Save the dates: ORSNZ Conference 2021

The ORSNZ Annual Conference for 2021 will be held at the University of Auckland from on Thursday 25 November and Friday 26 November 2021.

A conference programme will be announced by the end of August.

The Easychair platform is set up for Abstract submissions (the submission deadline is 1 November).

We are planning to have sessions on healthcare modelling, energy and emissions policy, and digital twins. If you are interested in organising a session, with (approximately) four presentations around a common theme, please contact the conference organisers at [email protected] by August 31.

Please see the conference website for further details.

ORSNZ Conference Planning 2020

We are starting to think about the location and timing of this year’s conference.

In terms of the 2019’s conference: we found that that having sessions based around research topics (rather than YPP / non-YPP) went well; however, in future it would be great to be able to conclude the conference with an analytics forum (or similar) event / drinks, rather than have that on the same night as the dinner.

We think that last year’s conference went well by ourselves, but for organisational reasons, would prefer to align with other conferences, where appropriate.

We are conducting a survey to see what other societies are hosting conferences in late November / early December 2020, so we can either: join them, align with them, or avoid a clash.

For example, we are aware that the 2020 NZMS Colloquium is running from 1-3 December 2020 at AUT.

Please submit any conferences that you know of, using the link below:
Go to Survey

This survey will close on Friday 31 January; and will be followed up with another survey to determine a preferred location for the conference.

ORSNZ Conference 2019 Recap & Prize Winners

This year’s ORSNZ conference was the first time we haven’t partnered with NZSA since 2012. Across the two days we had 56 people who attended, and 28 presentations. You can see the abstracts for all the presentations here.

There was also an Analytics Forum event on Well-being Analytics aligned with the first-day on the conference, attended by about 150 people.

The OSHA and ENR SIGs each hosted sessions at the conference, which helped to attract people from industry to a day or session of the conference.

YPP Prize Winners

Sponsored by Suez Smart Solutions

Best Paper: Comparison of objective functions for scheduling surgeries. Thomas Adams, Michael O’Sullivan & Cameron Walker. Engineering Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Best Presentation: Universal locker systems for urban metros. Parameshwaran Iyer, Ronald Veldman & Yao Zhang.

Highly Commended: The optimisation of milk collection. Snigdha Saha & Olivier Graffeuille.

JAG Prize Winners

Sponsored by Optimity

Winner: Developing a decision making tool for Housing New Zealand. Hrishi Kodthuguli, Michael O’Sullivan & Cameron Walker.

Highly Commended: Who will be covered and who will be left behind? Advising the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation on fairness. Maaike Vollebergh, Caroline Jagtenberg & Jo Røislien.

Extended Deadline for Abstracts and Early-bird Registration for upcoming ORSNZ conference

We have just extended the deadline for abstract submissions and early-bird registration by 1 week, these are now due by Friday November 8.

We have made a minor change to the programme, with Prof. Vicky Mabin’s plenary address entitled: Use of Reframing in Evidence-Based Modelling to Support Policy Decisions now scheduled for Tuesday morning (December 3).

We are also fortunate to now have a keynote address by Dr James Tipping from the Electricity Authority, which has been scheduled for Wednesday (December 4), to kick-off the sessions on energy and emissions. These sessions will conclude with a panel discussion chaired by Adjunct Prof. Grant Read.

More details about the programme are available here.

ORSNZ SIG Streams at the 2019 ORSNZ Conference

At this year’s ORSNZ annual conference (2-3 December) there will be sessions run by the Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) and the Healthcare Analytics (OSHA) SIGs.

The Healthcare Analytics stream will have a plenary address by Prof. Margaret Brandeau from Stanford.

The Energy and Natural Resources stream will focus on modelling and policies around the New Zealand government’s emissions targets for 2050.

Both streams are accepting abstract submissions as outlined in these posts:
ENR, OSHA.

If you would like to subscribe to news and events from either of these interest groups, you can update your preferences at the bottom of this email, or if you know someone who might like to subscribe, forward them this link: http://eepurl.com/FVEhn.

ORSNZ Conference 2019: Call for Papers

This year’s ORSNZ conference will be held at the University of Auckland on Monday December 2 and Tuesday December 3, 2019.

The theme of this year’s conference is influencing policy-making with evidence-based modelling and we will have a plenary address from Prof. Vicky Mabin.

Call for Papers

We welcome presentations on any aspect of operations research, analytics or management science, especially practical applications. We plan to run sessions on climate / emissions policy as well as healthcare.

Submissions from students and practitioners are greatly encouraged. Abstracts should be 200 words or fewer and are to be submitted as plain text (not a PDF file) through EasyChair.

Oral presentations will be 20 minutes in length (15 + 5 for questions). All abstracts will be considered by the conference committee, and the authors notified of their acceptance (or otherwise).

Abstracts can be submitted via EasyChair here. The deadline is Friday November 1.
The deadline for (optional) full papers is Friday November 15.

Registration

Early-bird registration is now available here:

  • a standard registration is $300 including the conference dinner;
  • a standard registration is $250, without the dinner ticket;
  • a student registration is $150, including the conference dinner;
  • a single-day registration is $150 for either day.

Early-bird registration will Close on November 1.

The conference dinner will be held on Monday December 2.

