TSL newsletters/Spring 2008
From The Transportation Science & Logistics Society Wiki
 |
[edit] Word from the President, Michael Ball
It seems like I've just started my tenure as TSL President and, yet, Spring is already upon us. I first want to commend my predecessor Martin Savelsbergh for all his contributions but, most notably, for spearheading the effort to get the TSL wiki up and running. Of course, this will only be as good as we, the collective members, make it. So I encourage all of you to use it to obtain information and, more importantly, to contribute to it to make it the âGo-Toâ web resource on the Science of Transportation and Logistics.
Speaking of contributions to the TSL, there is probably no one who has contributed more over the past 10 years (or more) than Warren Powell. It appears that, for the first time in as long as many of us can remember, he will not be holding some formal TSL position. We owe Warren a large debt of gratitude for his incredible range of contributions.
This is the time of year when the program for the INFORMS National Meeting is put together. Dave Lovell (lovell@umd.edu) is the TSL Cluster Chair so please contact him with your session proposals. We are hoping this will be a very special meeting as it will take place in Washington, DC just before the presidential elections. TSL will have a strong voice in this meeting as Hani Mahmassani is the General Chair and I am the Program Co-Chair. Of course, the current INFORMS President (and recent TSL past-president) is Cindy Barnhart. One special feature for the meeting, which Cindy, Karla Hoffman and I are putting together, will be a Plenary Address by Russ Chew, Chief Operating Officer of JetBlue, followed by a high profile panel that will discuss and debate alternate approaches to solving the air transportation congestion problem.
An important initiative that Martin and I started developing last year is a TSL conference. We are trying to further develop the concept and get feedback from TSL members. Some information on it is given in the minutes from the 2007 business meeting. The key features of the concept are: small size (50 â 100 people), single (permanent) venue, specialized topic each year. Most people find small, specialized conferences of the type envisioned to be highly memorable and stimulating. At the same time, the small size would imply a typical TSL member might only have the opportunity to attend every 2 to 4 years. Further, this conference would not be a net revenue generator for the society. We are currently debating some alternatives and I encourage all of you to contact me with ideas or suggestions. Some specific items we would like feedback on are the time of year and the length. We are also interested in suggestions for an appropriate venue.
Finally, I am happy to say we are moving forward with the plan to create a formal affiliation between TSL and the Aviation Application Section. There are some hurdles to be overcome, principally related to INFORMS record keeping systems, so the nature of the relationship will probably evolve over time. However, the end-state we are seeking is that the AAS will be an affiliated section of the TSL and all AAS members will be TSL members.
Mike Ball
[edit] Letter from the Past President, Martin Savelsbergh
A TSL wiki update
As expected, building a virtual community takes time. Based on the statistics listed below (for the past month), the TSL wiki is not yet the most visited site on the planet. We still have a long way to go.
- 139 Visits
- 115 Absolute Unique Visitors
- 637 Pageviews
- 4.58 Average Pageviews
- 00:03:16 Time on Site
- 46.76% Bounce Rate
- 79.86% New Visits
It is a little more interesting to see who is exploring the TSL wiki. Below the top 25:
1. university of iowa
2. mediacom communications corp
3. instituto superior tecnico
4. northwestern university
5. university of maryland
6. comite gestor da internet no brasil
7. georgia southern university
8. imported inetnum object for cuhk
9. northern jiaotong university
10. northland cable television inc.
11. arcor ag
12. bellsouth.net inc.
13. bilkent university
14. csc-tieteellinen laskenta oy
15. frontier communications of america inc.
16. iowa state university
17. massachusetts institute of technology
18. provider local registry
19. tds telecom
20. abts delhi
21. adsl6
22. allocated block
23. amnet cable el salvador
24. bennet coleman and corporation ltd
25. bleum software outsourcing(shanghai) inc.
First, I want to thank Barry Thomas, our communications chair, for leading the pack. On a more serious note, I observe that many visitors are from industry and that we attract visitors from all over the world. This reinforces, in my mind, the long term value the TSL wiki can have in marketing ourselves to the world.
A couple of recent changes may increase the traffic on the site. It is now accessible at the more informative address:
http://www.castlelab.princeton.edu/tsl
Also, we have included a number of meta-tags that, in time, will make it more likely that search engines will show the link when people are searching transportation and logistics related terms.
