One of the highlights of the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & O.R. is the Edelman Awards Gala, an Oscar-like evening celebrating the world’s best examples of applied operations research and high-end analytics work. This year’s gala will be held on Monday, April 3, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The six finalists for the 46th annual Franz Edelman Award for Achievements in Operations Research and Management Science, the world’s most prestigious award for achievement in the practice of analytics and O.R., include:
The American Red Cross, in partnership with researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, developed a new blood collection model to reduce the expenses associated with the 44,000 blood donations needed in the United States each day.
Barco, a global technology company that manufactures products for the entertainment, healthcare and enterprise markets, partnered with researchers from the IESEG School of Management in France and the University KU Leuven and Vlerick Business School in Belgium to support the assessment and development of product platforms for the company’s production and development of high-tech screens used in medical devices.
BHP Billiton, one of the world’s largest producers of major commodities including iron ore, coal and other metals and minerals, partnered with AMEC Foster Wheeler to prepare the company to expand into the production of bulk fertilizer commodities. The project sought to create a model that incorporated every component of mining, hoisting and ore processing, while decreasing capital and operating expenses, and increasing production capacity.
General Electric (GE) partnered with Norfolk Southern (NS) Railroad to create and implement an algorithm to dispatch thousands of trains in real time, increase their average speed, and realize annual savings in the hundreds of millions.
Holiday Retirement, the largest private owner and operator of independent senior living communities in the United States with more than 300 facilities and $1 billion in annual revenue, partnered with Prorize LLC to revise its outdated pricing model, replacing it with a new revenue management system that would increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction.
New York City Department of Transportation, in conjunction with researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s VREF Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems, developed the Off Hours Delivery (OHD) Project. This project, which began in 2002 to transform urban freight policy by transitioning delivery times to the off-hours of 7 p.m.-6 a.m. when New York City streets are less congested, is currently in use by more than 400 establishments and is being implemented internationally.
All six finalists will present their work in a series of sessions at the conference before a panel of judges before the winner is announced at the Awards Gala.
Previous winners of the Franz Edelman Award include UPS, IBM, Syngenta, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Hewlett-Packard, General Motors, among others.