Mall Mania, Football Hero, Edelman Honorees

TIME TO CUE THE QUEUEING STORY

MIT Professor Richard Larson, a.k.a. “Dr. Queue,” has officially become the mainstream media’s go-to guy for pre-Christmas features on coping with long lines during the frantic holiday shopping season. Right on cue and shortly before “Black Friday” – the day after Thanksgiving when holiday shopping is historically at its frenzied worst/best depending on whether you’re buying or selling – the Boston Globe interviewed Larson for its annual “How to survive the mall” story.

Among the many pitfalls of mall mania, Larson raises the specter of “queue rage,” which sounds dangerously akin to “road rage.” Larson goes on to describe the Disney parks as the “Machiavellian stars of queuing theory” and gives kudos to Apple stores for their handling of shoppers: “Someone meets you at the door, becomes your personal server and rings up your purchase on a hand-held device,” Larson tells the Globe. “There’s no queuing involved. It’s phenomenal.”

Two days after the Boston Globe story appeared, National Public Radio’s “Talk to the Nation” host Neal Conan corralled Larson for an interview on the same topic. The first question: Is queue rage for real? Yes, queue rage happens, Larson replies, “particularly when it’s a violation of first-come, first-serve or what people think is fairness. If somebody gets served before you, but you’ve been standing in line longer than they have, that can lead to violence in some cases.”

Not to be outdone, a few weeks later, the online version of Boston’s Fox News affiliate interviewed “Dr. Queue” once again about, what else, surviving holiday shopping lines. “Upwards of 80 to 90 percent [of shoppers] say they’ve had a lifetime experience that was so bad in the service, the queuing service, that they pledge to never go to that place again,” Larson tells MyFOXBoston.com reporter Maria Stephanos, who notes that “Larson made a career out of researching the psychology of queuing, or standing in line, and has helped businesses improve their customers’ experience when it comes to that line.”

Football Star Tacles Management Science

Stanford University’s Toby Gerhart, who led the nation in rushing in 2009 and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy given to the nation’s best collegiate football player, puts the “student” back into the term “student-athlete.” During the fall quarter, when the powerful running back rushed for 1,736 yards, scored 26 touchdowns and led the Cardinal to an 8-4 record during the regular season and an appearance in the Sun Bowl, Gerhart was also carrying a full load in the classroom. Nearing his degree in management science and engineering, Gerhart’s fall class schedule totaled 21 credits (15 are standard), including courses in investment science, integral calculus, introduction to optimization (engineering) and high-technology entrepreneurship.

A potential top pick in the upcoming NFL draft, Gerhart says he’d like to go into a four-year graduate program that would give him both an MBA and a law degree whether or not the pro football thing works out.

Besides hitting the books just as hard as linebackers, Gerhart plays outfield for the Stanford baseball team and has become a hit on YouTube. In a humorous video spoofing his two-sport prowess, Gerhart tries his hand at other sports, including synchronized swimming, with less-than-stellar results (www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvStQJ2xAvQ).

Edelman Award Finalists Named

The 2010 Franz Edelman Award Gala, set for April 19 during the INFORMS Conference on Practice (page 40), will feature an eclectic, international cast of companies.

The six Edelman finalists and their projects include: Delaware River Basin Commission (“Improving Water Release Policies on the Delaware River Through O.R.”), Deutsche Post DHL of Germany (“Global Brand Assessment”), Indeval of Mexico (“Indeval Develops a New Operating and Settlement System Using O.R.”), New Brunswick Canada Dept. of Transportation of Canada (“Achieving Transportation Asset Management via O.R.”), Procter & Gamble (“Inventory Optimization at Procter & Gamble: Achieving Real Benefits Through User Adoption of Inventory Tools”) and Sasol of South Africa (“Stochastic Operations at Sasol”).

The six finalists will present their work during a day-long series of sessions at the conference at the Hilton Bonnett Creek in Orlando, Fla. The winner will be announcement at the gala that evening.

Considered the “Super Bowl of Operations Research,” the Edelman honors the world’s best examples of high-impact, applied O.R. work.