my talk at the University of Michigan IOE department

On Friday I gave a seminar at the University of Michigan’s Industrial and Operations Engineering Department. I was invited by the INFORMS student chapter and the Michigan IOE Diversity Initiative headed by Mariel Lavieri. I owe a special thank you to the INFORMS Speakers Program that subsidized the cost of my trip.

Women, minority, and international students attended the lunch. I was overjoyed to speak to such a large, diverse group including some students not from under-represented groups (white men). As I’ve written about before, you don’t need to be from an underrepresented group to want everyone to feel welcome at the table. Some of the best advocates of researchers from underrepresented groups that I know happen to be white men. I was delighted that all attended and asked great questions and shared a variety of experiences.

Questions ranged from raising three children to biases to biases that I’ve internalized to INFORMS WORMS initiatives. I tried to maintain a good balance of positive things with things that could use some improvement. The students were surprised to hear that I only had one women engineering professor in college and had been the only women in some of courses I took in graduate school. I’m glad that some of these things have changed! I especially liked hearing the students talk about their experiences and impressions.

I was impressed with how many students attended and participated in the program. Kudos to Mariel Lavieri, who has done a fantastic job with the diversity initiative and encouraging students to attend my talk. After the seminar, the students and faculty gathered in a lounge to enjoy snacks and each other’s company.

Mediterranean lunch buffet (falafel!!)

Me talking at the diversity initiative luncheon

Answering questions at the diversity initiative luncheon

Luncheon attendees.

The thank you note and USB stick from the diversity initiative.

A yarn gift from IOE student and fellow knitter Zohar Strinka. Zohar is also one of the WORMS student liaisons this year.