I recently attended the Coles Research Symposium on Homeland Security hosted by the Kennesaw State University Coles College of Business. The symposium was organized by Prof. Jomon Paul, and he made sure all attendees felt welcome. I gave a keynote talk entitled “New frontiers in homeland security: advances and opportunities.”

The symposium was focused and interdisciplinary, with a single track of engaging speakers. who discussed advances in homeland security research. The talks spanned economics, optimal control, operations research, behavioral economics, public policy and information systems. I hadn’t attended a small, interdisciplinary conference like this in years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had sorely missed the opportunity to network and grow as a researcher at symposiums such as this. As a result, the symposium was more intellectually stimulating than usual. I was able to meet everyone at the conference and had research conversations with the other speakers and attendees during meals and breaks. We came from different quantitative disciplines, and our different assumptions and perspectives were complementary. The conversations energized me and caused me to think more deeply about important homeland security problems to address. I left the conference excited about my future research endeavors and starting new projects.

Papers I highlighted in my talk:

1. Albert, L.A., Nikolaev, A., and Jacobson, S.H. 2022. Homeland Security Research Opportunities. To appear in IISE Transactions. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24725854.2022.2045392.
2. Enayaty-Ahangar, F., Albert, L.A., DuBois, E. 2021. A survey of optimization models and methods for cyberinfrastructure security. IISE Transactions 53(2), 182 – 198. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725854.2020.1781306
3. Albert, L.A., Nikolaev, A., Lee, A.J., Fletcher, K., and Jacobson, S.H., 2021. A Review of Risk-Based Security and Its Impact on TSA PreCheck, IISE Transactions 53(6), 657 – 670. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725854.2020.1825881

I gave a plenary talk at the EURO Working Group for Locational Analysis (EWGLA) XXV Conference entitled “On designing public sector systems.” I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Lieselot Vanhaverbeke, organizer of the 2019 EURO Working Group on Locational Analysis meeting and professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) for inviting me. Her hospitality and the hospitality of the entire conference organizing committee was amazing. They even gave me a box of very nice locally made gourmet speculoos cookies, which I greatly appreciate.

My slides are below.

The references from my presentation capture almost two decades of research. The papers can be found in the Research section of my blog and are listed at the bottom of this blog post.

I captured much of my visit on twitter. Here are some highlights:

References:

Aviation security

1.Jacobson, S. H., J. E. Virta, L. A. McLay, J. E. Kobza, 2005.  Integer Program Models for the Deployment of Airport Baggage Screening Security Devices, Optimization and Engineering 6(3) 339 – 359.

2.Jacobson, S. H., L. A. McLay, J. E. Kobza, J. M. Bowman, 2005. Modeling and Analyzing Multiple Station Baggage Screening Security System Performance, Naval Research Logistics 52(1), 30 – 45.

3.McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson, and J. E. Kobza, 2006. A Multilevel Passenger Prescreening Problem for Aviation Security, Naval Research Logistics 53 (3), 183 – 197.

4.Lee, A.J., L.A. McLay, and S.H. Jacobson, 2009. Designing Aviation Security Passenger Screening Systems using Nonlinear Control.  SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization 48(4), 2085 – 2105.

5.McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson, and A. G. Nikolaev, 2009.  A Sequential Stochastic Passenger Screening Problem for Aviation Security, IIE Transactions 41(6), 575 – 591.

6.McLay, L.A., S.H. Jacobson, A.J. Lee, 2010.  Risk-Based Policies for Aviation Security Checkpoint Screening.  Transportation Science 44(3), 333-349.

Infrastructure Protection

1.  Albert McLay, L., 2015. Discrete optimization models for homeland security and emergency management, TutORial at the 2015 INFORMS Annual Meeting, November 1-4, 2015, Philadelphia, PA.

2.Zheng, K., Albert, L., Luedtke, J.R., Towle, E. 2019. A budgeted maximum multiple coverage model for cybersecurity planning and management, To appear in IISE Transactions. DOI: 10.1080/24725854.2019.1584832

3.Zheng, K., and Albert, L.A. 2019. Interdiction models for delaying adversarial attacks against critical information technology infrastructure. To appear in Naval Research Logistics.

Emergency Medical Services

1.McLay, L.A., 2009.  A Maximum Expected Covering Location Model with Two Types of Servers, IIE Transactions 41(8), 730 – 741.

2.McLay, L.A., 2010. Emergency Medical Service Systems that Improve Patient Survivability. Encyclopedia of Operations Research in the area of “Applications with Societal Impact,” eds. J.J. Cochran, L. A. Cox, Jr., P. Keshinocak, J.C. Smith. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ (published online: DOI: 10.1002/9780470400531.eorms0296).

