Guests include Sheldon Jacobson, University of Illinois, to discuss how to enhance the TSA PreCheck, or the “poster child for risk-based security” over the next several decades; Natalie Scala, Towson University, to discuss the threat of cyber, physical and insider vulnerabilities on elections in the U.S.; and Sommer Gentry, U.S Naval Academy, to discuss how to improve kidney transplant rates in underserved areas.

Guests include Ed Kaplan of Yale University whose research has found that the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is twice what previous estimates were; Gino Lim of the University of Houston whose research of drone applications for healthcare could help patients with chronic diseases in rural locations; and Kayse Maass of Northeastern University whose research is working to improving outcomes for victims of human trafficking by looking at the impact of shelter locations.

Guests include James Cochran of the University of Alabama to discuss the newly published INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge; Carrie Beam of the University of Arkansas to introduce an exciting new competition, Freestyle O.R. Supreme, that will debut at this year’s INFORMS Annual Meeting; and Alan Briggs from Data Robot, to share the impact of the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) certification on his career path.

Guests include John Dickerson of the University of Maryland and Tuomas Sandholm of Carnegie Mellon University whose research on kidney exchange could significantly increase the number of successful kidney transplants; Eva Lee of Georgia Tech whose research in pediatric heart surgery has provided new insight to help fight the opioid epidemic; and Tallys Yunes of the Miami Business School who has some very valuable insight that can help all the fantasy football fans out there improve their lineups.

This episode explores different ways that INFORMS is helping to spread the word on the important role that O.R. and analytics play in our everyday lives. Our guests in this episode include the 2018 INFORMS president Nicholas Hall, Brian Denton, who served as the 2017 president, and the Director of public affairs and marketing for INFORMS, Jeff Cohen. Each will provide special insight into INFORMS current objectives and goals, as well as new initiatives and a look ahead to next steps.