World’s best analytics teams compete for Edelman honors

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) named six finalist organizations that will compete for the 2014 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award. The Edelman Award is the world’s most prestigious recognition for excellence in applying advanced analytics to benefit business and humanitarian outcomes.

This year’s finalists include:

• The Energy Authority for “Hydroelectric Generation and Water Routing Optimizer”
  
  
• Grady Memorial Hospital, with the Georgia Institute of Technology, for “Modeling and Optimizing Emergency Department Workflow”
  
  
• Kidney Exchange at the Alliance for Paired Donation, with Stanford and MIT, for “Kidney Exchange”
  
  
• NBN Company, with Biari, for “Fiber Optic Network Optimization at NBN Co.”
  
  
• Twitter, with Stanford University, for “The ‘Who to Follow’ System at Twitter: Strategy, Algorithms and Revenue Impact”
  
  
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with Kid Risk, Inc., for “Using Integrated Analytical Models to Support Global Health Policies to Manage Vaccine Preventable Diseases: Polio Eradication and Beyond”

The six finalists will make presentations at the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Researchin Boston, March 30-April 1. The winner will then be announced at the Edelman Awards Gala held in conjunction with the conference.

Now in its 43rd year, the INFORMS Franz Edelman Prize competition recognizes outstanding examples of analytics and operations research projects that transform companies, entire industries and people’s lives. Using innovative advanced analytical methods, the teams were instrumental in helping their respective institutions make better decisions, providing a disciplined way by which management can improve organizational performance in a wide variety of situations and across both public and private organizations.

INFORMS Franz Edelman finalist teams have contributed more than $200 billion in benefits to business and the public interest. The 2014 finalists were chosen after a rigorous review by accomplished verifiers, all of whom have led successful analytics projects. Finalists are chosen on the merits of how analytics methodologies were applied to solve problems, reduce costs or otherwise improve results in real-world environments.

Additional information about the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award competition, including video interviews with 2013 finalist executives, can be found online at https://www.informs.org/Recognize-Excellence/Franz-Edelman-Award.

New dates for continuing education for analytics professionals

Following its successful launch in 2013, INFORMS will once again offer its popular continuing education courses “Essential Skills for Analytics Professionals” and “Data Exploration & Visualization” in 2014.

Essential Practice Skills for Analytics Professionals

Gain essential tools for integrating your analytical skills into real-world problem solving.

“The course was expertly presented and outlined methods that were immediately applicable to my everyday work. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to improve their problem-solving skills as well as their ability to present complex projects and problems in a clear, concise and logical way.”
– Richard St-Aubin, P.Eng., IPEX Management Inc.

Upcoming classes:
Feb. 20-21 – Atlanta
March 28-29 – Boston
June 20-21 – San Jose, Calif.

Data Exploration & Visualization

Hands-on training that focuses on the critical steps in the process of analyzing data: accessing and extracting data, cleaning and preparing data, exploring and visualizing data.

Upcoming classes:
March 28-29 – Boston
June 25-26 – San Jose, Calif.

For more information on the courses and available discounts, visit www.informs.org/continuinged.

2014 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award

The Analytics Section of INFORMS has named three finalists – Ford, IBM and Fiserv – for its 2014 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award that will be presented at the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research in Boston, March 30-April 1. Sponsored by the section, the purpose of the award is to recognize creative and unique developments, applications or combinations of analytical techniques used in practice. The award competition promotes awareness of the value of analytics techniques in unusual applications, or in creative combination to provide unique insights and/or business value.

Following a series of presentations, the three finalists were chosen by a panel of judges from a competitive set of 31 submissions and nine semifinalists. Taken together, this work provides great examples of innovative applications and integration of a variety of analytical techniques that are making a difference in organizations. The three finalists will make another round of presentations in Boston before a winner is named.

A closer look at the finalists and their work:

Ford: “Enabling greater sustainability in vehicle fleet sales through customer-oriented analytics”
Authors: Daniel Reich, Sandra L. Winkler, Erica Klampfl, Natalie Olson, Ford Motor Company
Presenting author: Daniel Reich
Abstract: Ford’s Fleet Purchase Planner (patent pending) is the first of its kind in promoting sustainability as a central purchase consideration for organizations with large vehicle fleets. In recent years, several new green vehicle technologies have emerged that present opportunities for increasing fuel economy, but this growing number of options is also making planning purchases a significantly more complicated endeavor. This decision support system is designed to simplify this process by optimizing for individual driving patterns. We are helping our fleet customers find the most cost-effective opportunities for increasing their sustainability.

IBM: “A SMS text classification system for UNICEF Uganda” 
Authors: Prem Melville, Vijil Chenthamarakshan, Rick Lawrence, Solomon Assefa, Machine Learning Group, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.; James Powell, Sharad Sapra, UNICEF Uganda; Rajesh Anandan, US Fund for UNICEF, New York, N.Y.
Presenting author: Rick Lawrence
Abstract: U-report is an open-source SMS platform operated by UNICEF Uganda, designed to give community members a voice on issues that impact them. Data received by the system are either SMS responses to a poll conducted by UNICEF or unsolicited reports of problems occurring anywhere within Uganda. There are currently more than 200,000 U-report participants, and they send up to 10,000 unsolicited text messages a week. The objective of the program in Uganda is to understand the data in real time and have issues addressed by the appropriate department in
UNICEF in a timely manner. Given the high volume and velocity of the data streams, manual inspection of all messages is no longer sustainable. This talk describes an automated message understanding and routing system deployed my IBM at UNICEF. We employ recent advances in data mining to get the most out of labeled training data, while incorporating domain knowledge from experts. We discuss the tradeoffs, design choices and challenges in applying such techniques in a real-world deployment. We conclude with a discussion of the societal impact that U-report is already driving in Uganda and discuss plans for future deployment.

Fiserv: “Price & revenue optimization for one of the largest acquiring banks in South America”
Authors: Suman Kumar Singh, Aditya Khandekar, Tarang Goyal, Fiserv
Abstract: The Merchant Acquirer had about a million merchants in mass market. An opportunity existed to selectively optimize price for merchants based on certain attributes. A statistical segmentation was developed following which non-linear differential price elasticity function was built. For each segment, price elasticity along with an optimization algorithm with complex constraints was developed to optimize price and achieve optimal revenue.