3.McLay, L.A. and M.E. Mayorga, 2010. Evaluating Emergency Medical Service Performance Measures.  Health Care Management Science 13(2), 124 – 136.

4.McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2011.  Evaluating the Impact of Performance Goals on Dispatching Decisions in Emergency Medical Service. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Service Engineering 1, 185 – 196

5.Ansari, S., McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2015. A maximum expected covering problem for locating and dispatching servers. To appear in Transportation Science.

6.McLay, L.A., Moore, H. 2012. Hanover County Improves Its Response to Emergency Medical 911 Calls. Interfaces 42(4), 380-394.

7.Ansari, S., McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2015. A Maximum Expected Covering Problem for District Design, Transportation Science 51(1), 376 – 390.

8.Grannan, B.C., Bastian, N., McLay, L.A. 2015. A Maximum Expected Covering Problem for Locating and Dispatching Two Classes of Military Medical Evacuation Air Assets. Operations Research Letters 9, 1511-1531.

9.Yoon, S. and Albert, L.A. 2018. Dynamic Resource Assignment for Emergency Response with Multiple Types of Vehicles, Under review at Operations Research, October 2018.

10.Yoon, S., and Albert, L.A. 2019. A dynamic ambulance routing model with multiple response. Under review at Transportation Research Part E: Logistics at Transportation Science.

I again chaired the INFORMS Government & Analytics Summit in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 2019. The Summit brought together INFORMS experts with policymakers from Capitol Hill, federal agencies, and other policy stakeholders to showcase impactful ways in which operations research tools are being used to save lives, save money and solve problems in the public and private sectors. Pictures from the Summit are below.

Secretary John McHugh gave the keynote talk. INFORMS President Ramayya Krishnan and INFORMS Executive Director Melissa Moore also gave some remarks.

I chaired the panel with panelists Bala Ganesh (UPS), Karla Hoffman (George Mason University), Don Kleinmuntz (Kleinmuntz Associates), Sheldon Jacobson (University of Illinois), David Shmoys (Cornell University). The panel discussed successful case studies based on their work, research, and consulting. The panel was recorded, and you can watch it below:

I discussed the Summit on the INFORMS Resoundingly Human podcast. You can listen to it here.

Secretary John McHugh delivers the opening keynote

I introduce the panelists

Panelists David Shmoys, Don Kleinmuntz, Karla Hoffman, Sheldon Jacobson, and Bala Ganesh

I ask the panelists a question.

Read my post about last year’s INFORMS Government & Analytics Summit.

A professional colloquium (the IPC)for OR grad students will be held in San Antonio on April 7, during the INFORMS Business Analytics and Operations Research Conference. This is a great opportunity for grad students interested in industry. If you are interested, please check out the IPC web site [Link] for the application process. The deadline is March 1.

The Analytics conference is pricey. Some financial aid is available. See the website for details.

I’m happy to say that WORMS will be sponsoring a student:

Women in OR/MS (WORMS) will sponsor a student to attend the Industry Professional Colloquium (IPC) at the INFORMS Business Analytics and Operations Research Conference in San Antonio April 7-9, 2013, geared at students interested in a career in industry.  This includes registration to the INFORMS Business Analytics and Operations Research Conference and a year membership to WORMS for a candidate selected for the WORMS Analytics Scholarship Award.  For details on submitting a nomination to attend the IPC and to be considered for the award, see     http://meetings2.informs.org/analytics2013/profcolloquium.html

Here are a few miscellaneous links from the 2012 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

• Mike Trick writes about Al  Roth and Lloyd Shapley, winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics. Both are well-known in OR/MS circles and have strong ties with INFORMS. Mike notes that this may be the closest we’ve gotten to an OR Nobel. Congrats Roth and Shapley!
• INFORMS has a video channel that is full of short videos, some of which are from the conference. Here is one about the INFORMS members who received the Nobel Prize:

• In case you missed it, I urged attendees to register for the communities that interest them when they register for INFORMS. If a community represents an area that is near and dear to your heart, the best way to support them is to be a member. Strength in numbers matters: larger communities carry more weight with INFORMS.
• @ORNinja had the best tweet of the conference. Nathan Brixius elaborates on this tweet.
• Tallys Yunes has nice posts about Monday and Tuesday at the conference
• Tallys made a video about the Annual Meeting before the conference. If you haven’t seen it–or if it didn’t make sense prior to the conference–watch it below: