Python is a widely used high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than other languages such as C++ or Java.

In many real-world large-scale optimization problems, the large volumes of data are required to be stored and manipulated very efficiently, and Python is one of the greatest tools for it. Moreover, there are many available API/packages in Python to solve optimization problems, such as Linear Programming, Integer Programming, Stochastic Programming, and other Optimization methods.

Juxihong (Jushkhun) will provide a basic Python workshop. Jushkhun is a Dual-Title Ph.D. Student in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department at Penn State. He is a member of Institute of Industrial ENGINEERS (IIE), Society for Engineering and Management Systems (SEMS) and Society for Health Systems (SHS). Currently, he is a Research Assistant in Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Analytics (LISA). His research interest lies in the field of optimization, statistical modeling, natural language processing, and network analytics.

The workshop will provide a basic hands-on Python tutorial, including basic data types (integer, float, string), compound data types ( list, dictionary), control flows (for loop, if else, while, etc.), functions & classes, useful packages (Pandas), and how to import and learn to use packages.

An Axtria information session will be held for Penn State Industrial Engineering students. This is an interesting opportunity to learn from a big data analytics firm, and how you can use your degree in engineering to support a career in analytics.

The presenter is Kishan Kumar, he is analytics professional and client partner at Axtria – Ingenious Insights. He is an IVY League graduate and Management consultant, with demonstrated abilities to grow and scale business. Currently managing/delivering a multi-million dollar portfolio and responsible for new revenue generation, maintaining profitability and employee utilization. Specific expertise in working with Oncology, Specialty products and Primary Care pharmaceutical products. Experienced project management and strong team leadership skills. Proficient in developing business strategies, design patterns and strategic road maps and presenting up to “C” level audiences. Delivered successful engagements often resulting in organic growth, empower teams to maximum productivity while driving projects to completion on time and within budget. Managed a global team of managers and associates to ensure successful delivery across multiple clients.

Dates: Sunday, November 13, 2016 – Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Target: Audience: Academic and Practice
Location: Music City Center and Omni Nashville
Information on the conference can be found here.

Please fill up the following form, if you want financial support.

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A workshop on CPLEX was held on Monday, March 14th, 2016 at 6:00 pm in 104 Leonhard building. Martin Shell gave the workshop.  Martin Shell is Client Solution Professional in IBM’s Decision Optimization group, focusing on the application of mathematical optimization software across a wide range of business applications.  He holds a Master of Science in Operations Research from M.I.T.  He is a member of the INFORMS Edelman Academy as well as a Certified Analytics Professional.

In this workshop, he presented: 1) how to use CPLEX Studio to form problems, import data, and find details of results, 2) hands-on problem and 3) an overview of using CPLXE with different programming languages.

Mr. Martin Shell, a Client Solution Professional in IBM’s Decision Optimization group giving a hands-on workshop on CPLEX

The workshop was a big success, and it is very helpful for students who are interested in optimization. More than 20 students attended the session.

Members of PSU INFORMS,

Officer elections are coming up! Take advantage of an excellent opportunity to serve in a significant way. Participating in a leadership role is a challenging, yet rewarding experience.

If you or someone you know are interested in running for the available positions of Vice President/President-elect, Secretary, Webmaster or Treasurer, please send your name, contact information, and resume to Deepak Agrawal by March 27th. Once the candidates have been determined, we will have in-person election on March 30th. Remember: * Candidates must be paid members of PSU INFORMS. * If you would like to become a member, or don’t know whether you already are, please contact at Deepak Agrawal.

A research presentation about healthcare analytics was held on Wednesday, Feb 17th, 2016 at 6:00 pm in 101 Leonhard building. Yi-Shan Sung gave the presentation.  Yi-Shan Sung is a PhD candidate in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State. Her research interest lies on healthcare analytics and network analytics. She did internship in Geisinger Health System for 9 months. In this session, she presented her work with Geisinger on: 1) remaining length of stay prediction, and 2) provider order recommendation.