We also plan to provide a listing of all TSL sponsored and organized sessions for the INFORMS meeting in Washington as soon as they are available. Hopefully this will facilitate everyone's planning.
As I mentioned several times, the TSL wiki has to be a community effort. It can be a great resource, but it is up to us to make it a great resource. It already is the best place to find information and dates on workshops and conferences in our interest areas. Soon you will be able to find information on the proposed annual TSL conference...
Join me in making this a success
Martin Savelsbergh
P.S. The statistics above were obtained using Google Analytics. A wonderful and free tool to monitor and analyze website use. I encourage every one to take a look.
[edit] Letter from the Communications Chair, Barrett Thomas
As the new TSL Communications Chair, I would like to first thank my predecessor Warren Powell for his many years as TSL webmaster and then as Communications Chair. Warren laid a foundation that has made my transition into the job straightforward and has served as a wealth of information.
This newsletter is also the first under the new TSL Newsletter Editor Maciek Nowak. I want to thank Maciek for agreeing to do a thankless job, and as evidenced by this newsletter, doing it well.
As I move forward in the role as Communications Chair, I want to bring to the membershipâs attention some changes that will be taking place. First, in the coming months, we will be migrating the INFORMS-hosted TSL pages (http://transportation.society.informs.org/)to new templates. These templates will allow us to better integrate with the overall look and function of the INFORMSâ webpages, the main gateway to information about TSL, and will add advanced functionality to the TSL website.
It is important to note that the new TSL webpages are not meant to replace the TSL Wiki (http://www.castlelab.princeton.edu/tsl). While the TSL pages on the INFORMSâ site contain the Societyâs basic information, the Wiki and its user generated content are where TSL can provide real value to the transportation science and logistics community.
In addition to the webpages, we will also be changing how the listservs are managed. TSL manages two listservs: transci-logistics-section@list.informs.org and transci-logistics-society@list.informs.org. The transci-logistics-section list is the older and larger of the two. At the same time, it is open to everyone. The transci-logistics-society list is populated using INFORMS membership data. Thus, if you are not a member of INFORMS, you must add yourself to transci-logistics-section in order to receive TSL email (see http://transportation.society.informs.org/ for details). Over time, many peopleâs email addresses have been added to both lists. As a result, it is possible that people are receiving the same emails twice. To manage this problem, we will likely purge all email addresses from the society list that also appear on the section list. The result will be that, if you do not renew your INFORMS membership, you will need to add yourself to the section list in order to receive TSL email. We will send periodic reminders.
Barry Thomas
[edit] Letter from the Editor, Maciek Nowak
Thanks to all for their contributions to this member driven newsletter, in particular to Barry Thomas for his helpful feedback in its construction. I would just like to further emphasize the sentiments expressed above and call on all members to contribute to the wiki. Information on conferences, special editions of journals, employment opportunities, awards, etc. may all be very easily added to the website. Please feel free to do so. Also, we continue to tweak the format of the newsletter to make it as user friendly as possible for all members, so any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Any such comments or new submissions to the next newsletter may be sent to mnowak4@luc.edu.
Maciek Nowak
[edit] In Focus The Research Center for Humanitarian Logistics
The Center for Humanitarian Logistics at Georgia Tech has been founded under the umbrella of the Supply Chain And Logistics Institute in 2007. The mission of the center is to have positive humanitarian âimpactâ worldwide, by improving humanitarian logistics and ultimately the human condition by system transformation and organization effectiveness through education, outreach, and solutions. The center facilitates and fosters research, education, and multi-organizational collaboration to improve preparing, planning, and responding to disasters, as well as recovery and mitigation strategies. To learn more visit www.scl.gatech.edu/research/humanitarian or read the article on the center in the December issue of OR/MS (Humanitarian Relief Logistics).
[edit] Featured Member INFORMS President Cynthia Barnhart
INFORMS President and TSL Past President Cynthia Barnhart was interviewed in the December issue of OR/MS. Cynthia discussed the state of the Institute and the O.R. profession, her goals as president, her work on aviation operations and her reluctant brush with fame. The full text of the interview may be found at Doing Good with Good O.R.
