Volume 8 Number 3 September 2014 International Federation of Operational Research Societies NEWS ISSN 2223-4373 From the Editor What’s Inside: Editorial . Responding to the Needs of the 1 Responding to the Needs of the Community 2 Evolving Applications for Evolving Needs Community Elise del Rosario <[email protected]> Obituary . he international OR community 3 Manfred W. Padberg (1941-2014) Tcongregated in Barcelona for the Highlights of IFORS 2014 . big event - IFORS 2014. There was 4 A View from the Program Chair something for everyone to discover – 4 Many Facets of the Art of Modeling recent trends, new findings, emerging 5 IFORS 2014 Social Calendar OR use in other disciplines, even the 6 Board of Representatives Meet magic of Gaudi and Dali, and most of all, 6 Nominees for President and VP 2015-17 new friends, and the growing network 7 From IFORS Past: Helle Welling of OR professionals throughout the 7 Call For IFORS 2020 Hosting Proposals world. This is one of the ways by which Conferences. IFORS has responded to the needs of 8 ECCO XXVII - CO 2014 Poznan Events its members. 9 CBBM 2014 Young Group, Young Field 10 GTM2014 Amid the White Nights This issue covers thoughtful reactions 10 EUROPT 2014 in Medieval Perpignan from members on the plenary 11 Turkey Workshop Inspires Participants Art Museum welcomes The Art of Modeling participants. sessions, the scientific and social 11 Stochastic Modeling in Istanbul programs, the Board of Representatives meeting, as well as the various initiatives on OR 12 H& H Logistics in Mexico City for Development, particularly the IFORS Prize. It also covers the ICORD, which was held 12 Hellenic Meet on Energy & Enviroment just before the Triennial. From our IFORS correspondents are reports of Conferences 12 Agri / Forest Management in Lleida pre and post IFORS 2014 – in Germany, Poland, Russia, France, Turkey, Mexico, Cuba and Summer Institutes . Spain. Another conference in Greece is also covered, which was sponsored by HELORS, our 13 ESI XXXI on Health in Italy featured OR Society in Focus. Call for Applicants 13 IFORS-EURO Scholar to ESI XXXII That IFORS also responds to the needs of potential OR movers of tomorrow is clear in its 14 IFORS- ALIO Scholar to XIX ELAVIO involvement with the Summer Institutes. This issue contains an account of an IFORS scholar as well as a call for applicants for yet another such activity. While the future is taken care of, the past OR for Development Section . is not forgotten. We present the movers of yesterday – an obituary for Manfred Padberg is a small 14 ICORD 2014 Small Group, Wide Scope tribute to someone who has contributed to the discipline. In recognition of her contribution to 16 IFORS Prize Competition Winners Bared IFORS, Helle Welling who has occupied the Secretariat post for the longest time, was invited to 17 IFORS Activities on OR for Development IFORS 2014 and is interviewed in this issue. Publications . 18 Secrets of Success: ORMS Today Other IFORS members who have OR Publications will surely learn from the success of OR/MS 19 Strategy Science Journal Launched Today, an INFORMS magazine. Incidentally, it was a former INFORMS President who authored a book that is featured in the Book Review. Book Review . 20 Big Blue Uses Big Data On the other hand, that the OR discipline itself has continuously responded to the needs of OR Impact Section . mankind is the topic of the editorial From the AC. Furthermore, a quick look at the IFORS Prize 21 Disaster Risk-Sensitive Shelter Planning and ICORD papers proves this same point. One of these papers showing how OR has been used successfully to help people avoid and cope with the effects of natural disasters is the featured Tutorial . application of the OR Impact section. Taking a view from higher up, remote sensing is an ideal 23 OR for Remote Sensing tool for disaster management since it offers information over large areas and at short time OR Society in Focus . intervals. How OR figures 25 Hellenic Operational Research Society here is tackled in our Tutorial. Regional Announcements . Indeed, IFORS has 26 EURO XXVII in Scotland responded to the needs of 27 APORS 2015 in Malaysia our community in a lot of 27 XVII ALIO in Mexico ways, in the same manner that our discipline has continued to evolve to respond to needs of mankind. Our discipline and Upcoming Events . our community have so much to offer. Do you have something to offer to IFORS? As we wait for 27 Certificate Program in GaTech IFORS 2017 in Quebec, you may want to consider hosting the 2020 Triennial conference. Details 28 OR Workshop in Cuba of this, and everything above are in the following pages. Enjoy! P. 1 • IFORS NEWS September 2014 Editorial OR: Evolving Applications for Evolving Needs Lorena Pradenas Rojas <[email protected]> ver the years, OR has been used for different purposes. From Services. With the growth of the service sector vis-à-vis Oinitially winning a war, it then became the tool for improving manufacturing, scheduling problems have become commonplace. profits in the manufacturing, then eventually in the service sector. Areas of application tackled include scheduling surgeries, crew We find that now, OR is more and more used to improve the quality scheduling of transport systems in a subway and airplanes, (Elizondo, of lives of people and their environment. Below are some examples Parada, Pradenas, & Artigues, 2010; Henriquez, Pradenas, & Parada, of these relatively new areas, with which I had been involved. 