StartResearchinIEOR

Click to edit Master title style,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,*,Start Research in IE/OR,New Graduate Student Orientation,Lei Zhao,IE Tsinghua University,September 8, 2006,September 12, 2007 (rev),1,Why This Talk?,Some observations,My struggles,Students struggles,2,A Different Point of View,“I believe that in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (sometimes referred to as SMET), the first and foremost requirement step is to inspire students to be,curious/creative/innovative,in a scientific way, and then to follow up the curiosity etc. with solid analysis, experiments etc. to support it. I would rather see a student,learn by doing,these things, than to learn how to do these things. ”,3,The Resource of This Lecture,Graduate students in IE Tsinghua,My own experience / lessons,My PhD advisor (Prof. Julia Higle),My PhD dissertation committee members,(Prof. Suvrajeet Sen and Prof. Cole Smith),My mentors (Prof. Warren Powell, etc.),Advices from my colleagues/friends,4,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,5,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,6,Introduction to IE/OR,Industrial Engineering (IE),is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of,integrated systems,of,people,materials,information,equipment, and,energy,. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.”,Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIE),7,Introduction to IE/OR,Operations research (OR),is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make,better decisions, based on,More complete data,Consideration of all available options,Careful predictions of outcomes and estimates of risk,The latest decision tools and techniques,INFORMS,8,Introduction to IE/OR,More about IE/OR,Societies,IIE (),IFORS (),INFORMS (),ORSC (),HistORy of OR,OR/MS Today, Vol. 29, No. 5, October 2002.,Everyday lessons from OR,Prof. Mark Daskin, INFORMS 2006, Pittsburgh,Operation Everything,Virginia Postrel,The Boston Globe, June 27, 2004),9,Introduction to IE/OR,Research/application fields,Logistics, manufacturing, transportation, telecommunication, energy, financial services, health care, military, sports, ,Interfaces,OR/MS Today,(),INFORMS Transactions on Education,(),Tutorial topics at current conferences and meetings,Literature research,10,Introduction to IE/OR,Basic science for IE/OR methods of understanding systems,Mathematics,Statistics,Computer science,11,Introduction to IE/OR,Basic science for IE/OR methods of understanding systems,Two papers,Stecke, K. E. (2005), “Using Mathematics to Solve Some Problems in Industry,”,INFORMS Transactions on Education, Vol. 5, No. 2.,Stecke, K. E. (2005), “Addressing Industrial Problems Using Various Mathematical Models,”,INFORMS Transactions on Education, Vol. 5, No. 3.,IFORS tutORial,12,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,13,Be Prepared,Deal with frustration,Try 10,000 things, but only one works,Prepared for frustration, but not get frustrated at all,Begin to work independently,Know your strength and interests,Ascertain your field as soon as possible,Read,LOTS of papers,Career plan / personal goal,14,Research Processes - Ten Questions,What is the problem?, selecting a research topic,Who cares?, significance, necessity, validation,What have others done?, literature review,What is your approach?, research methods, feasibility,What are you going to do explicitly?, research design,What may happen?, forecasting the results,What does this mean?, significant impact,Who cares?, applications / expanding human knowledge,Where will you publish these results?, “our” journals,What will you do in five years?, career plan,15,Choose an Advisor,Accomplishments in teaching and research,Enthusiasm for advising students,Experience in directing graduate students,Management and organization of his/her research group,Reputation for setting high standards in a congenial environment,Compatible personality,Graduate Research: A Guide for Students in the Science,(ISI Press, 1984), by Robert Smith,16,Choose an Advisor (CCCR),C,ommon research interests,C,omfortable to work with,C,ompatible work style,R,esearch reputation,17,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,18,Doing the Right Research,“It is really important to do the,right research,as well as to do the research right. You need to do wow research, research that is compelling, not just interesting.”,George Springer,chairman of the aeronautics and astronautics department at,Stanford University,19,Doing the Right Research,A very good and encouraging guideline,Richard Hamming, “You and Your Research,” Transcription of the Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar, 1986.,20,Choosing a Research Topic,Faculty need to play a major role,Advices,Pick a topic in a field that is not too crowded.,Be careful with topics where there is limited theoretical upside.,Pick a topic that has enough richness to allow a young researcher to blossom for about 5 years.,21,Choosing a Research Topic,Can it be enthusiastically pursued?,Can interest be sustained by it?,Is the problem solvable?,Is it worth doing?,Will it lead to other research problems?,Is it manageable