This initiative hosts a series of bite-sized events, which provide virtual venues for members of the Canadian OR community to meet and exchange on OR-based research and applications. The events and details are listed below. We look forward to seeing you at these events.
Upcoming Micro-Events
Transportation and Logistics Special Interest Group Seminar
Leandro C. Coelho
Canada Research Chair in Integrated Logistics, Université Laval
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 10:00 am EST
Online via Zoom
The Future of Mobility: From Gridlock to Green Solutions
Research in the areas of mobility and sustainability in urban centers, especially those aimed at tangible measures such as optimization, brings real benefits to society, improving people's lives, protecting the environment and boosting the sustainable development of cities. We aim to create a more efficient, inclusive, and environmentally responsible urban environment. We will address three interconnected topics with a focus on developing practical and innovative solutions, aiming to improve urban mobility, promote sustainability, and improve the efficiency of urban centers.
1) Transportation of people: we highlight the importance of providing accessible and inclusive transportation. Optimization approaches for on-demand transportation systems will be presented, with a focus on the use of advanced technologies. We will discuss the integration of different modes of transport and the adaptability of routes.
2) Freight transport and its impacts on congestion and greenhouse gas emissions: we will discuss the challenges in transporting goods in urban centers and the environmental impacts arising from greenhouse gas emissions.
3) Optimization of traffic light phases to improve traffic and reduce fuel consumption: data analysis and simulation techniques applied to the optimization of traffic light phases will be explored, considering traffic patterns and real-time information. By reducing traffic jams, it is expected not only that traffic will flow more smoothly, but also that consumption and emissions will be significantly reduced.
Results of actual deployments will be presented to justify the efforts and potential gains of these projects.

Bio: Leandro C. Coelho is the Canada Research Chair in Integrated Logistics and a full professor at Université Laval. He specializes in industrial emissions reduction projects, particularly in the field of urban mobility, and his projects have saved several thousand tons of greenhouse gas emissions. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He is a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada and co-founder of the MobilOpt group on Mobility Optimization, which specializes in optimizing sustainable mobility and works closely with several cities, ministries and public transport providers.
Friday, February 21st, 2025, 9-11 am (EST)
Enabling cellular network power infrastructure to support the stabilization of power grids
Presented by Brigitte Jaumard, Professor, Concordia University, Montreal
Best-Worst Method: A Behaviorally-Inspired Approach to Decision-Making
Presented by Jafar Rezaei, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Past Micro-Events
We are excited to announce that the CORS Queueing and Applied Probability (QAP) Special Interest Group will be hosting a micro-event on Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM EST. This online seminar will feature Professor Peter Taylor from The University of Melbourne.
Seminar Details: Cost: Free. A Google Meet link will be sent to registered participants a few days before the event.
Title: The Role of Physical Understanding in Matrix-Analytic Methods
Abstract: Since Marcel Neuts first showed that Markov chains of GI/M/1 type have a matrix-geometric stationary distribution in the 1970s and 1980s, the interplay between analytic properties and physical interpretation has played a major part in the development of matrix-analytic methods for stochastic models. Most performance measures of interest in such models can be expressed in terms of the solutions of equations involving matrix power series, which have to be solved numerically. Over the years, various iterative algorithms have been proposed for doing this. In order to establish convergence, and gain information about the speed of convergence, it is often helpful to think about the physical interpretation of the iterates. I shall discuss the physical interpretation of matrix-analytic algorithms that have been proposed for analysing block-structured Markov additive models.
Speaker Bio: Professor Peter Taylor is the Director of Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers and Chief Investigator at the University of Melbourne. Professor Taylor's research interests lie in the fields of stochastic modelling and applied probability. Recently he has become interested in the interaction of stochastic modelling with optimisation and optimal control under conditions of uncertainty. He is regularly invited to present plenary papers at international conferences. He has also acted on organising and program committees for many conferences. Professor Taylor is the editor-in-chief of the Applied Probability Trust journals Journal of Applied Probability and Advances in Applied Probability and was the Editor-in-Chief of Stochastic Models between 2002 and 2018. He is also a member of the editorial board of Queueing Systems. He served on the Awards Committee of the Applied Probability Section of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) from 2005-2007 and in 2016 was Co-Chair of the Committee for the Nicholson Prize, awarded for the best student paper in operations research.
The 2025 Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) Health Care Operational Research (HCOR) SIG Micro-Event was an online zoom seminar co-presented by Dr. Michael Abramoff and Dr. Tinglong Dai.
Title: Medical A.I. Revolution: Research Opportunities for OR/MS Scholars
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionize healthcare delivery globally, offering unprecedented opportunities for operations research and management science (OR/MS) researchers. As AI becomes embedded in healthcare workflows, it will not only reshape how care is delivered but also challenge the traditional models used to analyze healthcare systems. This talk, featuring Dr. Michael Abramoff, inventor of the first FDA-cleared autonomous AI system, and Dr. Tinglong Dai, a leading Johns Hopkins expert in medical AI, will explore the emerging research opportunities for OR/MS scholars in response to AI’s integration into healthcare. We will highlight the need for new models that can guide the rapid evolution of healthcare practices, assess productivity improvements, and address disparities in access to care. Also, AI’s potential to learn and adapt presents opportunities to develop models for real-time decision-making, but these systems must undergo rigorous development, validation, and approval processes. We will also discuss the regulatory and reimbursement challenges that AI in healthcare faces, opening the door for OR/MS researchers to contribute solutions to these key barriers.
