ORSNZ Annual Conference

Kia ora koutou!

November 28 & 29 saw the return of the ORSNZ Annual Conference, very well organised by Tony Downward (ORSNZ Secretary) and Tom Adams (ORSNZ Treasurer). It was very nice to see people kanohe ki te kanohe (eye to eye), both those I know and those I met at the conference.

The conference began with a ½ day Healthcare Modelling cluster organised by the ORSNZ SIG on Healthcare Analytics (OSHA) with talks bookended by an excellent plenary address by Dr Melanie Reuter-Oppermann and a discussion panel with experts from academia and industry (Melanie, Ms Pieta Brown, Dr Isaac Cleland, Dr Tom Adams, Assoc Prof Ilze Ziedins, Assoc Prof Cameron Walker).

The sessions that followed included talks by both young and experienced practitioners covering topics from finding missing people with integer programming to teaching the next generation of OR students.

There were two prize highlights during the conference. First, Associate Professor Andrew Mason was awarded the Hans Daellenbach Prize, the ORSNZ prize awarded for a body of work in OR/MS that combines strong innovative methodology with a practical impact which has made a significant contribution and received international recognition. Second, the Young Practitioners’ Prize – sponsored by Optimity and the Supply Chain Company – was awarded for presentations and papers as follows:

  • Paper
    • 1st place: Christina Lin – Modelling housing feature impacts on sale price in newly developed suburbs relative to a standard house. (Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering, University of Auckland)
    • 2nd place: Dominic Keehan – Certainty equivalent model predictive control and distributionally robust stochastic dynamic programming. (Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering, University of Auckland)
  • Presentation
    • 1st place: Karl Zhu – Finding the missing with integer programming. (Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering, University of Auckland)
    • 2nd place: Uwe Langenmayr – Calculation of synthetic energy carrier production costs with high temporal and geographical resolution. (Institute for Industrial Production, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

The AGM saw the addition of one of the YPP people, Karl Zhu, in the Communications role. Your ORSNZ Council is as follows:

President
Mike O’Sullivan
presidentATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Vice President
Andrea Raith
vicepresidentATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Secretary
Tony Downward
secretaryATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Treasurer
Tom Adams
treasurerATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Council (APORS/IFORS Representative)
Andy Philpott
liaisonATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Council (Communications)
Karl Zhu
communicationsATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Council (Industry Representative)
Cam Bradley

Council
Sarah Marshall

Council (WebMaster)
Andrew Mason
webmasterATTHEorsnz.org.nz

Auckland Region Contact
aucklandATTHEorsnz.org.nz
Paul Rouse

Christchurch Region Contact
christchurchATTHEorsnz.org.nz
Grant Read
Wellington Region Contact
wellingtonATTHEorsnz.org.nz
Robyn Moore / Yi Mei
Waikato/Bay of Plenty Contact
waikatoATTHEorsnz.org.nz

One of Karl’s first tasks might be introducing you to your Council members.

One of my colleagues remarked that this year’s conference was one of the best ORSNZ conferences he had been to. Ngā mihi nui to those who could attend the conference this year and a special thanks to those that presented. Ngā mihi to Optimity and the Supply Chain Company for sponsoring the YPP. I hope to see you some time soon at an ORSNZ event.

Noho ora mai, Mike (ORSNZ President)