Looking ahead with the 2020 INFORMS president

It’s a brand new year at INFORMS and we are all looking forward to an incredible 2020, especially as this year marks the 25th anniversary of INFORMS! In this episode, I am joined by the 2020 INFORMS President Pinar Keskinocak, to discuss her goals and objectives over the coming year. 

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Working smarter, not harder, to improve healthcare transparency

Healthcare is a complex, often overwhelming subject, and the effort to match patients with providers based on patient needs and provider ability, known as the patient provider alignment (or PPA) problem, has consistently proven difficult to tackle. In the past, this was thought to have been exacerbated by the limited availability of information available to the public regarding providers and their performance, which could help facilitate better patient provider matches. However, despite efforts to increase transparency by making healthcare data open and available to the public, the PPA problem still persists.  In this episode, I am joined by Soroush Saghafian…

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How video game companies can “level up” their profits

The video game industry is growing at a phenomenal rate, generating a record $43.4 billion in revenue in 2018, an increase of nearly 20 percent from the year before. The largest area of growth within this industry has been in the online gaming community. But with players functioning at different skill levels and an even wider range of interest areas, how can companies ensure players remain engaged and their products continue to grow in popularity? Joining us for this episode to provide new insight into online gamer behavior is Yan Huang from Carnegie Mellon University, whose research which was recently…

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Just how bad for business are your Facebook comments?

More than 60 million companies maintain business pages on Facebook, allowing them to connect with existing customers as well as reach new ones. And with more than 1.62 billion people log onto Facebook daily, this might seem like a great way to reach a nearly limitless audience. However, the Facebook platform which enables consumers to provide comments and feedback, provides companies with very little power to control what is posted on their pages, leaving them open to negative feedback which could have a damaging effect on their brands. To give us insight into the nature of the comments consumers are…

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Tackling the holiday rush at UPS

In the few short weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year, the number of packages processed, transported and delivered by UPS will more than double to meet the demand of holiday gift giving! Joining us to provide a behind the scenes look at the busiest time of year for UPS is Ranganath Nuggehalli, principal scientist at UPS, to talk about how O.R. helps make the holidays merry!

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A year of advocacy milestones

This episode features my last interview with the 2019 President of INFORMS Ramayya Krishnan, professor and dean with the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, as we look back over the milestones of his presidency, including INFORMS’ advocacy work, as well as a look ahead to what’s next.

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Chatbots, friend or foe?

Chatbots are currently utilized by many well-known companies including Amazon, Domino’s Pizza, American Eagle and Facebook to support a number of tasks including taking orders, providing recommendations, as well as used in customer service and other conversational interactions with customers. But what do customers really think of chatbots, and how do they compare to their human counterparts? Joining me for this episode to provide some insight into the impact of chatbot technology is Xueming Luo of Temple University, whose study “Frontiers: Machines vs. Humans: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Disclosure on Customer Purchases,” was recently published in the INFORMS…

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To retire or not to retire? For academics, this can be a complicated question

In academia, a growing number of PhD graduates are competing for a limited number of academic positions, and with tenured professors often retiring later, the competition for these positions continues to increase. Joining me for this episode to take a deeper dive into this topic is Richard Larson, post-tenure professor in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this episode, Professor Larson draws on the results of several recently published papers, all from eight years of NIH-supported research. Most papers have coauthors, representing multiple disciplines and three universities: The Ohio State University, Virginia Tech, and the…

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Helping businesses up their O.R. and analytics game

Organizations around the world, big and small, in nearly every industry, are implementing operations research and analytics to improve their business operations. But how can an organization tell how well it is using O.R. and analytics? With the INFORMS Analytics Maturity Model! Joining me to help tackle this topic is Norman Reitter, chief analytics officer and senior VP of Analytics Operations at CANA Advisors and chair of the INFORMS Analytics Capability Evaluation Subcommittee. To learn more about the Analytics Capability Evaluation program, contact Norm Reitter at nreitter@canallc.com or Taryn Lewis, INFORMS Director of Education and Industry Programs.

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