Minority
Issues Forum Student Poster Presenters
INFORMS
2007, Seattle, WA
November
4, 2007
Special acknowledgement to NSF (CMMI-0739996)
Inventory
of Cash-Constrained Firms and the Option to Acquire Future Financing
Pierre-Yves
Brunet
Industrial
and Operations Engineering
University
of Michigan
Abstract
Trade credit financing
allows cash-constrained firms to implement optimal operational decisions and to
signal their credit quality to banks and other lenders. Using a stochastic,
dynamic programming model we study joint procurement, inventory, and financing
decisions of a firm and compute the signaling value of trade credit financing.
In this paper, we highlight the effects of financing constraints on inventory
decisions and the role of trade credit signaling. This is joint work with Volodymyr Babich.
Timing of Testing and Treatment of Hepatitis C
Daniel
Mello Faissol
School
of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract
We develop a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model for
diseases where our goal is to determine the best timing for testing (and treatment)
decisions when the presence of the disease is not known in advance. We focus on
minimizing the cost from a societal perspective, and additionally produce an
efficient frontier of timing decisions with respect to the cost per quality
adjusted life year (QALY) measure. We apply the model to Hepatitis C, and we
discuss the insights for healthcare practice.
Managing
Patient Service in a Hospital Radiology Department
Eduardo PŽrez-Rom‡n
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Texas A&M University
Abstract
The objective of this project is to enhance patient
service (including scheduling, safety, and flow) and resource productivity in
hospitalsÕ nuclear medicine departments. The complex nature of those types of
departments leads to unique scheduling issues and the need to provide a high
level of patient service. This
project initiated a knowledge base to achieve the objective, including
optimizing methods for scheduling and then rescheduling to deal with random
disruptions, a simulation model that integrates with the scheduling methods to
manage patient service levels, and computational evaluation to assist in
evolving the methodologies and asses their validity and efficacy.
A Study of Collaboration and Competition among
Humanitarian Relief Organizations
Clarence L. Wardell III
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold
War, competition among humanitarian relief organizations has increased rapidly,
often times leading to the degradation of primary relief objectives. We examine this notion of
sub-optimality in relief work through simulation design and game theoretical
analysis. We propose a signaling
game as a model of donor and relief organization interaction, and explore
mechanisms for inducing separating equilibria as it concerns selection of
relief sites. The impetus behind organizational reluctance to collaborate is
examined, along with the exploration of policies which may improve primary objective
results.