IPC Short Course: Operations Research or the Mathematics of Strategic Decision Making

March 18, 2010

Overview

In the world of business and commerce, the “operations” are the productions of goods or the delivery of services. The type of mathematics needed to perform these tasks efficiently and effectively is called operations research.

Unlike mathematics for science, where models are created and analyzed to make predictions, our model building and analysis ultimately leads to a policy algorithm for generating strategic decisions. Such decisions are primarily ones of chance or choice. Operations research is then based on the mathematics of probability, to model the typical for decisions of chance, and optimization, to model the exceptional for decisions of choice.

This is a workshop consisting of 45 minute lectures given by invited researchers about their work. We conclude with a general open discussion about the field.

The target audience is advanced undergraduate students, 1st and 2nd year graduate students, and educators (high school and college level) who would like to introduce OR concepts into their lesson plans. Participants must also be registered for the Infinite Possibilities Conference (IPC) on March 19-20. Support for all students who register will include an additional night in a hotel (Wednesday night), and breakfast and lunch on Thursday, March 18. The day will conclude with a reception and registration for IPC. All activities will take place at IPAM (Portola Plaza Building) on the UCLA campus. Additional information will be sent by email to all who register.