Interviews with the 2006 Judith Liebman Award Winners
The Judith Liebman Award was established to recognize outstanding student volunteers who have been "moving spirits" in their universities, their student chapters, and the Institute. The nomination and selection of recipients is performed annually and each year's winner(s) receive their awards during the national INFORMS conference. This year's award winners are Burcu B. Keskin and Tina Wakolbinger. Both winners were interviewed by ORMS Tomorrow Co-Editor Ezgi Eren.
Burcu B. Keskin
I received my B.S. in 2001 and M.S. in 2002 in Industrial Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. In 2002, I came to College Station to pursue a Ph.D. at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Texas A&M University. I have been working with Dr. Halit Uster and Dr. Sila Cetinkaya on the integration of location and inventory decisions in supply chain management. My research interests include logistics and inventory theory, supply chain management, and applied optimization. Starting Fall 2007, I will take a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Systems, Statistics, and Management Science at the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Alabama.
Tina Wakolbinger
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Business Administration with concentration in Management Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I received a Masters in International Economics and Business Studies from the Leopold-Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria. My research interests lie in the modeling and analysis of complex decision-making on network systems with a specific focus on global issues. I am especially interested in social networks, supply chain networks, and financial networks. I am a past President of the UMASS Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS (2004-2005) and past coordinator of its Speaker Series (2004-2005 and 2005-2006). Starting Fall 2007, I will take a position as Assistant Professor at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis.
Ezgi: Can you summarize your involvement with INFORMS activities?
Burcu: I am one of the founders and the first president of the INFORMS student chapter at Texas A&M University. When signing up for my student membership with INFORMS in 2002, I realized that there was no INFORMS student chapter at Texas A&M even though the Department of Industrial Engineering was one of the most distinguished departments in the operations research (OR) and management science (MS) area. INFORMS chapters unite colleagues, offer the opportunity to gain immediate access to advances in the field, and establish a personal networking system. Recognizing the need for such an environment at Texas A&M, I initiated the student chapter with three other friends: Xingchu Liu (vice president), Fatih Mutlu (treasurer), and Homarjun Agrahari (secretary, and later, the second president). Our primary goals in establishing the student chapter were to encourage interest in the field of OR/MS and to provide a means of communication and networking among people having an interest in OR/MS. In order to achieve our goals, we organized several activities and events including a seminar series (graduate student and industry seminars), Monday's Coffee & Cookie social gathering, and launching a website. All these activities and events established general awareness of OR/MS and created a bond among the students, faculty, and industry.
Tina: As President of the UMASS Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS, I revitalized the student chapter, created links to professors and students in different departments at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and led efforts to organize social and professional events. One of the highlights of my year as President was when our student chapter became the Spotlight Chapter in ORMS Tomorrow. In my two years as Speaker Series Coordinator, I had the opportunity to organize 29 talks with some of the best experts in the field of Operations Research/Management Science.
Besides being actively involved in the activities at our student chapter, I also participated in several other INFORMS events. I presented at the INFORMS annual conferences in San Francisco and Pittsburgh and the Ninth INFORMS Computing Conference in Annapolis. I actively used the INFORMS Job Placement Service in Pittsburgh and represented the University of Massachusetts Amherst at the INFORMS 2005 Future Academician Consortium in San Francisco.
Ezgi: What were the challenges, benefits and advantages of your involvement?
