Tag: Conference

2018 Joint NZSA / ORSNZ Conference – registration closing soon

Tēnā koutou katoa!

Time is flying and the joint NZSA/ORSNZ Conference being held from 27-30 November in Palmerston North draws ever closer!

Just a reminder that the closing date for registrations is in less than two weeks from now! That is, need to register BEFORE the 1st November 2018, otherwise a late fee will apply.

Please register via our conference webpage at:  http://www.massey.ac.nz/nzsa2018

We also have an awesome feature that allows you to take a peek at the abstracts as they are being processed at: https://R-Resources.massey.ac.nz/NZSA2018

This includes the abstracts for our keynote speakers. Alan Welsh, Ilze Ziedins, Stefan Nickel, Geoff Jones, and Jean Yang, as well as the ANZJS Discussion Paper to be presented by Francis Hui.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in November!

Ngā mihi,
Jonathan and Rina

2018 ORSNZ Conference Prizes

Abstract Submission

The deadline for abstracts for the upcoming 2018 Joint NZSA + ORSNZ conference (27-29 November at Massey University, Palmerston North) must be submitted by Monday October 1, 2018. The submission details and formatting requirements can be found here.

NZSA is managing the submission process, and there will be no extension to this deadline.

Young Practitioners’ Prize

OR practitioners and students who are within 5 years of graduation on the first day of the conference (27 November) 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. Note that a full paper, following these guidelines, must be submitted to ORSNZ by November 15 in order enter the YPP. For further details about the YPP, see here.

The 2018 Young Practitioners’ Prize is sponsored by Suez Smart Solutions. Anyone who enters the YPP is also eligible to attend the conference dinner free-of-charge (you do not need to purchase a dinner ticket). The conference dinner has been sponsored by Harmonic Analytics & Engineering Science.

John A. George Memorial Prize (JAG)

JAG PrizeYoung Practitioners may also optionally submit your paper / presentation 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, particularly those who may otherwise be vulnerable or disadvantaged, now, or in the future?

2018 Joint NZSA / ORSNZ Conference – deadlines

This is a reminder that the abstract submission deadline for the 2018 Joint NZSA / ORSNZ Conference is Monday 1 October 2018. The guidelines for the submission process are available here.

This conference is being held at Massey University’s Manawatu Campus from Tuesday 27 – Friday 30 November (note that the ORSNZ sessions will finish on Thursday).

We are particularly keen for presentations on agritech, health and energy; however invite abstracts from any field of Operations Research or Analytics. If your abstract is accepted you need to register for the conference by Thursday November 1.

 

Survey: Special sessions in the upcoming conference

We are considering running several sessions on specific topics at the upcoming conference (being held at Massey University in Palmerston North from midday Tuesday 27 November to Thursday 29 November 2018). The topics that we are thinking about are:

  • energy and natural resources;
  • agri-tech and primary industries; and
  • healthcare.

In order to assist with our planning, both in terms of whether people can contribute presentations or simply wish to attend such a session, we would appreciate it if you could complete this short survey.

2018 Joint NZSA and ORSNZ Conference

The New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA) and the Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ) are holding a joint conference hosted by Massey University at their Manawatu campus in 2018. This conference incorporates both the 69th Annual NZSA Conference and the 52nd annual ORSNZ Conference.

The conference presentations and other events will be held from midday Tuesday 27th November to Friday 30th November 2018. However, the ORSNZ sessions will be completed by midday Thursday, followed by an Analytics Forum event on Thursday afternoon (details to be confirmed).

Plenary Speakers

The following plenary speakers have been confirmed for the conference:

Stefan Nickel –  Karlsruhe Institute of Technology;
Ilze Ziedins – University of Auckland;
Alan Welsh – Australian National University; and
Jean Yang – University of Sydney.

You can find additional details here.

Call for Papers

On August 1 2018, you will be able to register and submit an abstract for the 2018 Joint NZSA and ORSNZ Conference. We welcome presentations on any aspect of operations research, analytics or management science, especially practical applications.

Submissions from students and practitioners are greatly encouraged. Abstracts should be submitted using the format outlined here.

Oral presentations will be 20 minutes in length with additional time for questions. All abstracts will be considered by the conference committee, and the authors notified of their acceptance or otherwise.

Note that the abstract submission deadline is October 1. You may additionally submit a full paper to ORSNZ, by November 15, to have it included in the online proceedings; please follow these guidelines.

Registration

Early bird registration closes on November 1. Please see this page for details about the registration fees.

Note that the ORSNZ and NZSA are hosting separate dinners, and there is a separate (additional) fee for each.

ORSNZ Young Practitioners’ Prize (YPP)

OR practitioners and students who are within 5 years of graduation on the first day of the conference (27 November) 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. Note that a full paper, following these guidelines, must be submitted to ORSNZ by November 15 in order enter the YPP. For further details about the YPP, see here.

Winners of the Inaugural John Andrew George Memorial Prize

At the 2017 ORSNZ the first John Andrew George Memorial Prizes were awarded. This prize was established by Grant Read, Vicky Mabin, Bob Cavana, and John Buchanan in memory of former ORSNZ Vice President John George, who passed away in November last year.

While most OR projects are expected to deliver “benefits” of various kinds, the emphasis here is not on purely economic, or even purely environmental, benefits, but on efforts to better the lives of others.  It is thus about the motivation, heart and soul of the project.  So the key consideration was be the following question:

“How will this work contribute to improving the quality of people’s lives, particularly those who may otherwise be vulnerable or disadvantaged, now, or in future?”

This prize was open to all papers presented for the YPP, and was awarded jointly to:

Samuel Ridler – Ambulance simulation and optimisation; and
Samin Aref – Computing the frustration index in signed graphs using binary programming.

Left to right: Samuel Riddler (JAG Award Winner), Grant Read, Vicky Mabin, Bob Cavana (judges), and Michael O’Sullivan (ORSNZ President).

Young Practitioner’s Prize Winners 2017

At the 51st ORSNZ Conference held in December 2017, we had 14 entries into the Young Practitioner’s Prize, which was sponsored by Trustpower. There were three prizes awarded:

  • 1st Place: Oscar Dowson – SDDP.jl: a Julia package for Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming
  • 2nd Place: Thomas Adams – Balancing Physician Workloads Under Uncertain Admissions
  • 3rd Place: Isaac Cleland – Solving a Generalised Staff Rostering Problem

Dr Michael J O’Sullivan (ORSNZ President) and Mr Danny Tsai (Trustpower) present YPP certificates to Oscar Dowson (left), Thomas Adams (middle), and Isaac Cleland (right)