt with the S&T efforts State University, Colegio de San promises to make the year a fruit- towards a sustainable environment. Juan de Letran – Manila, PATTS An interesting plenary panel, center- College of Aeronautics, Technolog- ful one for the affiliate members of piece of the ORSP's 30-year celebra- ical Institute of the Philippines – the Operations Research Society of tion gave a very insightful look into Quezon City, De La Salle Universi- the Philippines – Student Federa- the developments within the disci- ty – Manila, University of Santo tion. pline and the community as seen Tomas, Mapua University, Univer- from the eyes of the past ORSP pres- Elected as officers were: President, sity of the Philippines – Los Banos, idents. Capping the event was a soft Quezon City Polytechnic Universi- Maria Alona M. Moncada (UST); skills session with a very important ty, Malayan Colleges Laguna and Executive Vice President, Andrea topic for OR professionals: how to Jane F. Manrique (AdU); Secretary, present data in a way that it can best were on hand Mariell G. Bacar (QCPU); Vice Pres- be understood. to participate in the day-long event. ident for Communications, Arrem Turning to the young OR people was Christian S.A. Jusi (Mapua) Vice a good start for 2018. Expectedly, Nominees from each school pre- President for Operations, Jhon Car- hot on the agenda were mobile ap- sented their respective General lo M. Vibora (UPHSD – Las Pin as; plications tackled by guest speakers Plans of Action followed by a Vice President for Academics, Hila- from BigBenta Marketplace, Ninja question and answer portion. Sub- ry Pearl F. Fesalbon (UST); Vice Van, and MyKuya. Simultaneous with the talks were the much- sequently, voting took place President for Finance, Charles Pat- awaited Case Study and Quiz Bee through ballots and a live counting rick B. Dujua (PATTS); Vice Presi- competitions, both won by UP- was done. The newly elected offic- dent for Publicity, Andrea Ivy S. Diliman. ers were officially announced by Alejandria (BSU); Vice President Engr. Nestley I. Sore, Adviser of for Marketing, Ivan Francis T. A Technical Workshop on Machine Learning using Python benefited 31 ORSP-SF, and Oath Taking took Yeung (DLSU). participants who had a chance to place afterwards. An application work on several case studies on pre- dictive analytics.

It may be said that the ORSP calen- dar of activities ended with a bang, with a record-setting attendance for a Technical Forum. Participants learned a lot on the use of OR in the Service Sector.

Year-end 2018 was enlivened with the welcome news that APORS is going to be held in Cebu in 2021! This definitely will entail a lot of work but with your help, we will be able to deliver!! 6 5 Student Chapter News ♦ Student Chapter News ♦ Student Chapter News TRANSCEND: Operations Research At Your Fingertips by Jermee Villacorte

Operations Research brings to life concepts that were only imagined Simultaneous with the plenary decades ago. The 2018 national talks, the case study and quiz bee student congress tackled topics competitions were also conducted. and issues designed to equip this Sixteen organizations joined the generation with the tools and case study, who were eventually techniques of OR that are valuable trimmed down to five. Winners in the digital age. The Student were: UP Diliman Team B at first Federation sought to bring a bet- place; MAPUA University, at se- ter understanding of currently cond place; UP Diliman Team A at leading essential mobile applica- third place; and finally PUP Manila, tions. and SLSU, at 4th and 5th places,

Charlie Fong discusses the definite place of OR in respectively. The top three places With the theme, TRANSCEND: Op- his e-commerce platform. for the Quizz bee were won by: erations Research at Your Finger- University of the Philippines Dili- tips, the congress was held last day’s trends. The main topics of man, and March 4, 2018 at the Medicine Au- the event were tackled by three Ateneo de Manila University, re- ditorium of UST. It focused on the persons who have been in the in- spectively. impact of OR tools and methodolo- dustry of mobile applications. First gies on on-line activities, where speaker was Charlie Fong, the Overall, the event was very enrich- state-of-the-art innovations hap- founder and CEO of BigBenta Mar- ing for the OR majors of the coun- pen. It With over thirty-five (35) try. The organizers, led by Jermee school organizations and a total of Villacorte (ORSP Student Federa- over 600 attendees, the student tion) and Joyce Laguna (ORSP UST) congress served as a platform for together with their different com- collaboration among youth and mittee teams were one is wishing academe to improve its service to that the congress was able to the nation through OR. somehow inspire the participants to be instruments in fostering a JT Solis, an entrepreneurial man- digital age enabled by Operations agement professional serving as Research.  VP for Partnerships & Special Pro- jects of the Xend Group of Compa- nies, keynoted the event by high- Kashish Manocha shows how MyKuya applica- lighting the potential of OR in to- tions benefit from OR optimization.

ketplace. He talked about how his company utilized OR in the e- commerce platform. Martin Cu, the country head of the Ninja Van ap- plication, followed with his shar- ing of day to day processes of Nin- ja Van which use OR. The last re- source speaker was Kashish Mano- cha from Machine Ventures who owns the MyKuya application. He discussed the optimization of their Quizz Bee winners: Top photo shows UP Diliman JT Solis, tackles the potential of OR in entrepre- which won first place; Bottom photo is Ateneo de neurial ventures. systems through OR. Manila at third place.

7 Welcome New Members!

This newsletter issue welcomes new members who have joined the ORSP Team.

From the Academe, we have Flor Mangalino, Professor of Holy An- gel University in ; Grace Keneth Sedilla Dumrigue, Department Head of Flor Mangalino Grace Dumrigue Eastern Visayas State University - Tanauan Campus; Keneth Sedilla, Instructor at the University of Asia and the Pacific; Emanuel Gloria, Performance Measurement and Operations Research Fellow of the Department of Health; Edison Terr Rosario, Instructor at Poly- Emanuel Gloria Edison Terr Rosario Gabriel Bucu technic University of the Philip- pines- Bin an; Gabriel Bucu, In- structor at University of Santo To- mas; Moreno Tabios, Jr, Instruc- tor 1 at Catanduanes State Univer- sity; Alejandro Caranto, Faculty of Tarlac State University; Niña Apusaga, Faculty of Quezon City Polytechnic University; and Rich- Moreno Tabios, Jr. Alejandro Caranto Niña Apusaga ard Abayhon, Assistant Professor at Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Manila.

From the Industry sector are Mariangela Obviar, Gabriel Vil- lareal, both Operations Research Richard Abayhon Mariangela Gabriel Villareal Analysts at San Miguel Corpora- Obviar tion; Leonard Cuento, Operations Research Analyst of UCPB General Insurance Company, Inc.; and Rommel Dinglasan, AVP Imple- mentation & Marketing of Joel Chavez Group of Companies.

Leonard Cuento Rommel Dinglasan Joan Villanueva Institutional Members joining ORSP for this period are the Uni- versity of Batangas – Lipa Cam- pus which designated Joan Vil- lanueva and Annabelle Magsino as its ORSP representatives; and Colegio de San Lorenzo repre- sented by Ellen Dizon and Jose Angelo Gomez . Annabelle Jose Angelo Magsino Ellen Dizon Gomez

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