The traditional W/L record is an important part of baseball lore. For the devoted analytics fan, there have been several improved pitcher metrics that measure performance far better. But the fans, as well as general managers, should have a W/L procedure that is fan-friendly and logical. All too often, the “win” goes to the pitcher who was the last pitcher in the game when the winning team took the lead. So, pitchers can pitch most of the game, leave a close game with their team behind, be relieved by another pitcher and watch as their team then scores enough runs to win, the win going to the relief pitcher. This article tries to provide a new way of assigning credit that compensates for four of the weaknesses of the current system.
Volume 52, Issue 4, 2025
FEATURE ARTICLES
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DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
Phases, Patterns and the Signals We Choose to See
Lately, I’ve found myself paying more attention to the moon. Not in a “this explains my personality” kind of way (although sometimes it’s eerily close), but in the quieter sense of noticing where we are in the lunar cycle. I started tracking the phases (new, waxing, full, waning) almost accidentally, mostly because I liked the visual rhythm of lunar maps. Maybe that’s why this issue feels especially resonant: every feature is, in its own way, about how we read signals. What we trust. What we test. And how we find meaning and insight without slipping into magical thinking.
President's Desk
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
When I began my term as INFORMS president on Jan. 1, 2025, I had ambitious plans that included improving retention of early-career professionals, enhancing engagement with organizations to attract more practitioners and ensuring that solutions developed by INFORMS members are accessible to all – from small nonprofits to large corporations. We have made strides in all these areas, and I’ll discuss the groundwork laid this year later on in this column. However, let’s first reflect on the past year.
HQ Highlights
Five Years Back; Five Years Ahead
The world needs better decisions, and INFORMS is uniquely positioned to help build a more just, prosperous and sustainable future. It has now been just over five years since I began my journey with INFORMS. Milestones like this invite reflection on how far we’ve come and, maybe even more importantly, where we’re headed.
Forum
Health Data and AI: Biased Data, Biased Outcome
Can we trust the model? As a health analytics professional for decades, this is a question we ask ourselves daily. If we blindly trust an algorithm, we could have considered many patients “healthy” when they are not. There is a regulatory gap in managing data, not just devices or models. Current regulatory policies follow traditional statistical analysis, which is model-driven, but artificial intelligence (AI, or data science) models are data-driven.
Viewpoint
Building Successful Industry-Academia Collaborations: Insights from SF Express and Tsinghua University
Collaborations between industry and academia are increasingly important in operations research and management science (OR/MS). These partnerships combine academic expertise with real-world business experience to address practical challenges, enhance efficiency and drive innovation. One successful example is the partnership between SF Express, a leading logistics company in China, and Tsinghua University.
Electric and/or Autonomous? Unpacking the Road Ahead for the Future of Mobility
The automotive industry is undergoing two transformative shifts: the move toward electrification in the form of electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of autonomy in form of autonomous vehicles (AVs). While these revolutions are often discussed separately, their intersection raises important questions about technological dependencies, market dynamics and policy priorities.
INFORMS Analytics Framework
The INFORMS Analytics Framework™: A Road Map for Success with Analytics
The INFORMS Analytics Framework™ is a comprehensive structure designed to guide practitioners at any level through the entire life cycle of analytics initiatives, from initial business concept to sustained, value-delivering operations. It stands as a critical reminder that a successful analytics solution is much more than a well-written mathematical model or creative software solutions.
Analytics in Action
Near-Real-Time Measles Surveillance: How Analytics Can Help Transform Public Health Response
The U.S. is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in more than three decades, with over 1,650 confirmed cases across 42 jurisdictions as of November 2025, nearly eight times the annual average of 200 cases seen from 2000 to 2024. This surge represents not just a public health crisis but also a compelling case study in how analytics can provide critical infrastructure for real-time decision-making in healthcare emergencies.
Op-ed
When the Numbers Become the News: Lessons in Integrity from a Controversial Jobs Report
For analytics professionals, the recent Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report revisions offer more than a headline. It serves as a valuable reminder of the responsibilities we carry when working with data in high-stakes environments – especially when our work becomes entangled with public narratives, political decisions or major economic consequences.
