[Iefac.list] Undergraduate Operations Research Prize Competition: Call for Submissions

[Joel Sokol]

Hi all!  Please note that this undergraduate prize (see below) 
specifically targets both theory and practice, so excellent capstone 
design projects using applied OR would be good entrants.  (And the faculty 
advisor need not be an INFORMS member.)

Joel

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The Undergraduate Operations Research Prize Competition is held to honor a
student or group of students who conducted a significant applied project
and/or original and important theoretical or applied research in operations
research or management science, broadly defined, while enrolled as an
undergraduate student. For instance, this could be research conducted as
part of a course, research assistantship, independent study project,
internship, or senior thesis.

To enter, eligible participants should submit a paper to
martonosi at math.hmc.edu by July 1 , 2010. Full eligibility and submission
guidelines can be found below. The prize of $500 plus travel support to the
INFORMS Annual Meeting will be announced at the Awards Ceremony of the
Annual Meeting. All entrants satisfying the eligibility requirements will be
invited to present their research at an Undergraduate Research Showcase
session(s) at the Annual Meeting.

Eligibility

The following conditions must be met for eligibility.

1. Entrants must submit a paper (can be previously published or unpublished)
presenting original research results.

2. The entrants are defined to be any co-authors on this paper who were
enrolled as undergraduate students for at least one term within the 12
months prior to the award submission deadline in the year the paper is
submitted for consideration, and who were undergraduate students at the time
the project or research was conducted. The student(s) must have made a
substantial contribution to the project and been the primary author(s) of
the paper with only minor editorial assistance.

3. One or more faculty, graduate student or post-doctoral advisors may
appear as co-authors of a paper, but at least one student entrant must be
the first author.

4. A brief statement confirming the entrants' eligibility and detailing the
entrants' contribution to the research should be submitted by the entrants'
research advisor or another faculty member familiar with the entrants' work.
To encourage cross-discipline submissions, the faculty advisor need not be
an INFORMS member.

5. An entrant can be a (co-)author in at most one paper submitted to the
competition.

6. The paper must not have won a prize in a previous year of this
competition.

The paper must use double spacing, 11 pt (or larger) font, and 1 inch (or
larger) margins (left, right, top, and bottom). The entire paper (including
bibliography, appendices, figures, etc.) must not exceed 25 pages and,
except for those containing references, each page should contain no more
than 35 lines of text. Attached to the paper should be an abstract of the
work, not to exceed 100 words. This abstract will be used in the program for
the Undergraduate Research Showcase session of the INFORMS Annual Meeting.

The criteria for review include:

1. For applied projects: Is the work significant? Did it require the clever
use of OR methodology, and did it create substantial value for the project
sponsor?

2. For research: Is the research novel? For example, does it address a new
problem (theoretical or applied) of interest to the broader OR community,
does it present a novel solution or modeling approach to an established
problem, or does it provide new insight into an important problem?

3. Does the students' work demonstrate creativity and promise for future
work in the field of operations research?

4. Writing quality: Is the writing coherent, fluid and adhering to a clear
structure? Is the problem clearly explained and motivated? Is terminology
clearly defined and notation consistent with accepted conventions?