TSL newsletters/Fall 2008
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[edit] Word from the President, Jim Moore
I hope you all enjoyed the INFORMS Washington meetings as much as I did. I have always enjoyed INFORMS (and ORSA/TIMS) meetings. These meetings provide opportunities to get out of and back to Los Angeles before winter takes hold in more temperate climes, catch up with colleagues, cheaply learn a bit about new applications and techniques, and in the case of TSL, attend a business meeting of unparalleled quality (well, unparalleled fun, in any event). David Lovell, the 2008 TSL Cluster Chair, reported 63 TSL sponsored sessions at the Washington meetings. My special thanks to Mike Ball, Martin Savelsbergh, Cindy Barnhardt (and the rest of the INFORMS leadership) for ensuring that TSL finally had access a room of ample proportions for the business meeting. We doubled the beverage order for the Washington TSL business meeting relative to the Seattle meetings, and still managed to run out of malt beverages. I am proud of all of you. Networks apparently make people very thirsty.
I followed up with INFORMS concerning the slight dip in TSL membership that we reported in Washington. This small dip followed four years of steady, post-merger growth, and seemed to me inconsistent with our continuing across-the-board growth in SIG membership. I learned that INFORMS’ transition to new association management software in May of 2008 probably led to the cancellation of all bills open at that time. Consequently I wrote an old-fashioned, hard copy letter to all TSL members whose membership renewals had been pending as of May 12, 2008, telling them that if they had stopped hearing from us, it did not mean we had forgotten them, and asking them to renew their membership. Most of the recent growth in SIG memberships appears to be new interest from student members willing to join multiple SIGs, which I take as very good news. It also appears that Mike Ball has succeeded in arranging for members of the INFORMS Aviation Applications Section to become automatic members of the TSL Air Transport SIG, and vice-versa.
The INFORMS 2009 meetings are in San Diego, so I will get to forego five hours of quality, coach flying time and rising at 3:30 AM PST to make 7:00 AM EST breakfast events. Instead, all the east coast personnel get to travel west and sleep in. The 2009 TSL cluster chair is Yanfeng Ouyang (yfouyang@uiuc.edu). The 2010 TSL cluster chair is Lei Zhang (lei@umd.edu). If you did not make the 2008 meetings and want to catch up, consider the Joint International Meeting of CORS and IFORMS in Toronto this summer, June 14-17. The TSL cluster chair for this special meeting is Jim Bookbinder (jbookbin@engmail.uwaterloo.ca).
Jim Moore
[edit] Letter from the Treasurer, Huseyin Topaloglu
The financial status of our society is quite healthy. The bank balance as of Sept. 30, 2008 is $19,820. The revenues from membership dues in 2008 added up to $5,940. The major expense items are related to funding the prizes and plaques for the TSL awards, reimbursing the trips related to the society business and catering the TSL business meeting. Our bank balance at the same period in 2007 was $18,284. The same figure in 2006 was $17,680. So there is an upward drift in our bank account.
Huseyin
[edit] Letter from the Editor, Maciek Nowak
Thanks to all for their contributions to this member driven newsletter. I invite everyone to continue submitting information on conferences, special editions of journals, employment opportunities, awards, etc. directly to the website. Make sure to check out the Job Openings that are linked directly from the main page. Also, if you have not already done so, please submit your contact information under the People section. Any comments or new submissions to the next newsletter may be sent to mnowak4@luc.edu.
Maciek Nowak
[edit] Featured Member TSL President Jim Moore
TSL President Jim Moore brought sane words to a fraught topic in an episode of the Public Broadcasting System program NOW that was devoted to the frustrations caused by crowded roads and volatile fuel prices. Learn more about the episode, and view it online, by going to this link
[edit] Joining a SIG Mailing List
We now have separate email lists for each special interest group. Anyone can join (even if you are not a member of Informs). You may also join more than one. If you have not joined a special interest group, please click on any of the links below to join:
Freight Transportation and Logistics
Urban Transportation
Facility Logistics
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
Air Transportation
[edit] News and Announcements
[edit] Odysseus 2009 Call for Submissions
ODYSSEUS 2009, the fourth international workshop on freight transportation and logistics, will be held in Cesme - Turkey on May 26 – 29, 2009. This triennial meeting brings together the leading researchers around the globe to discuss the most recent developments in their vibrant field. In two parallel sessions, the workshop will cover a broad range of topics including modeling, algorithms and real life applications. The meeting location Cesme is at the Aegean coast, 70km west of Izmir (Turkey’s 3rd largest city). The social program includes a full-day excursion to Ephesus, founded by Ionian Greeks in the 10th century BC. The deadline for submission of the extended abstracts via the workshop homepage http://www.odysseus2009.org/ is January 12, 2009.
Vedat Verter
[edit] Call for Research Proposals on Materials Handling and Facility Logistics
- Funding available for 2009-2010 academic year
- Proposals must be received by March 15, 2009
- Funding should be announced in June 2009
The Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) are dedicated to the support of material handling and facility logistics (MH/FL) research and teaching. The industry seeks to develop the faculty of tomorrow by supporting research today that focuses on topics important to development of the industry. In 2008, MHIA/CICMHE provided its first direct funding of research. For 2009, MHIA/CICMHE is expanding this program by increasing the available funding.
2009 Research Funding
Proposals are being solicited for material handling and facility logistics focused research projects to be conducted by academic institutions. MHIA and CICMHE have allocated $150,000 in 2009 to possibly fund two or more research proposals. Funded proposals must clearly identify significant involvement of one or more graduate students working with the Principal Investigator(s). The lead institution and principal investigator must be in the United States or Canada. Proposals must clearly address one or more of the initiatives identified in the 2007 Material Handling Logistics Summit.
Guidelines and Forms for Proposal Preparation and Submission
Anyone interested in submitting a proposal must follow the call for proposals and the proposal preparation guidelines and forms (closely modeled after the National Science Foundation guidelines/forms) available on the MHIA/CICMHE Research Funding page.
For questions regarding the program, please contact the MHIA Vice President of Educational & Technical Services and CICMHE Managing Director, Mike Ogle.
Mike Ogle Vice President, Educational and Technical Services, Material Handling Industry of America Managing Director, College Industry Council on Material Handling Education 8720 Red Oak Blvd. Suite 201, Charlotte, NC 28217, (704) 676-1190
[edit] Humanitarian Logistics Conference Call for Submissions
We would like to invite you to attend the Humanitarian Logistics Conference, which will take place at the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, GA, on February 19-20, 2009. Please visit the conference website http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/humlog09/ for full details. Note especially that the deadline for poster abstract submission has been extended to January 20, 2009. We encourage you and your collaborators to participate.
The conference will feature high level speakers from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry, governments, and the military. Speakers represent non-governmental organizations, industry, and government including speakers from: American Red Cross, Center for Emerging Logistics and Supply Chains, CDC, Cox Communications, FEMA, Fritz Institute, Georgia Tech, GTRI, International Medical Corps, MIT Zaragoza, John Snow Inc., Waffle House, and World Food Programme among others. Speakers will cover topics including:
- Disaster preparedness, response, and post-disaster operations
- Long-term development and humanitarian aid
- Intra- and inter-organizational collaboration in disaster planning and long term humanitarian aid
The first day of the event will have speakers and discussion groups, as well as a poster session. The second day includes several concurrent training workshops for smaller, interactive groups. Workshop topics on the second day include:
- Performance and measurement in the humanitarian sector
- Building skills for planning and response for large-scale domestic events
- Planning and collaboration strategies for operational continuity
Registration for either or both days of the event is available at http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/dpr09/registration/. The deadline for poster submissions has been extended to January 20th (see below or online for instructions).
We look forward to seeing you at the conference!
Sincerely, Ozlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak, and Julie Swann Conference Organizers
[edit] 2008 Eric Pas Dissertation Prize in Travel Behaviour Research
Submission Deadline: April 1, 2009
The International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR) invites submissions for the 2008 Eric Pas Dissertation Prize. This dissertation prize recognizes the best doctoral dissertation in the area of travel behaviour research accepted at an institution between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008. Announcement of winner(s) and presentation of award(s) will take place at the 2009 International Association of Travel Behaviour Research in Jaipur, India in December 2009.
NOTE: The Eric Pas Dissertation Prize Competition has been drawing an increasing number of entries in the recent past. Therefore, in an effort to simplify the logistics associated with handling a large number of entries, the entire submission and review process will be handled purely through electronic communications (similar to the 2007 Competition cycle). Supervisors wishing to submit 2008 dissertations for consideration should provide the following items via e-mail no later than April 1, 2009:
1. The complete doctoral dissertation/thesis including all appendices
2. An extended abstract (in English) between 3 to 5 pages in length, and
3. A nomination letter (in English) supporting the submission and stating the supervisor’s assessment of why the dissertation/thesis is worthy of the award.
The extended abstract and supervisor’s nomination letter (items 2 and 3) must be transmitted as distinct attachments either in MS-Word or Acrobat PDF format. The doctoral dissertation (item 1) should also be transmitted, if possible, as a single file attachment either in MS-Word or Acrobat PDF format. However, if the size or nature of the document does not allow this, then the dissertation may be transmitted as multiple file attachments (e.g., one file per chapter) or in a ZIP format. Special formats may be accommodated (e.g., Excel for tables/charts, JPG for figures) for certain elements of the dissertation, but should be kept to a minimum.
Entries should be submitted via e-mail to the Chair of the 2008 Eric Pas Dissertation Prize Jury, Prof Shlomo Bekhor, Technion, Israel (sbekhor@technion.ac.il), with a copy (cc:) to the Chair of the IATBR, Prof. Eric J. Miller, University of Toronto, Canada (miller@civ.utoronto.ca).
For additional information on Eric Pas’s (1948-1997) contributions to the travel behaviour research field and a list of past recipients of the Eric Pas Dissertation Prize, please visit the IATBR website at http://www.iatbr.org.
[edit] Newsletter Link Exchange
To encourage our Society members to engage members in other research communities, the TSL News is engaging in a series of link exchanges. This issue, we offer:
- The newsletter of the Laboratory for Maritime Transport (LMT) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). NTUA is the oldest and largest engineering university in Greece and it shows a most distinguished record of achievement, going back to its foundation in 1836. LMT holds a long-standing experience in the design, development and simulation of maritime and intermodal transport, marine environmental protection, safety analysis and human elements. Following Greece's rich maritime tradition, LMT is active in practically all areas of maritime transport R&D, having completed or being involved in projects in areas such as technology, management, economics, logistics, telematics, human aspects, environment, and safety.