Yi-Shan Sung is concluding her presentation

The presentation was a big success and it is very helpful for students who are interested in healthcare analytics. More than 20 students attended the session.

INFORMS Chapter of Penn State held Welcome Meeting for new and current members on Wednesday, January 20th, 2016 at 6:00 pm in 242 Leonhard. Where we talked about events planned for 2016 spring semester.

1. Network event
   • 250 E Calder Way, State College
   • Friday 29th Jan, 7:30PM
   • Pizza will be sponsored by INFORMS Chapter
2. Research Presentations
   1. Healthcare Analytics –  Yi-Shan Sung, (PhD, Candidate)
      • How to use machine learning and network analytics in healthcare
        operations?
      • Wednesday, Feb 17th, 6:00 PM
      • TBD
   2. Agent Based Simulation for workforce management – Angela Garza (Cougaar Software Inc.)
      • Ms. Garza will share her experiences working as a researcher
      • Wednesday, April 6th, 6:00 PM
      • TBD
3. Advanced R workshop
   • Hands-on training in how to use R for machine learning and data analytics
   • Tuesday, Thursday, March 15th , 17th , 6:00 PM
   • TBD
   • Please bring your laptop

Note: Reschedules, new events and updates will be post on PSU INFORMS website.

If you are interested in becoming a member, more information can be found here, and please note:

• Deadline Feb 19th, 2016
• $10 for Spring semester
• Contact Raghav Goyal at rzg164@psu.edu
• Membership Form (PSU INFORMS website)

Informs members at the annual conference (Philadelphia)

Dates: Sunday November 01 2015 – Wednesday November 04 2015
Target Audience: Academic and Practice
Location: Pennsylvania Convention Center & Marriott Philadelphia Downtown
Information on the conference can be found here.

An R workshop was held on Wednesday, November 11th, 2015 at 6:00 pm in 103 Leonhard building. Lizbeth Benson (Libby) gave us the workshop. The session was a huge success and it is very helpful for students who want to start to learn R. More than 50 students attended the information session.

Students are learning how to use ggplot

Her talks include such as:

1. Basic commands, functions of R and how to get help in R
2. Different types of variable, how to import, output data, how to simulate data from distributions
3. Packages (ggplot) to  visualize data
4. Basic data analysis such as describing data etc.

The materials can be found at here.

Lizbeth Benson are introducing We R group

She is from We R: Penn State R Users’ Group – a weekly meet-up providing an interdisciplinary workspace, discussion, and presentation forum for those who use (or would like to learn) the R statistics platform for scientific pursuits. And we are welcome to you to join the group and start your exciting journey with R.

R is a programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. During the last decade, the momentum coming from both academia and industry has lifted the R programming language to become the single most important tool for computational statistics, visualization and data science. Worldwide, millions of statisticians and data scientists use R to solve their most challenging problems in fields ranging from computational biology to quantitative marketing. R has become the most popular language for data science and an essential tool for Finance and analytics-driven companies such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

We will have Lizbeth Benson (Libby) to give an R workshop. Libby received a BA in Psychology with honors from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 2011 and spent the next three years working as a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center. She is currently a second year PhD student and University Graduate Fellow, working in the Quantitative Developmental Systems Methodology Group in the Human Development and Family Studies department at the Pennsylvania State University (QuantDev; http://quantdev.ssri.psu.edu/). Libby’s research interests include applying and developing longitudinal data analysis methods to study intraindividual variability and interindividual differences in social, emotional, and behavioral components of well-being. She is the founding president of the We R: Penn State R Users’ Group – a weekly meet-up providing an interdisciplinary workspace, discussion, and presentation forum for those who use (or would like to learn) the R statistics platform for scientific pursuits. Libby also participates in Playing the Archive projects with a group of scientists, musicians, artists, and engineers in creating a dynamic archive of data visualizations (art), sonifications (music) and haptic representations. Each semester the crew delivers art+science concerts, gallery showings, and workshops to engage the community through participatory data immersions. To promote STEM education efforts, Libby is involved in outreach activities as part of the Graduate Women in Science Nu Chapter at Penn State.