Austin Chapter of INFORMS General Meeting

When January 06, 2000,  6:00pm 
Where Graduate School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, Room GSB 2.122
Feature Emmanuel Fernandez, Ph. D.
More Info tsmith@trajecta.com

General Information

The next General Meeting for Austin INFORMS will occur at 6:00 on Thursday, January 6th at the Graduate School of Business, UT Austin, Room GSB 2.122.  This is a special meeting with a guest speaker.  We will also review the preparations for the upcoming Austin INFORMS Conference.  Please make plans to attend.
 

Speaker Information

Speaker:

Emmanuel Fernandez, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Systems & Industrial Engineering Department, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0020
Visiting Professor, Texas A&M University

Title: Making Decisions in a Changing and Uncertain World: Models and Applications.

Abstract:  Consider the situation where a business manager has to decide types and quantities of products to manufacture for the next production cycle. In the case of, e.g., semiconductor chips, production cycles are several months long, competition is ferocious, and the market dynamics change very fast. Thus, making wrong decisions can be very costly and risky. In this talk, we survey stochastic (Markov) decision process models, that aim to capture the dynamic nature of decision-making in a changing environment, and that seek to optimize a given criterion. Drawing from the presenter's work in basic methodology, non-standard criteria will be discussed, which introduce sensitivity to measures of the risk manifested in the outcome of the decisions made.

Several applications will be briefly discussed, drawing from the presenter's applied work in, e.g.,  semiconductor manufacturing, telecommunication networks, workforce management, and military logistics.
 

Directions

The Graduate School of Business at UT is at the intersection of Speedway and 21st.  Parking at UT is open after 4pm in most lots.  GSB 2.122 is near the Dean's Office on the ground floor by the entrance which faces the main library on 21st Street.