1/25/17 | 9:00am-4:30pm | 32-123
Careers in OR and Analytics
Description: This year, the MIT Operations Research Center will welcome speakers from cutting-edge fields in OR and analytics — both in industry and in academia — to discuss their work, research, and careers and to discuss the future of OR.
The ORC IAP Seminar schedule and up to date info can be found on the IAP Website listing.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th, 2017
Time: 9:00am-4:30pm
Place: 32-123
Schedule:
8:30am-9:00am
COFFEE AND REFRESHMENTS
9:00am-10:00am
Iain Dunning
Research Engineer at DeepMind Technologies
| Title |
| Solving Intelligence at DeepMind: Research overview, applications, and connections to OR |
| Abstract |
| DeepMind was founded in 2010 with the goal of "solving intelligence". In this talk, I will present an overview of DeepMind's approach to research and some of its research contributions to date. I will also present some of the applied work that DeepMind is involved in, both as part of Alphabet and in healthcare, and finally discuss some opportunities for further links between the operations research community and the AI community. |
| Bio |
| Dr Iain Dunning is a research engineer at DeepMind Technologies, an Alphabet company. DeepMind's goal is to "solve intelligence and use it to make the world a better place." Iain currently works on developing reinforcement learning methods for training "agents" that interact with complex, realistic environments. He received a Ph.D. in Operations Research in 2016 from MIT, focussing on robust and adaptive optimization, and a B.E.(Hons) from the University of Auckland in 2011. |
10:00am-11:00am
Kris Ferreira
Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
| Title |
| OR Academics Informing Industry…and Vice Versa |
| Abstract |
| It’s a wonderful time to work in the field of operations research and analytics. Analytics careers are on the rise, being a math nerd is now cool (or so I tell myself), and non-math nerds have a general gist of what analytics is. Mainstream recognition of and interest in our field brings academics an enormous opportunity to work in partnership with companies and build bridges between academia and industry. Academics can develop and apply new tools and techniques to directly impact business operations, and in turn, real problems faced by companies can inform the operations management problems we pursue in academia. In this talk, I will present an overview of some of the research that I’m working on in partnership with companies in order to illustrate this broader opportunity to advance our field. Each of the projects uses a combination of machine learning and optimization to tackle revenue management challenges the companies face. Finally, I will share my perspectives more broadly regarding how an academic career in OR can have an impact on industry and vice versa through research and teaching. |
| Bio |
| Kris Ferreira is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit. Kris’s research focuses on online markets and retail, seeking to build operations management models that inform practice, as well as to provide theoretical insights. In particular, she employs a combination of machine learning and optimization techniques to help companies use their data to make better tactical and strategic decisions. Her work has received the 2014 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award, and was named a finalist in the 2015 Innovative Applications in Analytics competition as well as the 2015 IBM Service Science Best Student Paper Award. Prior to joining HBS, Kris earned her PhD in Operations Research from MIT. Prior to graduate school, Kris worked as an operations and supply chain consultant at Alvarez & Marsal. |
11:00am-12:00pm
Gina Mourtzinou
Co-Founder, CEO Dynamic Ideas Financial LLC;
Co-Founder, CIO Alpha Dynamics LLC
| Title |
| The Financial Service Industry: Investment Management and Advice |
| Abstract |
| Operations Research has found important applications in the Financial Services Industry, which is responsible for 7.2% of the U.S. GDP without producing any physical product. Information is king in the industry, hence the attention to data and methods to make inferences and decisions based on the data. Not only there is a long tradition of mathematical modeling in finance, but there is really no lead-time from the time you develop a model to its actual use in practice. A successful method/model can have immense impact. In this talk, I will discuss my experiences in two specific application domains in finance: Quantitative Asset Management, a rather traditional domain with long history, and the emerging area of FinTech, which is an umbrella term to describe disruptive innovations in many areas such as mobile payments, loans, money transfers, financial advice and asset management. Especially in FinTech, analytics based on Operations Research methods will shape the future! |
| Bio |
| Dr. Mourtzinou is the Chief Investment Officer and CEO of Dynamic Ideas Financial and the Chief Investment Officer of Alpha Dynamics. Prior to Dynamic Ideas Financial, she was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Columbia Management and its predecessor RiverSource Investments where she was responsible for managing large-cap and small/mid cap equity and asset allocation portfolios. Prior to RiverSource, she co-founded Dynamic Ideas LLC, a consulting firm that specialized in the development of quantitative tools for the asset management industry, where she served as Vice President of Research and Analytics, 1999 to 2002. She began her investment career as a consultant to asset managers in 1996. She received her Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her B.S. in Communications Systems at the National Technical University of Athens. She has spoken at numerous industry events on the use of robust optimization and applications in financial planning and investments. She has published articles in the premier academic journals for stochastic systems and optimization. She is a registered investment adviser representative. |
12:00pm-1:00pm
LUNCH BREAK (lunch not provided)
1:00pm-2:00pm
Nataly Youssef
Head of Healthcare Analytics, P2 Analytics and MyA Health
| Title |
| Riding the Wave of Analytics & Big Data in Healthcare |
| Abstract |
|
The US healthcare system is undergoing a massive transformation with a major push towards data digitization and an increased adoption of wearable wellness and health monitoring devices. Major players in the healthcare space are now seeking expertise in analytics and OR more than ever before. As a result, for the past year or so, I have embarked on an exciting journey to bring analytics solutions to healthcare consumers. In the first part of the talk, I will present a recent project at P2 analytics aimed at scheduling procedures to minimize patient delays downstream the network within the Heart and Vascular Center at a large teaching hospital in New England. In the second part of the talk, I will present our ongoing big data endeavor at MyA Health aimed at developing a personalized decision support tool for healthcare consumers using historical insurance claims, electronic medical records, wellness and biometric data, wearable device records, and consumer lifestyle data. |
| Bio |
|
Nataly Youssef is the President and Chief Analytics Officer at MyA Health, a personalized healthcare decision support application, as well as the Head of Healthcare Analytics at P2 Analytics. Her expertise lies in the area of prescriptive analytics, namely the use of robust optimization to manage risk and maximize outcomes. She participated in developing a MOOC -The Analytics Edge - and taught executive MBAs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Nataly received her Ph.D. in Operations Research and Analytics from MIT and her M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Risk Management from Texas A&M University. |
2:00pm-3:00pm
Rama Ramakrishnan
Senior Vice-President, Data Science, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)
| Title |
| From Data to Dollars: Confessions of an OR Entrepreneur |
| Abstract |
| Rama will describe his experiences starting and building OR-powered technology companies over the past 15 years. He will share a “trench eye-view” of what it means to be an OR entrepreneur and distill the entrepreneurial lessons learned, especially the soft ingredients needed to make OR succeed commercially. |
| Bio |
|
Rama is a serial entrepreneur in the data analytics space.
