Author: Michael O'Sullivan

When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine it was soon clear that there would be widespread condemnation by other countries, but little military assistance. What has eventuated is the biggest declaration of economic warfare since World War II.

We have all been shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. To help us understand the situation, we are hosting a webinar on the economic implications of the invasion. It’s complicated, but we will be helping you understand what the invasion will do to world food production, what the sanctions will do to financial markets, why we will all suffer inflation, and what it means for the world’s geo-economics.

Join Dr Alan Bollard and panel members, to discuss the developing situation from a business and government perspective.

Moderator:   Dr Alan Bollard is a Professor of Practice at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and inaugural holder of the Chair for Pacific Region Business. His recent paper The weaponization of money – Could This Be The First Economic World War? explores the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Panel members:

Olga Speranskaya, economist, business growth expert, community leader and startup mentor, also contributing to Wellington School of Business and Governments’ Executive MBA Professional Development programme

Dr Eldrede Kahiya, Senior Lecturer in International Business at Wellington School of Business in Government

Grant Spencer, Teaching Fellow in financial economics at Wellington School of Business and Government and  Acting Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Veronika Karashvili, a programme and project management professional who has recently completed her Executive MBA at Wellington School of Business and Government

Proudly hosted by the Professional Programmes Office at the Wellington School of Business and Government.

Kia ora koutou,

Asia-Pacific Operational Research Society (APORS) is holding the inaugural APORS Youth Day in mid-April (the week starting April 18 or the week starting April 25). They are looking for a youth speaker from each of their member societies, i.e., one from ORSNZ. That speaker will give a virtual talk on the Youth Day and be representing ORSNZ.

APORS have not provided a definition of “youth” so ORSNZ will use the same criteria as is used for the Young Practitioner Prize, namely anyone who is within 5 years of graduation (or who have not yet graduated) on April 18.

If you are interested in being the ORSNZ youth speaker then please email Mike at presidentATTHEorsnz.org.nz. A decision on the speaker will be made at the beginning of April.

Noho ora mai, Mike (ORSNZ President)

Kia ora koutou,

Please see links below for a call for applicants for a new permanent lectureship at Engineering Science (1.0 FTE in the Department).

Note that the call says “We encourage applications from people who identify with groups that are typically underrepresented in the Engineering sector”, i.e., women applicants would be particularly welcome.

Link – https://smrtr.io/8kRG2

Seek – https://www.seek.co.nz/job/56218833

Noho ora mai, Mike (ORSNZ President)

Kia ora koutou,

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is looking for a Professor in Operations Research & Analytics. The deadline for applying in March 28, 2022.

You can find out more about the position here.

Noho ora mai, Mike

Kia ora koutou,

I’ve decided to write some regular posts about what is going on with ORSNZ, and also give my thoughts on OR in NZ and around the world more generally. These will be “Inside ORSNZ” posts so you should be able to recognise and filter them appropriately 😊

The ORSNZ Council recently commissioned a strategic review of ORSNZ with an eye to redeveloping and revitalising the ORSNZ website as the hub of the society. This strategic review has been completed and the Council is now deciding on whether to proceed with the website refresh.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 and its latest (Delta) incarnation means that for the 2nd year in a row there will be no ORSNZ Annual Conference. This is a real shame as the Annual Conference is a great opportunity to catch up and see what everyone has been up to. I hope the website refresh, if it goes ahead, will be able to fill this gap a little in the future by creating a more vibrant online community for ORSNZ. ORSNZ can also provide some funding for smaller local or research area events particularly through the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) or RIGs (Regional Interest Groups).

A couple of other “hats” that I wear have given me some interesting insights recently.

Since July this year I have been Deputy Director of Te Pūnaha Matatini and observing the diversity of modelling and the focus on impact, both within the community and at a policy level, has been really exciting. The value of transdisciplinary research is being recognised within the research landscape and one of our Council members recently remarked (on transdisciplinary research) that “It all sounds like what OR has been doing for 70 years.” I wholeheartedly agree with this and over the last 5 years it seems to me that modelling in general and OR modelling in particular has had somewhat of a renaissance due to the wealth of data now available and the greater acceptance of models. One example of this is a research project simulating the critical care system in Aotearoa New Zealand that Ilze Ziedins, Cameron Walker and I worked on. Much of the recent modelling has been under the news “brands” of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. I think there are also exciting new opportunities for combining machine learning and traditional OR models for real-world decision making.

With respect to AI, I am one of the Aotearoa New Zealand representatives in the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), working in the AI and Pandemic Response Working Group. I am co-leading a project on Immediate Response to the Pandemic and have had a chance to review multiple AI initiatives being used to combat COVID-19. I was pleased to see a reasonably standard integer programming approach being used to balance patient numbers across hospitals within US states. The full living repository of AI initiatives for pandemic response can be found here.

OK, that is enough from me for now. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with comments/questions and let me know if there is anything you would like publicised next month.

Noho ora mai, Mike (ORSNZ President)

Kia ora koutou,

Please see email below from Andy Philpott about Peter Whittle who recently passed. Andy has also provided the Memorial Tribute for Prof. Whittle generously shared by Frank Kelly.

Noho ora mai, Mike

“I just learnt from Cambridge that Peter Whittle died on August 10, at
the age of 94.

Peter, who was born in Wellington, was Professor of Operational Research
at Cambridge for many years, and is unarguably New Zealand’s OR  GOAT.
He won both the von Neumann theory prize and the Lanchester Prize and
was a FRS.  I unearthed this YouTube interview that was done by Frank
Kelly a few years ago, that gives you an overview of his contributions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2l1HAHqmJQ

Best regards,

Andy P.