Volume 31, Number 1, February 2004
FEATURE ARTICLES
DIGITAL EDITION
DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
Those who can, teach
In an online exchange with Peter Bell regarding his invited article for this special “Innovative Education” issue of OR/MS Today, I posed the following question: During the last five or 10 years, at least 200 business schools have launched analytics programs to meet the obvious market demand. Yet, as Peter noted in his draft, other business schools have been dropping “analytics” (some form of operations research/management science/analytics) from their MBA core for decades, and the data shows that the trend is continuing. What is wrong with this picture?
President's Desk
AmbassadORs for operations research and analytics
While planning the ORSA/TIMS merger to form INFORMS, we identified our professional society’s objectives [1]. I focus now on the objective to establish a strong and coherent external image of our field, via increasing the visibility and clout of operations research/management science and fostering professional identities. Twenty years after the 1995 founding of INFORMS, we aim to brand INFORMS as a leader in analytics, with operations research as the core.
Issues in Education
Teaching MBA students about big data
Since the INFORMS Big Data Conference in June 2014, I’ve had many conversations with instructors teaching OR/MS and analytics to MBA students. They’ve told me they don’t really know much about big data, and are skeptical about whether there’s anything new to teach. Few have taken steps to incorporate big data topics into their courses. With developments in big data accelerating, I’ve become concerned that instructors may miss something truly important. This article offers a brief “crash course” in big data, and argues that exposure to big data needs to be part of the MBA analytics curriculum.
INFORMS in the News
Big data, blind spots, bias, brands and more
INFORMS member Scott Nestler explains how the INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) ethics guidelines would have helped prevent a sports analytics scandal in the world of Major League Baseball and INFORMS Secretary Brian Denton, along with longtime volunteer John Milne, explain the finer points of patenting analytics in the most recent news stories about operations research and the allied field of business analytics.
INFORMS Initiatives
CAP update, Doing Good, Grand Challenges
Developing new test questions that keep the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) exam fresh is an important component of making certain CAP remains the premier global certification for analytics practitioners. The Analytics Certification Board and staff thank Innovative Decisions, Inc. (IDI) and especially Freeman Marvin, CAP, for recently hosting an item-writing workshop at their headquarters in Vienna, Va., as part of this ongoing effort.
Viewpoint
Not taught in school (but useful in the ‘real world’)
Someone recently commented (and asked), “It’s a great time to be a quant grad, but what didn’t they teach you in school that you really need to know?” The first three things that occurred to us are: The need to fully embrace the second half of the famous quote from George Box [1]. How to communicate the results of your analysis to decision-makers. The importance of creating a good visualization of your data/model (a subset of the previous task).
PuzzlOR
Moon rover
A new moon on a nearby planet has recently been discovered, and a rover has been sent to the surface to explore. Many interesting features on the new moon have been identified, but the rover has a limited travel distance ability so not all sites can be visited.
Perspectives
Running an O.R./analytics group
The INFORMS Roundtable, comprised of representatives from about 50 member companies, is organized to share best practices and recent developments in the practice of operations research, management science and analytics. The Roundtable meets formally at least three times a year. One such meeting focused on some of the key challenges facing analytic leaders in the practice community: organizing analytics teams; communicating value and realizing benefits; data, tools and working with IT/suppliers; and building cohesion and motivating and retaining analytics talent.
ORacle
The organ tuner’s parable
“That should take care of this instrument for a while,” the organ tuner smiled. The OR/MS analyst, who also happened to be the chair of his synagogue’s music committee, smiled back with approval. “I can hear the difference,” he acknowledged. “I have to tell you, though, that I had a hard time getting the budget committee to approve this tuning, because we’re in a bit of a financial crunch and several of them couldn’t hear the difference.”