Sports Analytics
The Analytics Behind Fairness: Rethinking Revenue Sharing in College Baseball
On June 6, 2025, college sports changed forever. A landmark House v. NCAA settlement gave schools like Georgia Tech $20.5 million to allocate to their student-athletes each year. For the first time, athletic departments face a new question: How do you divide millions of dollars fairly? Let's take baseball as an example.
INFORMS History & Traditions
INFORMS Early Career Professionals’ Network (ECPN) Turns 20!
The Early Career Professionals’ Network (ECPN) is INFORMS’ premier program for supporting early-career practitioners launching careers in analytics, operations research and related fields in business, industry and government. Open to new or recent graduates of analytics, operations research or related programs, ECPN is a selective program designed for beginning professionals by experienced leaders.
INFORMS Past, Present, Future
The INFORMS Ambassadors Program: A Brief History and Perspectives for the Future
The INFORMS Ambassadors Program (formerly INFORMS DEI Ambassadors Program) is a more recent addition to this elite group of helping communities with the power of operations research. Established in 2019, and having its first cohort in 2020, the INFORMS Ambassadors Program has been a staple of improving the way we do things in the profession, industry, academia and INFORMS, creating communities of practice and new programs.
Industry-Academia Collaboration
Government, Industry and Academia Collaboration: Virginia’s CCALS Model
Opportunities for multi-university teaming for students to apply their skills to real-world problems were limited. Industry sought innovation and early engagement with the future workforce but often struggled to navigate academic processes. Public agencies often sought affordable, accessible resources to provide insight into challenging problems, evaluate new technologies and markets, or advance policy goals. However, they lacked the sustained engagement to bring all the right voices together early in the process. Closing these gaps has been a consistent theme throughout my career. I have worked to further opportunities for collaboration because I believe – and have repeatedly seen – that aligning these communities delivers better solutions, stronger talent pipelines and greater impact.
Member Insights
Navigating the Intersection: A Data Scientist’s Perspective on Industry-Academic Partnerships
This Q&A features an interview with Raghad Alkhawaldeh, who holds a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Binghamton University. With a robust academic foundation, Raghad’s dissertation focused on innovative approaches to handle missing data in healthcare machine learning models and how that impacts moving models from theory to practice, showcasing her commitment to impactful research. She has several years of experience in data science, significantly contributing to various fields, including healthcare, logistics and consumer goods. Currently serving as a senior data scientist at Procter & Gamble, Raghad is a leader of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to revolutionize consumer engagement and optimize marketing strategies.
INFORMS in Action
Strengthening Ethical Standards in Scholarly Publishing at INFORMS
INFORMS has long been committed to advancing research of the highest quality. With over 11,000 annual submissions across 17 journals, the vitality of our publishing program reflects both the ambition and creativity of our community. However, such growth brings with it a renewed responsibility: to ensure that the trust placed in our scholarship is never undermined by unethical practices. To meet this challenge, INFORMS has comprehensively rewritten its Publication Ethics policy.
The INFORMS K-12 Resource Hub: Scalable K-12 Outreach for a Global Audience
The INFORMS K-12 Education Outreach and Networking Program is a new, platform-centered outreach initiative designed to make operations research, management science, industrial engineering (IE) and business analytics engaging, accessible and scalable for K-12 students around the world. The vision is simply to provide a flexible, sustainable, global platform that can reach more students without the limitations of location or volunteer availability. This program is administered by the K-12 Committee, one of three subcommittees of the INFORMS Education Outreach Committee.
Student Perspectives
The World Is Not a List – It’s a Network: The Networked Mindset
What makes network models powerful is their ability to reveal structure, even when that structure is not obvious from individual parts. Instead of focusing on isolated decision variables, a network shows us how parts of a system relate to one another. This shift from entities to relationships is the basis of what I refer to as the networked mindset.
Last Word
Teaching the Meta-problem Mindset Can Empower a Generation of Confident Problem-Solvers
Over the past several issues of OR/MS Today, I have shared the meta-problem mindset as a tool for solving better problems. In this final article in the series, we explore how teaching the framework can help students develop the skills they need to thrive in our rapidly changing world.