INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & O.R.

Nicole Piasecki, vice president of Business Development and Strategic Integration at Boeing, will deliver the opening keynote address at the 2013 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and O.R., April 7-9, in San Antonio, Texas, kicking off two days of intensive, real-world education on descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics.

The conference program is being designed by a 27-member committee of analytic practitioners and academics, chaired by Jim Williams, manager of Advanced Analytics at Land O’Lakes. Two expanded, 10-session tracks will focus on marketing analytics and the analytics process. Other tracks will cover big data, supply chain management, forecasting, decision analysis, soft skills and special topics such as HR analytics.

The Franz Edelman Competition showcasing the best in high-impact analytics will be held April 7. A new track for 2013 will highlight applied work that has received recognition in other competitions, including finalists for the Innovation in Analytics Award and winners of the Wagner Prize, INFORMS Prize, UPS George D. Smith Prize and Spreadsheet Guru Prize.

While most speakers are hand-picked by the committee to deliver talks on specific topics, interested professionals can submit a presentation proposal for a talk or poster. Acceptance for either program enables the presenter to register at 35 percent to 40 percent discount off regular rates. The submission deadline for talks (Select Presentations) is Dec. 15, 2012; the deadline for posters is Feb. 1, 2013.

Select Presentations are 50-minute talks, integrated into the regular conference program and scheduled in special tracks. Talks cover the full range of analytics topics, including best practice examples, tutorials with a practice orientation, case studies, emerging topics and applications reports. The review process is quite rigorous, with both content and speaking expertise considered in the judging.

The poster format lends itself to works-in-progress on which the presenter is looking for feedback, successful projects that may not be extensive enough for a 50-minute talk, and corporate or consulting work subject to nondisclosure restrictions that can still be presented at a high level. Poster presentations will be scheduled in standalone sessions on two days of the conference.

For conference information and to submit a proposal, visit http://meetings2.informs.org/Analytics2013.

INFORMS Healthcare 2013

In 2011, INFORMS introduced a new, highly focused brand of conference with a three-day meeting on healthcare. That meeting was such a success – both in terms of attendance and quality of presentations – that a second INFORMS conference on healthcare is being planned for 2013. Aimed at bringing healthcare researchers and stakeholders together around the most current research and practice, INFORMS Healthcare 2013 will be held June 23-26 at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago.

The conference will combine the deep research focus of a traditional INFORMS meeting with an emphasis on real-world application that distinguishes the INFORMS analytics conference. General Chair Sanjay Mehrotra, professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, has formed an Organizing Committee of respected OR/MS professionals, including Steven Shechter (University of British Columbia), Vedat Verter (McGill University), Amy Cohn (University of Michigan), Hari Balasubramanian (University of Massachusetts-Amherst Diwakar Gupta (University of Minnesota) and others. The INFORMS Health Applications Society is a co-sponsor of the meeting and is actively involved in the planning.

The conference will offer a small-scale, collegial environment where high-quality talks are presented by leaders in the field. All submissions will be reviewed by the committee and chairs.

Authors are invited to submit in a choice of formats, either for oral presentation or for interactive poster sessions, and must submit a two-page extended abstract as well as 50-word summary. Abstract submission is now open, with the deadline of March 1, 2013.

The conference venue, the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, is a renowned Chicago hotel, situated at the best address in a great city, with world-class dining and shopping, top attractions and the best in theatre and museums within walking distance.

For complete information and to submit an abstract, visit: http://meetings.informs.org/healthcare2013/.

Certified Analytics Professional
program prepares for launch

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) will hold the first exam for its new Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) program in conjunction with the 2013 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research in San Antonio, Texas, in April. The exam will also be offered at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in October 2013.

The certification program is designed to help analysts differentiate themselves in the profession, while simultaneously helping organizations looking for analytical talent to find qualified individuals with the skills needed to do the job.

In order to qualify to take the exam, the CAP process requires candidates to have:

• a bachelor’s degree in a related area and at least five years of analytics work-related experience; or
  
  
• a master’s degree in a related area and at least three years of analytics work-related experience; or
  
  
• a bachelor’s degree in an unrelated area and at least seven years of analytics work-related experience.

In addition, all candidates must provide verification of soft skills such as communication and speaking skills, ability to make presentations, etc.

The 100-question, multiple-choice exam will include questions in the following seven domains (with percentage of weight toward the final score):

• business problem (question) framing (15 percent)
  
  
• analytics problem framing (17 percent)
  
  
• data (22 percent)
  
  
• methodology (approach) selection (15 percent)
  
  
• model building (16 percent)
  
  
• deployment (9 percent)
  
  
• life cycle management (6 percent)

For more information on CAP including a candidate handbook/study guide, click here.