[edit] Vehicle Routing Technology in the News
The most recent edition of OR/MS features the biennial survey of vehicle routing software by Randy Hall and Janice Partyka. The survey, entitled "On the Road to Mobility," focuses on the integration of routing software with mobile phones, PDAs or other portable devices. The full text may be found at On the Road to Mobility
[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] Editor-in-Chief, Transportation Science Call for Nominations
The final term of Hani Mahmassani as editor-in-chief of the INFORMS journal Transportation Science expires on December 31, 2008. Based on recommendations from the INFORMS Publications Committee, the president of INFORMS has appointed a committee to conduct a full search for a new editor-in-chief. The committee intends to propose a candidate for approval by INFORMS no later than July 15, 2008.
All members of INFORMS are invited to participate in this process. The committee seeks your opinions and comments on (1) the current state of the journal, (2) recommendations for new directions, if any, and (3) candidates for editor-in-chief.
The call for nominations may be found at http://www.informs.org/article.php?id=1211. Nominations are due by June 1, 2008 and should be sent to Mark Daskin (m-daskin@northwestern.edu). (return to top)
[edit] IFORS 2008 Call for Submissions
Dear TSL friends,
This is a reminder of the upcoming triennial IFORS conference, to be held in South Africa on 13-18 July 2008. Conference information can be found at http://www.ifors2008.org/.
TSL is helping to organize sessions for the transportation science and logistics track. The following people are putting together streams of sessions for the TSL track:
- Freight Transportation and Logistics: Peter Francis (ifors.tsl@gmail.com)
- Urban transportation: Siriphong (Toi) Lawphongpanich (lawphong@ise.ufl.edu)
- Facility Logistics: Sunderesh S Heragu (s.heragu@louisville.edu)
- Railroad applications: Paolo Toth (ptoth@deis.unibo.it)
- Intelligent transportation systems (ITS): Travis Waller (S.Travis.Waller@engr.utexas.edu)
- All other transportation science and logistics topics: Anton Kleywegt (anton@isye.gatech.edu) or Paolo Toth (ptoth@deis.unibo.it).
If you would like to submit an abstract, you can either submit a "contributed abstract" using the "contributed abstract submission form" at http://www.euro-online.org/ifors2008 (note this web page is different from the one above), or you can send an email message to one of the people listed above, who will send you a "submission code" to submit your abstract to a particular session through http://www.euro-online.org/ifors2008.
Please submit your abstracts soon (and start planning some great excursions).
I welcome your questions and comments.
Anton Klywegt, TSL Cluster Chair
[edit] INFORMS 2008 Call for Submissions
Friends,
It is time, once again, to start putting together sessions and abstracts for the INFORMS meeting. I am the TSL cluster chair, so any suggestions, complaints, etc., should be sent to me.
The general announcement for the meeting can be found here: http://meetings.informs.org/DC08/
Notice the May 15 deadline!
If you would like to organize a session: First, determine if it would fit within the domain of one of the SIG groups. If so, contact the appropriate SIG group representative. Their info is below. If not, please send me directly your proposed session title and the names of 3-4 speakers for the session.
If you would like to give a talk: Please email your title and abstract information to one of the following people, whomever is most appropriate:
- Facility Logistics: Yugan Yu (yyugang@rsm.nl)
- Freight Transportation and Logistics: Karen Smilowitz (ksmilowitz@northwestern.edu)
- Intelligent Transportation Systems: Yi-Chang Chiu (chiu@email.arizona.edu)
- Urban Transportation: James Moore (jmoore@usc.edu)
- Aviation Applications: Anne Mercier (anne.mercier@expretio.com)
- Nothing Above Seems Appropriate: David Lovell (lovell@umd.edu)
Please contact me directly with any other inquiries. Looking forward to seeing you in Washington in October!
Dave Lovell, TSL Cluster Chair
[edit] 2008 TSL Dissertation Prize Competition Call for Nominations
Nominations are invited for the 2008 Dissertation Prize Competition sponsored by the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society. This award is the oldest and most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations in the transportation science and logistics area. The award is accompanied by a $500 honorarium for the winner. In addition, the winner and the recipient of an honorable mention (if any) each receives a commemorative plaque.
