Resoundingly Human

Today's episode will be a little different than most, we're going to take a bit of a detour but stick with me and I promise, I'll bring us back around to data science.

I'm going to take us back in time a little, back to the first time I watched what was to become my favorite movie, Jaws. It was the summer between 4th and 5th grade (probably way too young to be watching a movie about a killer shark) and I was at a sleepover where the next day, after being thoroughly terrified by this movie, we went to the beach where, wait for it, a shark had washed up on shore! Needless to say, I spent much of the rest of that summer playing in the dunes, BUT, it cemented in me an absolute fascination and, let's be honest, fear of sharks.

So fast forward a couple of decades to this summer, I'm on my morning run through the Pennsylvania woods, far from any beach, and listening to my newest podcast obsession, "Réunion: Shark Attacks in Paradise," which is about a series of unprecedented shark attacks on the French island of Réunion. All of a sudden, I hear the host mention "the totally fascinating academic journal Management Science." That's right, the INFORMS journal Management Science! He's referring to an article by UC Berkeley professor Charles West Churchman titled "Wicked Problems" and proceeds to lay out the shark attacks on Reunion as a wicked problem! I literally stop dead in my track, I'm texting my coworkers, "The coolest thing ever just happened!" and of course, I keep bingeing the podcast.

So needless to say, I am beyond excited to welcome Daniel Duane, award winning journalist and author, and host of my new favorite podcast, to talk about what exactly data science has to do with a series of shark attacks on a small island in the Indian Ocean.

We're just about halfway through the summer, and with many days of warm weather still ahead, most of us are planning fun outdoor activities or family adventures, or maybe just working toward our summertime fitness goals.

But for some, ok many of us, staying active can be a struggle, not only to reach our fitness goals, but to stick to our good exercise habits in the long run. The use of wearable heath devices, such as a Fitbit can serve as a valuable tool not just for tracking progress, but of setting goals and helping motivate users to meet them.

However, new research shows that there are ways to enhance the effectiveness of these tools, for even longer-term benefits through a process called gain-loss incentives. I'm pleased to introduce Idris Adjerid from Virginia Tech to discuss the findings of his study, "Gain-Loss Incentives and Physical Activity: The Role of Choice and Wearable Health Tools," which will be published in the INFORMS journal Management Science.

There is not a single country in the world that is not touched by human trafficking. Let that sink in. The number of people victimized by human slavery across the globe is currently greater than the populations of London, New York and Los Angeles combined. This is not a problem affecting people on the other side of the world, it's one here at home, very likely in our own communities. One that will require collaboration and diverse and innovative approaches to combat.

Joining me today is Renata Konrad, professor of industrial engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who is using her background and experience to explore the role that engineering can play in combatting the complex and growing challenges involved in combatting human trafficking.

It's no secret that women are making great strides forward in the workplace. In major cities across the country, analysis shows that the gender pay gap is closing. The number of women in mathematics, science and other STEM occupations is continuing to grow as well. In addition, the number of women entrepreneurs has increased by 48% year over year. That means the number of women taking the jump to start their own businesses each year is growing in leaps and bounds!

However, it's also no secret that there are still hurdles to cross, many more milestones to reach, and unfortunately, continued negative assumptions to overcome. In today's episode, we'll be exploring new research in the INFORMS journal Organization Science has revealed that when a female investor supports a female entrepreneur, it can negatively affect the business owner's ability to obtain further investments.

Joining me to discuss her study, "Does Investor Gender Matter for the Success of Female Entrepreneurs? Gender Homophily and the Stigma of Incompetence in Entrepreneurial Finance" is Kaisa Snellman of INSEAD. We'll discuss her findings, what insights or awareness we can gain from this new data, and ultimately, how we can enact positive change so we don't take steps backward in the upward trajectory of professional women.

As the host of this podcast, I am in a unique position to hear first-hand from people who are having an incredible impact on the world in such an amazing variety of ways, which in my role, I then have the pleasure of sharing with our listeners. While each episode of the podcast communicates an important discovery or significant impact, it's seemed like a number of recent episodes, at least in my eyes and ears, have captured stories of the impact of O.R. and analytics that regardless of whether you have a background in these fields, are pretty inspiring.

From reducing poaching to help revitalize populations of wild tigers, to helping teach AI to think more like we do, to helping craft better policies to protect and better serve some of our most vulnerable dialysis patients, to interviews featuring the 2022 Franz Edelman Award finalist teams, these episodes have shared stories of brining together skilled people from a variety of fields, organizations and backgrounds to collaborate on addressing significant problems across the globe.

