July 14, 1999 (UT Campus)
17 members attended.
The meeting was called to order by President Tim Smith at 6:00 p.m.
A motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting, May 11, 1999, at the LCRA was made, seconded and approved.
No news on whether we have become an official chapter or not. Valerie Tardif will contact the National Office and get the latest news.
The group discussed the possibility to schedule the next meeting in conjunction with a evening-visit to AMD. Our contact at AMD is Javad Ahmadi and Mike Arguello is coordinating this event. Tentative dates are Tuesdays August 24, 1999 or August 31, 1999.
Gary Lundeen volunteered to host the group at Schlumberger for a future event-meeting.
Nagesh Gavirneni proposed the organization of a mini-symposium held one Saturday,
tentatively in the Spring. The idea would be to give the members the opportunity to
present their work to a large audience. We could also invite speakers and advertize the
event to try to attract more members. Valerie Tardif will contact the National Office to
see if we can get some information about how to setup such an event. Bruce Colletti will
contact someone at the San Antonio chapter to see if they have organized such an event
before.
Rachel Rosendhal reported on the progress of our webpage. A draft of the web page exists and is currently being improved. It will contain some information about (1) who we are and why we exist (2) when are our meetings and minutes, (3) our membership list and a few words about the members' area of expertise, and (4) a list of companies who are recruiting OR practioners and would like to advertize on our webpage.
Valerie Tardif passed a copy of an e-mail received from Barry List, the Director of Public Relations at INFORMS, requesting our help to ensure that the broadcast of INFORMS latest video "Operations Research: Science and Technology for Informed Decision Making" be picked by our local PBS affiliate and aired in Austin. Valerie Tardif proposed that the group also contact KLRU and see if they can mention our group after the airing of the video. Tim Smith will pursue this idea.
David Morton gave a very interesting presentation entitled "An Overview of Research in OR at UT-Austin". His slides are available both in PostScript Format and in Acrobat Reader PDF format. Those interested in getting an electronic copy should contact him directly at morton@mail.utexas.edu.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Half a dozen members retired to Double Dave after the meeting for pizza and networking.
Respectfully submitted,
Valerie Tardif
Secretary