INFORMS News
Meeting in Paradise: Hawaii Beckons
By Kathy Stecke
The INFORMS International 2001 Hawaii meeting will be held at the Outrigger Wailea Resort on Maui, June 17-20. Many exciting events are planned for this meeting on the "Magic Isle" of Hawaii. Plenary speakers will be William R. Pulleyblank and Louis Martin-Vega.
Pulleyblank is the director of the Deep Computing Institute and director of Exploratory Server Systems at IBM Research. He is also the first International INFORMS Omega Rho speaker and will address parallel computing and integer programming. The size of integer programming problems solvable on computers continues to increase, due to improvements in machine speed and significant algorithmic improvements. Efficiently exploiting parallelism provides significant challenges, both for small-scale parallelism (tens of processors) and large-scale parallelism (up to one million processors). This will be discussed with reference to several ongoing research activities, including the massive one-petaflop Blue Gene computer, designed for completion in 2004.
Martin-Vega is currently acting assistant director for Engineering at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. With a budget of more than $400 million, the Engineering Directorate at NSF supports a large variety of research and education programs across all the major engineering disciplines as well as many cross-disciplinary areas. Martin-Vega's presentation will provide an overview and update on the role of engineering at the NSF including its current guiding vision, major programs and new initiatives. The presentation will also provide a glimpse into the emerging technologies and concepts that are expected to have a major impact on engineering research and education over the next 20 years.
Paul G. Ranky of the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Multi-Lifecycle Engineering Research Center will present an optional interactive workshop on Sunday afternoon from 3-6:30 p.m. Entitled "Virtual Concurrent and Multi-Lifecycle Engineering over the 3-D Internet," the workshop will present a virtual, collaborative 3-D Web-enabled concurrent engineering methodology, focusing on key processes, objects and their interactions. Ranky will also explore methods, tools and technologies that help to decide what information to disclose and in what format. Other topics include collaborative product commerce, an object-oriented requirements' analysis method and an overview of virtual, collaborative software tool-sets that support developing virtual product demonstrations over the 3-D Web. Each workshop participant will receive three CD-ROMs as well as a learning pack with validated cases, examples and open source code. The fee for the Sunday workshop is $75, and you can sign up on the meeting registration form.
We are planning an innovative schedule of sessions to allow you to make the most of our Maui location. Technical sessions will be held in the mornings from 8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and again later in the day from 4-7:15 p.m. This will leave the middle of the day free, making it easier for you to attend sessions and to enjoy the sights.
The program also features special tutorials and panels. Moshe Sniedovich of the University of Melbourne, Australia, will present a tutorial sponsored by IFORS entitled, "OR/MS Tutorials on the WWW: An Overview of the IFORS tutORial Project."
The meeting will begin with a Welcome Reception on Sunday evening on the Pacific Terrace, the rooftop pavilion of the hotel that has a gorgeous panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean. Our Monday evening General Reception, featuring foods with a tropical flavor, will take place on the Kahoolawe Lawn, right at the edge of the ocean. The Outrigger Wailea serves an authentic and lavish luau every Tuesday evening; we'll reserve a block of tables for INFORMS participants and encourage you to make reservations for the luau when you arrive in Maui. You do not need to be a guest at the Outrigger to attend the luau.
Discounted airfare and car rentals, sightseeing tours, and pre- and post-meeting visits to neighboring islands are all available through our official travel agency, Travel Planners, Inc. Go to the meeting Web page (www.informs.org/Conf/Hawaii2001) and follow the link to "Travel, Tours." You can choose from a full menu of great sightseeing tours. A Haleakala downhill bike ride (sunrise and mid-day options), rain forest and waterfall hike, and rain forest and aquarium are all offered on Sunday, June 17. On Monday, you can enjoy an afternoon snorkel sail aboard a deluxe catamaran. And a visit to Lahaina, former whaling capital of the 1800s, is offered on Tuesday.
Our headquarters hotel, the Outrigger Wailea, is set on a breathtaking oceanfront location with 22 landscaped acres of topical gardens, swimming pools, a spa and fitness center and a putting green. The standard room rate is $158 single/double occupancy. Rooms are also available at the Maui Prince, an AAA 4-Diamond resort offering four restaurants, 36 holes of championship golf, swimming pools and more. The room rate at the Prince is $165 single/double. Complimentary shuttle service will be available for the 10-minute ride from the Prince to the Outrigger. The luau price is $65 per person.
Kathy Stecke is the General Chair of the INFORMS International 2001 Hawaii meeting.
OR/MS Today copyright © 2001 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved.
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