And I'm excited to share that today's episode, is no exception. Joining me is Ayan Mukhopadhyay, a research scientist with Vanderbilt University and one of the recipients of the 2021 Google AI for Social Good Impact Scholar Award. Ayan is involved in a number of projects that are having a significant positive impact on the world around us, but today we'll be talking in particular about his work with HelpMum, a non-profit organization based in Nigeria dedicated to improving the lives of African mothers and children.

Common sense. A highly valued trait among our peers, partners, friends, and honestly anyone we interact with on a regular basis. Difficult to define at best, common sense is a necessary component to decision-making, helping us navigate any number of choices we must make day to day, to presumably achieve the best outcomes.

And while common sense is an inherently human trait, much like our emotions, as applications of artificial intelligence in our daily lives continue to grow, from customer service interface to smart home technology, can common sense be introduced to this technology to improve their decision-making capability? Or will technology's inability to incorporate common sense place a hard stop on the role that AI will ultimately play?

Joining me to take a closer look at the challenges of introducing common sense into AI decision-making is Mayank Kejriwal with the University of Southern California, who is leading a research team exploring this very topic.

For this episode, I am so pleased to once again be joined by the 2022 INFORMS President Radhika Kulkarni. We started 2022 off with my first interview with Radhika as president and discussed what was in store for INFORMS in the coming year. Radhika joins me once again to share some important INFORMS milestones and updates on a few of the topics we discussed earlier this year.

Wildlife conservation is an enormous global undertaking, vital to ensuring the health and longevity of our planet, and that the incredibly diverse plant and wildlife species we share our world with are here for generations more to come. A significant threat to conservation efforts is the poaching of wildlife, which can be difficult and even dangerous to combat and is pushing many species towards extinction, while also helping to support a multi-billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade.

I'm pleased to introduce my guest for today's podcast, Lily Xu with Harvard University, whose work to create a data driven approach to combat poaching in protected areas around the world led to the development of PAWS, the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security. Perhaps most exciting is the hope that, with the help of PAWS, not only can we reduce the impact of poachers but ultimately reintroduce populations of wild tigers back into areas where they once thrived.

I'm also thrilled to share that Lily's work was awarded the INFORMS Doing Good with Good O.R. prize – which recognizes outstanding student projects with a significant societal impact – and I'm excited for the opportunity to speak with her about it.

End-stage renal disease, or ESRD, is a serious medical condition caused by failure of the kidneys that also has significant social and economic implications. The only treatments for end-stage renal disease are regular courses of dialysis or a kidney transplant. For individuals with ESRD who do not have access to treatment, either because they are uninsured or they may not be a legal residents of the U.S., often their only option is to resort to going to the emergency room in order to receive dialysis. However, mandatory hospital and even county protocols structured to prevent emergency room congestion can result in an individual seeking dialysis treatment being sent home if their medical status is not deemed life-threatening at that time. Unfortunately, these policies for the most part are ineffective at preventing ER congestion and also have the potential to negatively impact these patients' health by delaying treatment.

So is there a way to strike a balance between alleviating already strained emergency room resources while still providing life-saving care to vulnerable patients with very limited options?

Joining me to discuss their research on this very topic are Sila Çetinkaya with Southern Methodist University and Olga Bountali with the University of Toronto.

This podcast is part of a special series featuring the 2022 finalist teams for the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science, the most prestigious award for achievement in the practice of O.R. and advanced analytics.

For more than four decades, the Edelman Award has recognized contributions that are transforming how we approach some of the world's most complex problems. Finalists for the Edelman Award have contributed to a cumulative impact of more than $336 billion since the award's inception, as well as countless other nonmonetary benefits. The winner of this year's award will be announced at the 2022 INFORMS Business Analytics Conference, April 3-5.

Joining me for this episode are Dimitris Bertsimas, professor with the MIT Sloan School of Management and Najat Khan, Chief Data Science Officer and Global Head, Research and Development Strategy & Operations with Janssen Research and Development, LLC, to discuss the finalist entry from the team at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson (Janssen).

To accelerate the development of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, the Research and Development Data Science team at Janssen worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to co-develop and refine a machine learning-based COVID-19 epidemiological disease spread model, building on MIT's DELPHI scenario analysis tool, capable of predicting future COVID-19 infection spread months in advance at a global level. This model enabled Johnson and Johnson to expedite a highly accurate clinical trial for the first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, as well as gain valuable insight on virus variants.