in size?,What is the potential for making an original contribution to the literature in the field?,Graduate Research: A Guide for Students in the Science,(ISI Press, 1984), by Robert Smith,22,Choosing a Research Topic,If the problem is solved, will the results be reviewed well by scholars in your field?,Are you, or will you become, competent to solve it?,By solving it, will you have demonstrated independent skills in your discipline?,Will the necessary research prepare you in an area of demand or promise for the future?,Graduate Research: A Guide for Students in the Science,(ISI Press, 1984), by Robert Smith,23,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,24,Literature Review,Libraries,Online resources,Goooooooooooooooooooogle,Professors home pages,Research institutes/societies (INFORMS, IIE, ORSC, etc.),Advisor,Others (professors, classmates, ),25,Literature Review,How to find the “right” papers?,Look for (good) survey articles if possible.,ISI Web of Knowledge,Read good journals of our field,ISI Journal Citation Report (ORMS),A first guess of important papers,What they cite - “recursive review”,Who cite them?,26,How to Read a Paper efficiently?,“Get better at reading papers ONLY by struggling with papers at first.”,27,How to Read a Paper Efficiently?,Questions to think about when reading a paper,What constitutes a good paper?,How a good paper is written?,What is new in our field?,28,How to Read a Paper Efficiently?,Questions to think about when reading a paper,What problem is this paper trying to solve? Applications?,How has the problem been solved (literature review in this paper)?,What are the contributions of this paper (Whats new? Modeling approaches/assumptions/solution techniques)?,What is the solution approach of the paper? What assumptions does it make?,How does the proposed solution approach perform (proof/computational experiment results)?,What are the limitations of the model or solution approach proposed by this paper (conclusion remarks)?,How can the model/solution approach proposed by this paper be improved (extensions)?,29,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,30,Some Facts about Writing,Writing is a skill rather than a character trait,Writing can be learned,Writing can be fun,Writing is thinking,Writing rules are factual rather than logical,Writing to discover rather than to hide,31,Some Useful Writing Tips,Write everyday!,Write, rewrite, rewrite, ,Writing habits,Dictionaries,Personal book of quotations,Take notes and give each note a title or a keyword,Writing early rather than late,Start with a (broad) outline,Pick a part to write for today,Write another (narrower) outline, if you get stuck,Write down ideas when inspired,32,Very Helpful Writing Tips,Say it out loud,Learn from good writers,Write honestly and self-critically,Answer the question “,So what?,”,“At the end of a session, or at any substantial break,always write down your thoughts, however vague, on what will come next,.” (McCloskey),33,Some Basic Principles,Be clear,Be precise,Use definite, specific, concrete language,Use the active verbs,Paragraphs should have points,Put statement in positive form,Avoid elegant variation,Avoid acronyms,34,An Example (from McCloskey),“In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give,to your style.”,Sydney Smith,“Run your pen through every other word; you have no idea what vigour it will give.”,McCloskey,35,Another Example,“I ordered three books, one is arrived in two weeks, one still not arrived after three weeks, seems lost, and the,seem not even shipped, because you did not charge me and told me this book is out of order, so I got the book from other book store. Regarding this book, I can not rate it. And I lost foreign currency exchange fee because of this book. So I am not planning to order any book from USA web page. ”,A book review at ,36,Writing an Academic Paper,Great resources,The Elements of Styles, Strunk and White,Economical Writing, McCloskey,Ten simple rules for Mathematical Writing, Bertsekas,Mathematical Writing, Knuth et al.,Writing a Math Phase Two Paper, Kleiman,Hints on Writing Technical Papers and Making Presentations, Li,37,Writing an Academic Paper,A good online resources,OWL at Purdue (),Dictionary,Merriam-Webster Online (),Cambridge Dictionaries Online (),38,Writing a Thesis Proposal,Four major pieces,A description of the general topic area,Why it is important, interesting, challenging,A summary of existing research,What have been solved,What remain unsolved,Why additional research is necessary? In what area?,A description of the thesis topics/hypotheses/questions,Testable, well-defined, and manageable,A outline of the research plan,39,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Management Science,“,Management Science,is a scholarly journal that publishes scientific research into the problems, interests and concerns of,managers,.”,Editor-in-Chief,Wally Hopp,Northwestern University,40,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Management Science,(cont.),Journal scope,Management research using tools from traditional fields such as operations research, mathematics, statistics, industrial engineering, psychology, sociology