Burcu: I had a great time as the president of the student chapter. It was very educational, inspiring, and fun. However, there were challenges, as they are part of every good thing. The first challenge was the paperwork required to establish a student chapter with the national INFORMS and with the Student Activities office at Texas A&M University. However, with the help of the dedicated INFORMS staff and Student Activities staff, and under the guidance of our student chapter advisor Dr. Halit Uster, we unraveled the paperwork. We established a constitution and bylaws. The second challenge was the financial situation. Unfortunately, almost every activity requires a budget and monetary support. We dealt with this challenge by organizing self-financed activities. For instance, we asked industry seminar presenters to provide the pizza and the sodas. Furthermore, we were lucky to get some start-up money from the Student Activities office and some seed money from the national INFORMS. Also, the department supported the Coffee & Cookie hours. Thanks to the efforts of Homarjun, the student chapter now has several sponsors for financing several activities. The final and main challenge was to establish ourselves as an active group and to secure the continuity of the student chapter as many people saw this effort as a flame to come and go. Now, nobody questions that we are an active group. But, the challenge to secure continuity will be always there. Therefore, the student chapter needs the support of all the students and faculty continuously. Through these challenges that I dealt with, I learned a lot about how a professional chapter or group operates. This experience has changed my perspective in many ways. I invite everybody to take part in such a mind-broadening experience. Tina:The student chapter broadened my personal and professional network. Through the organization of the speaker series and other related activities, I realized that OR/MS-related topics are currently discussed in many different departments at UMASS Amherst both in courses and research. I also got the opportunity to meet with some of the best experts in our field. Working with colleagues from different departments was very rewarding and led to many friendships. Through my involvement in INFORMS activities, I also acquired very valuable skills in the organization of professional and social events. At the beginning, it was quite challenging, to get to know all the processes involved in organizing different activities. In order to make this easier for future student chapter officers, several current and past officers put together a document that describes important steps in setting up a student chapter. Further, Homarjun Agrahari is in the process of setting up a Blog for student chapter officers. We hope that many officers will use this platform to exchange their ideas and experiences.
Ezgi: Being a graduate student, it is usually difficult to spare time for volunteer activities. How did you manage that given your busy schedule?
Burcu: Despite common belief, being involved with the student chapter is not time-consuming. It is true that it is time away from doing research, but everybody needs to take a break, right? The student chapter activities facilitate meeting with new people, spending time with friends, networking, and sharing ideas and thoughts. Anybody can spare a few hours for such activities. Since most of the activities are realized through teamwork, it reduces the time commitment.
Furthermore, being involved with the student chapter - be it serving in a voluntary position or just attending an activity- is really complimentary to your research since through activities such as the seminar series, you develop a better understanding for operations research and management science. It inspires you to be a better professional.
It is definitely time well-spent.
Tina: As a graduate student time is often very scarce. In order not to get overwhelmed with activities, we focused on realistically planning the amount of activities that we could carry through. Also, we had a great team of officers and each person was responsible for certain activities, so the workload never became too much for one.
Ezgi: How do you feel about the award you received?
Burcu: It is such a thrilling experience on so many levels. Personally, it is such a proud moment. I embrace such recognition humbly. For the student chapter, it is so exciting that the Texas A&M Student Chapter has been recognized as one of the most successful student chapters in the nation. This is definitely not a single person's achievement but a group effort and success.
Tina: Especially at universities with relatively small OR/MS programs a student chapter can have a very positive and truly synergistic impact! Plus, what we do with the chapters is excellent PR for our programs and for OR/MS, in general! I am very happy about this award, because it shows that INFORMS values the activities of the student chapters. Also, I believe that the award is a great recognition of all the work and enthusiasm that all past and present officers and our faculty advisor, John F. Smith Memorial Professor Anna Nagurney, put into the student chapter. I hope that his award inspires other students to get involved in different INFORMS activities.
Ezgi: What would you suggest to your fellow students who are interested in taking part in INFORMS activities?
Burcu: Definitely get involved! First of all, I think everybody should register for the listserv. Following and attending the activities is the first step in involvement. Then, if there is an activity you want to volunteer or you want to initiate, get in touch with the related officer. The executive committee always welcomes eager volunteers.
Tina: INFORMS offers a multitude of different activities that one can get involved in. I personally feel that becoming an officer in a student chapter is a very rewarding opportunity for students.
A great possibility to get to know INFORMS is to participate in one of its conferences and to attend the student chapter meeting next year. The award ceremony and the INFORMS student chapter meeting in Pittsburgh was a great opportunity to hear about experiences that other student chapters have had and we got some great ideas that we will incorporate in the future. I highly recommend to everyone to participate in this event next year.