Volume 34, Number 6, December 2007

FEW CAN FORGET HE IMAGES BROADCASTED AROUND THE WORLD OF DAMAGE CAUSED AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA HIT THE GULF COAST AND BY THE TSUNAMI IN SOUTH ASIA. In the last few years, the world has seen an increase in major natural disasters. Unfortunately, these catastrophes are not anomalies, but rather a pattern of increased volatility often attributed to changing weather patterns and human occupation of hazardous locations – and they are expected to continue. In addition to these natural disasters, man-made crises arising from terrorist activities and war often have similar effects on populations in terms of dangerous conditions and lack of basic necessities, including shelter, water, food and safety.

• Ozlem Ergun
• Pinar Keskinocak
• Julie Swann

A group of O.R. analysts has developed a promising solution to the problem of long waiting lines at polling places. The solution includes improved forecasts of how long people will take to vote, taking the number of offices and issues on the ballot into account, and simulation of different proposed allocations of voting machines to precincts. The results, tested in a few counties in 2006, indicate that improved allocation of machines to precincts, producing much better voter service, can be achieved at minimal cost. The results also indicate, however, that the acquisition of new touch-screen voting machines, in response to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), may make the problem worse in many instances because of the increased time required to vote using these machines.

• Doug Samuelson
• Theodore T. Allen

You can get a Ford in “any color you want, as long as it’s black.” This is what Henry Ford told his customers about their options for the 1914 Model T. Today, a Ford Explorer can be ordered in more than 2.5 million different combinations of options.

• Cliff Welborn

IF IT’S TRUE, as Andy Warhol famously once said, that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, then INFORMS President-Elect Cynthia Barnhart (photo) got hers earlier this year when the three major television networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – all asked her to appear on their news show within 24 hours, a feat normally reserved for high-profile politicians and A-list celebrities.

• Peter Horner

IN JUNE 1947, a month before the National Security Act created the U.S. Air Force as a separate branch of the military, the Air Force established a major task force to work on its computationally challenging, large-scale planning processes. Later named Project SCOOP (Scientific Computation of Optimal Programs), the newly formed task force featured some of the brightest minds in the country, including George B. Dantzig, who served as chief mathematician.