2013) as well as timetabling in schools. In all these cases, we have proposed integrative models and the use of metaheuristics and Pollution. Over the years, the classical vehicle routing problem had solution strategies considering complex and big instances, which consistently been tackled by the OR community in its work in the involved short computational times. Also for the service sector, we area of logistics and distribution. In recent years, a new approach has have developed localization studies of ambulances for cities and been proposed to consider the appropriate use of fuel and lower rural sectors (Figure 3). The topic is currently under development emissions of CO2. With the use of combinatorial optimization and (Tiznado, Pradenas, 2014). operations management (Pradenas, Oportus, & Parada, 2013), we find a new vehicle routing model incorporating energy reduction in the objective function and the reduction of CO2 emissions of transportation companies. Work is on-going for transportation problems involving a heterogeneous fleet and multiple objectives (Pradenas, Bravo, & Parada, 2014). Reverse Logistics. Taking a strong relevance only in the last decade of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is Reverse Logistics (RL), which seeks to ensure the reutilization or elimination of products that have reached the end of their useful lives. Here, the transfer of raw materials and/or products, or recycling process is considered. Based on mathematical models to solve situations of RL, we have Figure 3. Overview of Region with the analysis of hot Points and Kernel density in order to locate new ambulances proposed computationally efficient algorithms. This has dealt with RL of medical devices in a public hospital (Pradenas, Matamala, Natural Resources. For the forestry sector, we have proposed 2012). Another application involves packing of sharp objects (Figure computational models and tools to improve the profitability of 1), for their subsequent disposal, considering mathematical and operations (Pradenas, Garcés, Parada, & Ferland, 2013); (Hinostroza, metaheuristic models that arrive at solutions in reasonable times. Pradenas, & Parada, 2013). Nutrition. We have also worked on the design and implementation of methods for generating accurate nutritional menus suitable for children suffering from various diseases, athletes and the elderly (Gallardo, Pradenas, 2014). Given the inherent combinatorial nature of the problem, we have worked with nutritionists and dieticians, who have provided real cases to test our models and methods. The results so far are very satisfactory and have a huge potential for Figure 1. Boxes with sharp elements to be packed helping nutritionists in their daily work. These are but some of the applications that show how OR has responded to the evolving needs of decision-makers. Decision- makers are now called on to make decisions that affect public policies and therefore, the lives of people and those of future generations. In the proper hands, OR has provided support in the past and can be counted on to do its part for our future. References Elizondo, R., Parada, V., Pradenas, L., & Artigues, C. (2010). An evolutionary and constructive approach to a crew scheduling problem in underground passenger transport. Journal of Figure 2. Humanitarian logistics Heuristics, 16(4), 575–591. Gallardo P., Pradenas L.(2014). Modeling and solving with OR menus for healthy meals. Humanitarian Logistics. In cooperation with local organizations, ICORD2014, Barcelona, p. 2. we have developed the characterization of Humanitarian Logistics Hinostroza, I., Pradenas, L., & Parada, V. (2013). Board cutting from logs: Optimal and heuristic approaches for the problem of packing rectangles in a circle. International Journal (Figure 2) and localization of supplying centers of necessary goods of Production Economics, 145(2), 541–546. Henriquez C., Pradenas L., & Parada V. (2013). after such natural disasters as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic Design and implementation of a simulated annealing algorithm to solve the aircrew eruptions, and forest fires. The output is a procedural guideline to rostering problem in a commercial airline. 26TH European Conference in Operations Research, SAPIENZA University of Roma, p. 304. be applied for the mentioned events Pradenas, L., Garcés, J., Parada, V., & Ferland, J. (2013). Genotype–phenotype heuristic approaches for a cutting stock problem with circular patterns. Engineering Applications Energy. Considering optimization in the generation and distribution of Artificial Intelligence, 26(10), 2349–2355.