The following criteria will be used in judging candidate dissertations:
- Fundamental contribution and originality of the ideas or methods.
- Practical importance or applicability in solving important real problems.
- Clarity and excellence of the exposition.
Eligible doctoral dissertations are those completed and submitted between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008 in the general area of transportation science and logistics.
To be considered, a dissertation must be nominated by the thesis supervisor, who should submit the following items, all electronically in Adobe PDF format:
- a copy of the dissertation,
- an extended abstract (3-5 pages), separate from the thesis,
- a letter of nomination from the dissertation supervisor, supporting the submission and stating his/her assessment of why the thesis is worthy of the award, and,
- an abstract of 300 words without formulas or mathematical notation.
Submissions should be sent electronically to:
Alan Erera
alan.erera@isye.gatech.edu
Chair, 2008 Dissertation Prize Committee
The deadline for receipt of submissions is June 30, 2008. The recommendations of the judges will be announced during the meeting of the Society at Fall 2008 INFORMS in Washington, DC.
This year's judging committee is:
Alan Erera (Georgia Tech, chair)
Guy Desaulniers (Ecole Polytechnique Montreal)
Jay Jayakrishnan (UC-Irvine)
Georgia Perakis (MIT)
Daniele Vigo (U. Bologna)
[edit] 2008 TSL Best Paper Award Call for Nominations
The TSL Best Paper Award is given once a year to an outstanding paper in the field of transportation science and logistics. The paper must have been published in a refereed journal and must present innovative approaches for solving complex problems in transportation and/or logistics, with an emphasis on operations research and quantitative methods. A paper is eligible if it is written in English and if it has been published within the three (3) years prior to the submission deadline. All topics related to the field of transportation science and logistics will be considered, including, but not being limited to:
- airline operations
- facility logistics
- freight
- intelligent transportation systems
- transit
- urban transportation planning methods
- vehicle routing
To submit a paper for the 2008 competition, one of the authors must send three copies of it, along with a short letter (maximum 2 pages) describing the merits of the paper, to the Chair of the TSL Best Paper Award Committee, before July 1, 2008, at the following address:
Professor David M Ryan
Department of Engineering Science
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
d.ryan@auckland.ac.nz
The other members of the Committee are:
Professor Pitu Mirchandani
Professor Anton Kleywegt
Professor Natashia Boland
Professor Jens Clausen
Any author must submit only one of his/her eligible papers, although (s)he can be a co-author of another submitted paper. A paper is eligible for the competition if
- its main topic is related to the field of transportation science and logistics;
- it is written in English; and
- it has been published in a refereed journal between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2008.
The winning paper will be announced at the TSL business meeting to be held during the annual INFORMS meeting. The authors of the winning paper will share a prize of $800, and each will receive a certificate.
[edit] Conference Presentations of Interest
Anna Nagurney of UMass Amherst convened the conference, "Humanitarian Logistics: Networks for Africa," at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como in Italy, May 5-9, 2008. Funding for the conference was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation with additional support from the Institute of International Education and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund at the University of Massachusetts. The conference website with additional information and presentations is at: hlogistics.som.umass.edu.
In March 2008, Anna was also in Italy as a Senior Fulbright Specialist in Business Administration at the University of Catania in Sicily. She was hosted by Professor Patrizia Daniele of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences there. The theme of her Fulbright was: "Complex Networks and Vulnerability Analysis: From Theory to Education and Practice." During the period of March 5-19, 2008, Anna gave several lectures and co-hosted a workshop on the theme of the conference. Conference presentations, additional information, and photos are available at: supernet.som.umass.edu/fulbright-catania/FulbrightCataniaNagurney.htm
[edit] International Journal of Production Economics Call for Papers
Special issue of International Journal of Production Economics on Robust Supply Chains under Uncertainty.
We are particularly inviting papers which focus on theoretical methodologies, decision analysis, analytical models, and optimization that make a significant contribution to the topic. As a remark, we are not inviting papers purely focusing on solution procedures, but papers containing a genuine application plus solution are welcome. If you are uncertain, please feel free to ask anyone of us questions about relevance before submitting.
This call can be found at Call Link
Regards,
Stein W. Wallace
Visiting professor
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Tsan-Ming Choi
Assistant Professor
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
[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.