His most recent startup, CQuotient, built a machine-learning-based personalization platform for retail and e-commerce. Rama founded CQuotient in July 2010 with venture backing from Bain Capital Ventures and led the company to a successful exit to Demandware (NYSE: DWRE) in October 2014. As a member of the Demandware executive team, Rama was involved in the successful sale of Demandware to Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) in July 2016 for $2.8 billion.
Prior to founding CQuotient, Rama taught analytics at MIT Sloan, was Chief Scientist at ProfitLogic (acquired by Oracle in August 2005), was VP of R&D at Oracle, and worked at McKinsey.
Rama’s awards include Chain Store Age magazine’s “Rising Star of Retail” award and Tie-Boston’s Entrepreneurship Achievement Award.
Rama has a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
3:00pm-4:30pm
Careers in OR and Analytics Panel
Brian Denton
Professor, University of Michigan, Industrial & Operations Engineering; INFORMS President
| Bio |
|
Brian Denton is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, MI. He is also a Professor in the Department of Urology and a member of the Cancer Center at University of Michigan. Previously he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at NC State University, a Senior Associate Consultant at Mayo Clinic, and a Senior Engineer at IBM. He is past president of the INFORMS Health Applications Section and he served as Secretary on the INFORMS Board of Directors from 2012 to 2015. He is currently serving as President of INFORMS for 2017. His primary research interests are in simulation, stochastic models, and optimization of decision making under uncertainty with applications to chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. He completed his Ph.D. in Management Science at McMaster University, his M.Sc. in Physics at York University, and his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Physics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. |
Bill Pulleyblank
Professor of Operations Research, West Point
| Bio |
|
William R. Pulleyblank has been Professor of Operations Research at The United States Military Academy, West Point since 2010, continuing a career that spanned both academia and business.
His previous position was Vice-president of Business Analytics and Optimization in IBM Global Services following fifteen years in IBM Research. There he led teams conducting leading research in mathematics and high performance computing. This included the Blue Gene project, which led to the creation of the Blue Gene/L supercomputer which was certified as the most powerful supercomputer in the world from 2004 to 2008.
Dr. Pulleyblank has been awarded honorary doctorates from The College of St. Rose and from McMaster University. He is a Fellow of the Fields Institute of Mathematical Sciences and of INFORMS. In 2008, the Blue Gene project which he led was awarded the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In 2010 Dr. Pulleyblank was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
His current research interests are in data analytics and optimization. He leads a range of cadet projects on applications of network theory to a range of applied problems. |
Rama Ramakrishnan
Senior Vice-President, Data Science, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)
| Bio |
|
Rama is a serial entrepreneur in the data analytics space.
His most recent startup, CQuotient, built a machine-learning-based personalization platform for retail and e-commerce. Rama founded CQuotient in July 2010 with venture backing from Bain Capital Ventures and led the company to a successful exit to Demandware (NYSE: DWRE) in October 2014. As a member of the Demandware executive team, Rama was involved in the successful sale of Demandware to Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) in July 2016 for $2.8 billion.
Prior to founding CQuotient, Rama taught analytics at MIT Sloan, was Chief Scientist at ProfitLogic (acquired by Oracle in August 2005), was VP of R&D at Oracle, and worked at McKinsey.
Rama’s awards include Chain Store Age magazine’s “Rising Star of Retail” award and Tie-Boston’s Entrepreneurship Achievement Award.
Rama has a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
Dimitris Bertsimas
Boeing Professor of Operations Research
Codirector, Operations Research Center, MIT
| Bio |
|
Dimitris Bertsimas received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1985, a MS in Operations Research at MIT in 1987, and a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at MIT in 1988. Since 1988, he has been with the MIT faculty. Since the 1990s he has started several successful companies in the areas of financial services, asset management, health care, publishing, analytics and aviation. His research interests include analytics, optimization and their applications in a variety of industries. He has co-authored more than 200 scientific papers and four textbooks, including the book ’’The Analytics Edge’’ published in 2016. He is former area editor in Operations Research in Financial Engineering and in Management Science in Optimization. He has supervised 60 doctoral students and he is currently supervising 21 others. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and an INFORMS fellow. He has received several research awards including the Philip Morse lectureship award (2013), the William Pierskalla award for best paper in health care (2013), the best paper award in Transportation Science (2013), the Farkas prize (2008), the Erlang prize (1996), the SIAM prize in optimization (1996), the Bodossaki prize (1998) and the Presidential Young Investigator award (1991-1996). |