and political science.,Cross-functional, multidisciplinary research that reflects the,diversity,of the management science professions.,Research into,emerging domains, such as those created by economic globalization, public policy shifts, technological improvements and trends in management practice.,41,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Management Science,(cont.),Doing Good Analytic Research,Start with a,real problem,observe actual system,collect real data,Use simple models to yield,insights,analytic where possible,graphical display of results,Close the loop with,practice,genuine interpretation of insights,combine analytic work with empirical work,42,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Interfaces,“The goals of,Interfaces,are to,improve the,exchange of information,between managers and professionals in operations research and management science (OR/MS) and to inform the academic community about,practice,.”,Editor-in-Chief,Jeffrey D. Camm,University of Cincinnati,43,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Interfaces,(continued),Therefore, the most appropriate papers are,descriptions of the,practice,of OR/MS in commerce, industry, government, or education with,strong emphasis on implementation,.,Interfaces,also publishes,opinion papers,about operational problems with less quantifiable results,tutorials, reports on OR/MS training programs, news items on specific applications,state-of-the-art reviews,and,surveys of use, and comments from corporation managers.,44,To Publish Know the Journal,For example,Operations Research,Simchi-Levi, D. (2006). From the Editor.,Operations Research, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 1-4.,Area Editors Statements.,Operations Research, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 5-10.,45,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,46,Presentation Skills - Guidelines,Present a coherent and self-adhesive story,Forest first, then trees,Share insights,Smooth logic,Rehearse,Speak,slowly, clearly, and rigorously,Time management!,47,Presentation Skills - Contents,U.S. Militarys Big 3,Tell them what you are going to tell them.,Tell them.,Tell them what you told them.,Schmeisers Big 3 (for a technical seminar),Define the problem, its context, its motivation.,Define properties of a good solution.,Discuss your solution.,48,Presentation Skills Eight Tips,Know your audience,Keep slides simple,Keep transitions smooth,Keep people engaged,Communicate with people,Repeat questions,Do NOT,read,script.,Explain,it.,Do NOT say “I dont know”. Instead, discuss.,49,Presentation Skills Some Details,Animations,To convey ideas, NOT to decorate.,Notations,Define, be consistent, reinforce.,Avoid unnecessary notations.,Motivate definitions, e.g., with examples.,Explain tables and figures clearly.,Dense/sparse slides.,Avoid acronyms except commonly used ones.,Does anybody remember,CCCR,?,50,Presentation Skills,A good example (Churlzu Lim),More examples?,51,Presentation Skills More Details,Face the audience.,Engage eye contact.,Stand to block nobody. Move.,Avoid distractions.,Include page number.,Avoid repeating parts of previous slides.,Avoid grammatical errors and typos.,52,Outline,Introduction to IE/OR,General research guidelines,The “right” research,Literature review,Academic writing,Presentation skills,Computational experiments,53,Doing the Research Right,Replicate some research experiments to gain insight. (Larry Head),Time management,Software and programming skills,Data,Real, uncertain, incomplete, noise, massy, ,54,Computational Experiments,A pitfall in this field,Make up a dataset,Run your algorithm,Report results,Throw all data and software away so that five years later, no-one can reproduce our results!,55,Computational Experiments,Experiment design,Factors, levels, interactions,Select the right sample,Use the right statistical methods,Statistical output analysis,Variance reduction,Replicable, repeatable, verifiable,“fairness”,56,Other useful resources,Tomorrows professor listserv,(),57,Acknowledgements,Askin, RonaldIE Arizona State University,Bayraksan, GuzinSIEUniversity of Arizona,Cao, JinweiAMISUniversity of Delaware,Ding, YuISEUniversity of Texas, A & M,Feng, QianmeiIEUniversity of Houston,Head, LarrySIEUniversity of Arizona,Higle, JuliaIWSEOhio State University,Li, JingquanSIEUniversity of Arizona,Lin, MingGoogle,Lopes, Leonardo SIE University of Arizona,Kong, NanIMSEUniversity of South Florida,58,Acknowledgements,Nash, StephenSEORGeorge Mason University,Sen, Suvrajeet SIEUniversity of Arizona,Smith, ColeISEUniversity of Florida,Stecke, KathrynISOMUniversity of Texas, Dallas,Topaloglu, HuseyinORIECornell University,Wang, JiannanAMISUniversity of Delaware,Warren, PowellORFEPrinceton University,Xu, YijiaIUCRP University of California,Zhang, XiaolongISTPenn State University,Zhou, YiluISTMGeorge Washington Univ.,Zhu, XiaomeiHSBC Group,59,Acknowledgements,Graduate students at Tsinghua University,Dong, Xiao,Du, Zhiyong,Jiang, Jianhua,Li, Haosheng,Liu, Lan,Luo, Zeting,Men, Jia,Pei, Zhi,Sun, Jing,Wang, Shengdong,Xie, Jingui,Wang, Haiyan,Wang, Hui,Wang, Yitong,Xu, Song,Zhou, Yangfang,60,Discussions,61,