Transportation

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Anahita Khojandi is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the director for the Reliability and Maintainability Engineering program at University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her research interests include decision making under uncertainty and partial information, machine learning, and reinforcement learning, with applications in healthcare, environmental engineering and sustainability, intelligent transportation systems, manufacturing, and maintenance optimization. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from University of Pittsburgh. She has served as the President of INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group and the Vice Chair of INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She is also a member of INFORMS.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Healthcare applications, Environmental engineering and sustainability, Intelligent transportation systems
• Chaired the INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Anna Nagurney is a Professor in Department of Operations and Information Management in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherest. She is also an Affiliated Faculty Member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherest. Her research interests and expertise lies in supply chain network design for critical needs and health care products; perishable product supply chains, including those associated with food, blood, and pharma; disruption management; financial networks with intermediation and much more.

She has received several awards including the Volunteer Service Award at the Distinguished Level from INFORMS at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, November 13-16, 2016. Professor Nagurney is a participant in the INFORMS Speaker Program and from 2011-2012 was the Chair of the INFORMS Speaker Program. She has also been the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter since 2004. In 2007, 2009, and 2015, the chapter received the INFORMS Student Chapter Annual Award Summa Cum Laude award. In 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2020 the chapter was recognized for its activities with the INFORMS Student Chapter Annual Award Magna Cum Laude. Lastly, in 2014, 2016, and 2018, the chapter received the Cum Laude Award.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Transportation and logistics network systems, Perishable product supply chains, Distruption management
• Professional speaker

Indiana University

Jorge Mejia is an assistant professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He is interested in understanding the impacts of social media through the analysis of large amounts of data. His current projects employ unstructured data from social media to predict business outcomes. He is also interested in predictors of success in early-stage tech entrepreneurship. Prior to joining Kelley, he was a technology and management consultant, an industry analyst, and an entrepreneur. He has a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in computer engineering, a M.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in electrical and computer engineering, and a Ph.D. in information systems from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Impacts of social media, Predicting business outcomes, Predictors of success in early-stage text entrepreneurship

George Mason University

Karla Hoffman is a professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at the George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering. Her research focuses on air transportation, optimization, military operations research, computational statistics, big data, machine learning, auction design, and testing. She has worked with a variety of government agencies and corporations on diverse problems. Currently, she is working as a consultant to the FCC on the “incentive auction.” Her published research is funded by government agencies such as the U.S. Department of the Navy and NASA.

She received her B.A. in mathematics from Rutgers University, and her M.B.A. and her D.Sc. in operations research from George Washington University.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Air transportation, Optimization, Computational statistics, Auction design
• Has worked with the FCC
• Published research funded by the U.S. Department of the Navy and NASA

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Laura Albert is a professor and Harvey D. Spangler Faculty Scholar in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research applies operations research methodologies to important societal applications.  Her primary methodological base is discrete optimization, including integer programming and Markov decision processes. Her research also focuses on modeling and solving real-world discrete optimization problems with application to homeland security, public services, healthcare, emergency medical services, critical infrastructure protection, public safety, and disaster response and recovery.

She is the former president of INFORMS Women in OR/MS (2012-2014) and INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Services and Needs (2013-2015). She has a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in General Engineering and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Industrial Engineering.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Discrete optimization problems with application to homeland security, public services, healthcare, emergency medical services, critical infrastructure protection, public safety, disaster response and recovery
• 2023 INFORMS President
• Publishes popular blog Punk Rock O.R.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Shannon Roberts is an assistant professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, focusing on mechanical and industrial engineering. Her research includes human factors, transportation safety, driver feedback, social influence and social networks, driver behavior modeling and simulation, and young and older driver training. She has been published in several research publications including Accident Analysis & Prevention, Advancing Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice Through Human Systems Engineering, Transportation Research Record and PLOS ONE.

She holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Transportation safety, Driver feedback, Driver behavior modeling and simulation, Driver training, Social influence and social networks
• Published in several research publications

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Sheldon H. Jacobson is a Founder Professor of Computer Science, Director of the Simulation and Optimization Laboratory, and Founding Director of the Bed Time Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has a B.S. and M.S. in mathematics from McGill University and a Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University.

Over the decades, Professor Jacobson has dedicated his effort to draw the attention of the public to the power of operations research and analytics for informed policy and decision making. He has made research contributions to operations research and optimization-based artificial intelligence. Additionally, he has written on a broad range of subjects: aviation security, healthcare, transportation, political redistricting and elections, etc. He is an INFORMS Fellow and has received the INFORMS Impact Prize.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Informed policy and decision making, Aviation security, Healthcare, Transportation, Political redistricting, Elections

Harvey Mudd College

Susan Martonosi is an associate professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California where she focuses her research on the application of operations research and analytics methodology. Her research uses mathematical modeling to address problems in homeland security, humanitarian logistics, and public policy. Her work has included probabilistic models to guide aviation security policy related to passenger and cargo screening and shipping container screening policy; game theory, social networks analysis and graph theory to solve problems in resource allocation and terrorist network disruption; epidemiological techniques coupled with optimization models for the efficient allocation of interventions against malaria; and game theory models for negotiating pediatric vaccine prices in the public sector. 

She holds a B.S. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT. She is on the Board of INFORMS, currently serving as Vice President for Membership and Professional Recognition, a position elected by the membership.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Homeland security, Humanitarian logistics, Public policy
• has created models and theories for solving problems in terrorist network disruption, aviation security screening, and negotiating pediatric vaccine prices in the public sector