Our research group members together with delegates from the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs are honored as 2015 INFORMS Franz Edelman Finalists for our work "Improving Pilgrims Safety during Hajj: An Analytical and Operational Research Approach". Our decision support system helps to avoid crowd disasters during the annual great pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arbia (named Hajj) since 2007.
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| From left to right: Sven Müller, Matthes Koch, Knut Haase, H.E. Dr. Habib Z. Al-Abideen, Layek Abdel-Malek (INFORMS coach), Salim Al-Bosta, Mathias Kasper |
The 2015 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award winner is Syngenta for applying O.R. methods to make better breeding decisions, reducing the time and cost required to develop crops with high productivity. Congratulations!
The award, now in its 44th year, is respected as the world's most prestigious recognition for excellence in applying advanced analytics to benefit business and humanitarian outcomes. The other 2015 finalists were:
- IBM for "Predictive Cloud Computing with Big Data: Professional Golf and Tennis Forecasting"
- Ingram Micro for "End-to-End Business Analytics and Optimization in Ingram Micro's Two-Tier Distribution Business"
- LMI/Defense Logistics Agency for "Peak and Next Gen: Effective Inventory Control for Items with Infrequent or Frequent, Highly Variable Demand"
- U.S. Army and Sandia National Laboratories for "Maximizing the Army's Future Contribution to Global Security Using the Capability Portfolio Analysis Tool (CPAT)"
The INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences acknowledges significant contributions of analytics and operations research in the profit and non-profit sectors. Since its inception in 1972, cumulative dollar benefits from Edelman finalist projects have reached nearly $225 billion. Edelman finalist teams have improved organizational efficiency, increased profits, brought better products to consumers, helped foster peace negotiations, and saved lives. Former winners of the award are TNT Express, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co., At&T, Continental Airlines, Netherlands Railways, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, for example. The purpose of the Franz Edelman competition is to bring forward, recognize and reward outstanding examples of operations research, management science and advanced analytics in practice in the world, with $15,000 in awards. First prize is accompanied by a $10,000 honorarium.