Bio of Speakers:
Michael D. Abramoff, MD, PhD, is a fellowship-trained retina specialist, computer scientist and entrepreneur. Dr. Abramoff is the Robert C. Watzke, MD Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering. He is Founder and Executive Chairman of Digital Diagnostics, the autonomous AI diagnostics company that was the first in any field of medicine to get FDA clearance for an autonomous AI. He is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications, he has been cited over 50,000 times, and is the inventor on 25 issued patents.
Tinglong Dai, PhD, is Ferrari Professor of Business at Johns Hopkins University, where he co-directs the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Cluster on Global Advances in Medical Artificial Intelligence. Named one of the World’s Top 40-Under-40 Business School Professors by Poets & Quants, Dr. Dai is a sought-after expert featured in major media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Dr. Dai serves as Vice President of Marketing, Communication, and Outreach for INFORMS. He is an Associate Editor for Management Science, MSOM, POM, and npj Digital Medicine, etc.
CORS Micro-Event on Supply Chain Decision Making and System Dynamics Modelling, Dec 16, 9-11 am (EST)
Title: Analytics and Stochastic Optimization for Supply Chain Decision-Making in Uncertain Environments
By Dr. Yossiri Adulyasak
Title: System Dynamics Modelling Archetypes and Security
By Ivan Taylor and Keith D. Willett
Using simulation in healthcare: the operation was successful, but did the patient get better? Presented by Sally Brailsford, Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK
Twenty-Three Critical Pitfalls in Simulation Modeling and How to Avoid Them Presented by Averill M. Law, Ph.D., Averill M. Law & Associates, Inc., USA
The second micro-event of November 2024 took place on November 25 and was themed on Analytics. The first presentation was from Dr. Fredrik Odegaard, Ivey Business School, Western University, London on "An OR tale of Analytics, AI, and Auctions". The second presentation was by Mr. Christian Chenard Lemire from Genetec Inc. Montreal on "Innovations in the use of video for traffic management".
The theme of November CORS micro-event is smart cities and healthcare. It will take place on November 7. The first speaker is Dr. Ursula Eicker, Canada Research Excellence Chair from Concordia University, Montreal who will present on Digital Twins to support decision making for urban decarbonization. The second speaker, Dr. Ana Maria Anaya-Arenas, Associate Professor from Universite de Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) will present an iterative exact algorithm over a time-expanded network for the transportation of biomedical samples. The event is online.
The October 28 CORS micro-event featured speakers on the theme of circular economy and autonomous mobility. The first talk was presented by Prof. Joseph Sarkis, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Business School, USA on the theme of "Challenges, Opportunities, and Theories for the Circular Economy – Business, Digitization, and Beyond". The second talk was on the theme of "Right-Sizing Innovation: Merging Policy, Technology, and Future Ready Infrastructure" and presented by Matthew Davis and Greg Rodriguez, Stantec, USA. The event was very well received by the audience. Thanks to the speakers.
This CORS micro-event in 2024 consists of two online presentations. The first presentation is entitled "Development of a Risk Management Framework for the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Supply Chain " by Dr. Golam Kabir from Industrial Systems Engineering department at University of Regina. The second presentation is entitled "Energy Transition in an Era of Global Boiling " and will be delivered by Sushil Sharma, SustainEco, India.
This event was organized by the CORS Queueing Theory Special Interest Group, and Professor Kuang Xu from Stanford Graduate School of Business presented the following research.
The CORS Health Care Operational Research SIG oral presentation competition for graduate students emphasizes the importance of presentation skills and provides an opportunity for students to receive formal feedback, learn best practices from their peers, and be recognized for excellence in this area. The goal is to have students demonstrate mastery of coherent and engaging presentations describing a completed research project on a significant healthcare topic within a ten-minute time limit. This year's competition was held during an online CORS micro-event organized by the HCOR SIG and was followed by a seminar by Professor Gilbert Laporte who discussed the design of effective scientific presentations, including some tips and tricks.
In this event, Dr. Anirvan Basu, Managing Director Europe at Accenture Strategy Consulting, spoke about a comprehensive methodology that helps corporate leaders to choose the required level of maturity for achieving their business vision, to determine the path step-by-step towards the destination maturity level, and, throughout the journey, to measure the success of the transformation. This event was organized by Masoud Chitsaz from Kinaxis.
In this event, analytics strategy expert Jeremy Adamson discussed challenges in building and leading analytics teams, how to overcome them, and how to gain competitive advantages by investing in analytics. This event was organized by Masoud Chitsaz from Kinaxis.
This event was organized by CORS Council and chaired by Jules Comeau. The event featured a set of short submitted research talks from graduating PhD students and a round-table discussion.
The inaugural event was a workshop organized by the CORS HCOR SIG and chaired by Majid Taghavi. The event featured a set of invited talks and a plenary on this timely topic.