Resoundingly Human

Filmed in-person during the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Indianapolis last fall, in this episode I am joined by Thiago Serra, professor of analytics and operations management at Bucknell University, and Carol DeZwarte, data science leader at Shopify. We explore a topic that most in the field of analytics/OR/MS have or will face during their career, and all the questions and uncertainty that come along with it. And that is, what direction do I want my career to take, more specifically, am I interested in pursuing a career in industry or in academia? 

Carol and Thiago share their personal stories about their professional journeys. We discuss choices made, challenges faced, moments of uncertainty, and of course, celebrate their successes! And then at the end, Thiago and Carol answer some questions submitted by listeners.

At the time of this recording, we are well into this year’s football playoffs with the Super Bowl now just a couple of weeks away. There are four teams still in the playoffs – Bengals, Chiefs, Eagles and 49ers – with the next round coming this weekend. I invited my previous guest Walt DeGrange, director of Analytics Capabilities at CANA, to take a look at the continually evolving role of analytics in football as we continue our countdown to the Superbowl. We’ll also take a few minutes to discuss Walt’s new book, Field Guide to Compelling Analytics.

*A note to listeners, this episode was recorded on January 26, 2023 and posted the following week.

As we live in an increasingly internet-driven world, it should come as no surprise that online or cyberbullying is a problem of growing significance and impact, one that actually seems to have worsened during the pandemic. In 2022, nearly half of all teenagers experienced some form of online bullying or harassment. But what may be less well understood is beyond the mental and emotional impact, online harassment can also pose a risk to an individual’s personal data and financial security.

Joining me to help explore this topic is Lisa Yeo, a professor with the University of California MERCED. We’ll talk about the work she has been doing to combat online bullying and harassment and how this fits into the larger discussion of security and privacy. 

Welcome to a brand-new year of Resoundingly Human podcasts! Whether this is your first episode, or you are a long-time listener, thank you for joining us and I hope you’ll subscribe for even more great content highlighting the incredible contributions of INFORMS members.

To kick off our first episode of the new year, joining me is the 2023 INFORMS president Laura Albert, professor and department chair of industrial & systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As we near the end of the year, I’m once again joined by our 2022 INFORMS president Radhika Kulkarni to take a look back at the past year, her favorite moments and memories, what insight she gained, what she’ll take with her, and finally, any special insight she might have for our incoming 2023 president.

This week’s podcast is an incredible example of the power of O.R. and analytics to unite and empower people and communities across the globe, and I’m excited and honored to share this story with you! I’m joined by Andrew Wylie, a simulation consultant at Simul8 Corporation which develops simulation software to provide unique, evidence-based approaches to decision making, and William Taylor, head of operations at Shout-It-Now, which uses innovative approaches to provide South African communities with free sexual and reproductive health services. We’ll be discussing the unique partnership between these two organizations, which is leveraging O.R. and analytics to make a lasting impact and help save lives.

Welcome back for another in a special series of the Resoundingly Human podcast, filmed and recorded in person in Indianapolis at the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting. I’m joined by Brian MacDonald at Yale University. He is a keynote presenter at this year’s Annual Meeting, Sports Analytics, and he has kindly taken some time out of his busy meeting schedule to share special insight into, well, all things sports analytics!

Special series featuring in-person interviews from #INFORMS2022 in Indianapolis! I was delighted to be joined in person in Indianapolis at the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting by Prashant Yadav with INSEAD. He was a keynote presenter at this year’s Annual Meeting, Global Health Security and Healthcare Supply Chains: Perspectives and Opportunities for Operations Research, and he kindly took some time out of his busy meeting schedule to sit down with me and explore the topic of his presentation.

With just days to go before the INFORMS community gathers in Indianapolis for the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting, the first fully IN PERSON Annual Meeting since 2019, I am delighted to be joined once again by the 2022 INFORMS President Radhika Kulkarni. We’ll take a look at this year’s meeting, what’s new and different this year and what we’ve missed about meeting face-to-face, as well as a quick update on INFORMS as we enter the latter half of her year as president.

Semiconductors. Everyone uses them, but how many of us really know what they are, what they do, and the increasingly important role they play in our modern world? Much like supply chains, artificial intelligence and other O.R. buzzwords that are making their way into the public conscious, semiconductor is a term that most of us have probably heard, but their actual significance might remain a bit of a mystery.

And perhaps even less well known are the challenges associated with their manufacturing, especially with the ongoing issues relating to supply chains, and alarmingly, the risk this could pose to national security.

In this episode I’m joined by Zachary Collier, professor with Radford University and a visiting scholar at the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST), to take a deep dive into all things semiconductor and tackle some of these questions and growing concerns.