Volume 36, Number 2, April 2009

FEATURE ARTICLES

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH?

Economists love to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But the Chilean government agency responsible for school grants, Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolary Becas (JUNAEB), is an exception to the rule. During the school year, JUNAEB provides breakfast and lunch for 2 million children in primary and secondary public schools. In a developing country where about 14 percent of children under the age of 18 live below the poverty line, many students depend on these free meals as a key source of nutrition.
THE RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEE FARMERS

Operations research, as we all know, has the uncanny ability to find application in a wide variety of fields. From finance to music to healthcare to homeland security, the list is endless. But precisely because of its wide applicability, there remain plenty of unconventional examples that slip under the radar and remain unknown. In these examples, the methods of O.R. often get used, but not consciously.
- Hari Balasubramanian
O.R. & SOCCER

In 2004, George Nemhauser attended a conference on combinatorial optimization held in Santiago, Chile (LACGA’04), which was organized by the Center for Operations Management (CGO) at the University of Chile’s Department of Industrial Engineering. After giving a talk on game scheduling for Major League Baseball (MLB), the Georgia Tech engineering professor granted an interview to a prominent local daily that caught the attention of the Chilean National Professional Soccer Association (ANFP). The Association contacted the CGO, setting in motion a working relationship between the two organizations that has so far produced the scheduling of all Chilean soccer league games for the First Division since 2005, the Second Division since 2007 and the youth divisions since 2008.
TAMING HARD PROBLEMS WITH SOFT O.R.

Over the last 40 years, methodologies have been developed to deal with “wicked problems” or “messes” that are beyond the reach of the traditional, mathematical modeling methods of operations research (O.R.). These methodologies are structured and rigorous but non-mathematical. Examples include Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), cognitive mapping/SODA and the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA). Collectively they are known as Soft O.R., Soft Systems or Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs), and they have been accepted as an important part of O.R. almost everywhere with one notable exception the United States.
WATER, TRANSPORTATION & O.R. IN AFRICA

When you travel to Africa, you are repeatedly regaled by stories of the Big Five game animals – the lion, African elephant, rhinoceros (white and black), cape buffalo and leopard. These animals have earned this designation because they are, for various reasons, considered to be the most difficult African animals to hunt on foot. While I would not consider hunting and shooting these animals with anything more deadly than my 7.1 megapixel digital camera, repeatedly hearing the phrase “big five” on my recent trips to this continent has given me cause to contemplate another “big five” – what my experiences have led me to consider to be the Big Five of African Development (a term with an admittedly elusive definition).
- James J. Cochran

DIGITAL EDITION

DEPARTMENTS

Inside Story

Hard Sell for Soft O.R.

Peter Horner

Mention the term “Soft O.R.” to most “operations researchers” – even long-time INFORMS members, O.R. practitioners, O.R. professors and analysts of all persuasions on this side of the pond – and you’re likely to get a blank stare.“Soft O.R.? Never heard of it.”

President's Desk

Value Propositions

The INFORMS Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) has been engaged in an ongoing process to define our organization’s needs. In her December 2008 President’s Desk column, then-President (now Past President and SPC Chair) Cynthia Barnhart provided an abridged listing of needs and solicited proposals for new initiatives to address them. We received 15 submissions, and we are currently evaluating them. My purpose in writing this column is to focus your attention on one of the most critical needs on the list:“ Enhance the value proposition associated with being a member.”

Issues in Education

The Inauguration Experience

Ellen Jordan

Six students from Mount Olive College, N.C., attended the Presidential Inauguration Seminars: Campaign 2008 presented by The Washington Center. For a small college in the sweet tea Bible belt, the seminar looked expensive. Our area had been hard hit under the failing economy. I met with the department chairs and deans, and we decided that the importance of witnessing history was worth it for our students. We could sponsor six students who were selected based on leadership, passion and academic excellence.

INFORMS in the News

National Security, Pandemics, Hoops and More

Barry List

When operations researchers ask in exasperation if anyone is listening to them, sometimes the answer is, unexpectedly, “Yes!” For INFORMS members in the military and beyond, a welcome report by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Science Board Advisory Group on Defense Intelligence saluted the contributions of operations researchers and called for improvements that would strengthen the O.R.’s intelligence contributions. In another report, the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank, cited the contributions of O.R. in evaluating defense contracts, and called on the Defense Department to use O.R. to take politics out of contracting decisions.

Was It Something I Said

What a Wonderful Week

Vijay Mehrotra

We are living in turbulent times. One particular week last month left my head totally spinning, and I’m still trying to figure it all out.

PuzzlOR

Multiobjective Showcase Scheduling

John Toczek

A popular dance studio in New York City holds ballroom dancing showcases twice a year to provide its students with an environment for socializing, practice and improvement.A showcase consists of several heats in which multiple dance-pairs dance at the same time. Because multiple objectives are desired to maximize the quality of the showcase, scheduling the dance pairs becomes a complex problem that requires O.R. techniques to solve.

Roundtable Profile

Applied Mathematics Offers Wide Range of Services

Applied Mathematics, Inc., is a privately held technical consulting firm with offices in Gales Ferry, Conn., near the U.S. Naval Submarine Base New London. Also close by on the Thames River are the Electric Boat Company, a builder of nuclear submarines; the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the Coast Guard Research and Development Center; and Pfizer Central Research facilities.

ORacle

The Secret of Prejudice

“Now you’ve done it,” one of the friends gathered on a backyard sundeck for the spring-is-almost–here party chided his colleague, an OR/MS analyst who wrote a regular column.“You had to write about race. I’ll bet you’re hearing about this one!”