Student Prizes

Young Practitioners’ Prize

OR practitioners and students who are within 5 years of graduation on the first day of the conference (December 2) are invited to compete for $1000 of prizes in the ORSNZ Young Practitioners’ Prize competition. When registering for the conference, competitors should request that their paper be entered for the YPP, and also include YPP as a keyword when submitting the abstract. Note that a full paper must be submitted in order enter the YPP. For further details about the YPP, see here.

John A. George Memorial Prize

Young Practitioners may also optionally have their presentations considered for consideration for the JAG prize. This prize is awarded annually for the best application of OR for improving lives. Entries are particularly sought in areas such as health, education, social welfare, economic development, or environmental protection, but may be in any application area.

Entrants should explain how their work could contribute to improving the quality of people’s lives (immediately, or in the future), particularly those who may otherwise be vulnerable or disadvantaged.

Risk and Decision-Making Conference: Call for Abstracts

The Australasian Bayesian Network Modelling Society and the Society for Risk Analysis Australia New Zealand warmly invite you to submit abstracts for their combined annual meeting. This will be held in partnership with Victoria University of Wellington on 13-14 November 2019, at Rutherford House, Victoria Business School.

The theme of the meeting, risk and decision-making, reflects on the different aspects of risks that the individual societies have addressed in the past and plays on the conference location in Wellington, the capital of and centre of government for New Zealand. However, the conference will address more than governmental decision-making. It aims to bring together researchers, consultants, regulators, and policy-makers to discuss how different aspects of risk analysis underpin responsible decision-making. Weaving in Mātauranga Māori and other First Nation knowledge improves the culturally-appropriateness of these decisions.

Risks and their management are an integral part of our lives in the 21st century. Identifying and assessing risks and their uncertainties is paramount for organisations and governments (from local to international) to be able to incorporate these risks into policies and decision-making to protect people, the environment and the economy. The Scientific Programme includes various topic streams, spanning Natural Hazards under a Changing Climate, Biosecurity, Chemical Management, Organisations and Governance, and Health.

Please visit the conference website http://www.gns.cri.nz/risk-conf-2019 for further information and to submit an abstract by 31 August 2019.

Fifty-Second Annual Convention of Operational Research Society of India & International Conference: Call for papers

  • What: Fifty-Second Annual Convention of Operational Research Society of India & International Conference
  • When: December 16th-18th, 2019
  • Where: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad India
  • Conference website: https://conference.iima.ac.in/orsi2019/index.php

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad India will be hosting the Fifty-Second Annual Convention of Operational Research Society of India & International Conference on the theme of Practice of Management Science & Analytics from December 16th-18th, 2019. Members of ORSNZ are invited to attend the conference and present a paper, chair a session or participate in different competitions.

The objective of the conference: The Annual Convention of the Operational Research Society of India (ORSI) and the International Conference is a leading platform to share information among academia and industry, on the latest theory methods, techniques, applications and the practice of OR, Management Science and Analytics. It is designed to attract the participation of researchers, students and practitioners from India and abroad besides ORSI members. ORSI conducts an annual convention in different local chapters every year in order to promote the usage of Operational Research and to exchange the ideas amongst the attendees of the conference. This year ORSI has planned its 52nd Annual Convention at the IIMA Campus. ORSI has various awards to be presented in this conference for high achievers. 

About ORSI: The Operational Research Society of India was founded in 1957 in order to provide a forum for the Operational Research Scientists to broaden their horizon by an exchange of knowledge and application of techniques from all over the world. Headquartered in Kolkata, the society is affiliated to the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) and Asia Pacific Operational Research Societies (APORS) and has sixteen chapters located in various cities in India. ORSI is dedicated to promote and propagate the knowledge in Operational Research.

About Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad: IIMA has been consistently ranked as the premier management school in the country by several national agencies. The institute funds research projects and case- writing, which over the years has led to a rich repository of monographs, technical notes, cases, and journal articles.

See the conference website
https://conference.iima.ac.in/orsi2019/index.php
for detailed information about all aspects of the conference including the abstract submission and registration process.

For more information about the paper presentation and its thematic topics, you can refer to the conference poster and conference brochure.

Contact details
Program Committee Chair Prof. Nita Shah: [email protected].
General queries: [email protected].
For award related queries Prof. Goutam Duttatact [email protected]

MODSIM: Call for Papers

The 23rd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM2019) will be held at the National Convention Centre in Canberra from 1 to 6 December 2019. This is held in conjunction with the
27th National Conference of the Australian Society for Operations Research, and the Defence Operations Research Symposium (DORS 2019).

The closing date for submissions is 31st July 2019.

Further information is available here:
https://mssanz.org.au/modsim2019/

ORSNZ Conference 2019 Survey

We hope you have all had a good break over the summer. As you know, the work never stops at ORSNZ, so we’ve been eagerly planning the 2019 ORSNZ Conference.

This year, NZSA will be holding their conference in Dunedin, which is not a particularly strong location for ORSNZ. For this reason, we wish to get some (non-binding) feedback from our members on where we should hold the conference.

The duration and fee structure of the conference will be tied to NZSA if we run the conference in Dunedin, so it would be at least 3 days.  If we run the conference separately, we anticipate that it will be 2 days, and we will have more control of the schedule. (We will endeavour to keep fees as low as possible.)

Note that the analytics forum will be running an event with NZSA in Dunedin, so will likely not run an event with ORSNZ, if we elect to run a separate conference.

Please complete the brief survey here; if you have any additional comments about the location / structure of ORSNZ conferences, please comment on this post.

Thanks.