Practice Prize Competition

Description

The Practice Prize Competition recognizes the outstanding application of OR by practitioners in Canada and it attracts quality papers to the CORS Annual Conference.

Award

The Prize Committee will determine, at its discretion, First, Second, and Honourable Mention awards and the distribution of up to $1800 in prize money according to the extent to which the finalists have reported on a completed, practical application with results that had a significant, verifiable and (preferably) quantifiable impact on the performance of the client organization. Every member of the winning teams receives a certificate.

Eligibility

The applicant must be a resident of Canada. The submission must include work completed over the last two years, but the entire project may have taken place over a longer period. The project may include published work, but it cannot have been previously submitted to this competition.

Application instructions

We thank you for your interest, but applications are no longer accepted for 2019.

By March 29, 2019, the judging committee will select up to four finalists according to these criteria:

  • The challenge of the application of OR and the significance of the problem.
  • The quality of the analysis and modeling and the implementation of the results.
  • The impact on the client organization.

By May 10, 2019, the finalists must:

  • Submit a detailed written report, not exceeding 25 pages in the body, presenting a "case history" of the project describing its development from start to finish and focussing on the challenges and results.
  • Submit a one-page project summary including key messages and best practices, suitable for publication in the CORS Bulletin and on the CORS website.
  • Present the project at the Practice Prize Sessions at the CORS Annual Conference.

On the basis of the written report and the oral presentation the judges will determine the prizes to be awarded and announced at the banquet. The committee reserves the right not to award any prize.

Recipients

2018

First Prize
Florian Grenouilleau, Antoine Legrain, Nadia Lahrichi, Louis-Martin Rousseau
Polytechnique Montréal
"A Set Partitioning Heuristic for the Home Health Care Routing and Scheduling Problem"

2017

First Prize
Philippe Grangier, Marc Brisson, Michel Gendreau, Fabien Lehuédé, Louis-Martin Rousseau, John Ye
"A Two-Phase Algorithm for a 3D Container Loading Problem."
Second Prize
Felipe Rodrigues, Greg Zaric, David Stanford
"Discrete-Event Simulation Model for Planning Level 2 'Step-Down' Beds Using NEMS"

2016

First Prize
Émilie Dufour (HEC Montréal), Gilbert Laporte (HEC Montréal), Julie Paquette (HEC Montréal), Marie-Ève Rancourt (Université du Québec à Montréal)
"Logistics service network design for humanitarian response in East Africa"

2015

First Prize
Guoqing Zhang
Nooshin Nekoiemehr
Qiqi Zhang
Jérôme-Olivier Ouellet
Jean-François Pagé
Adam Dudar
Anqi Chen
"Modeling of the Air Cargo Network Flow Optimization"

2014

First Prize
Fletcher Lu
Craig Trought
Faculty of Business & Information Technology, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
"Computational Efficiencies in Insurance Fraud Data Analysis"
Second Prize
Daniel Karapetyan
Abraham Punnen
Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
"Operational Research Models and Algorithms for Fleet Size Planning and Schedule Optimisation for the British Columbia Ferry Services Inc."

2013

First Prize
Richard J. Caron
Esai Selvarajah
Sahand Ashtab
Carly Henshaw
Michael Higgins
Lily Wu
Dong Wang
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
"A Network Optimization Model for The TDL Group Corp."
Second Prize
Claire Ma
Annie Zhang
Mahesh Nagarajan
Hamid Mahmoudi
Catherine Barnardo
Stuart Donald
Derek Atkins
Centre for Operations Excellence, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
"Fraser Health: An optimization tool to improve the deployment of home care nurses."
Second Prize
Emma Liu
Liping Liang
Derek Atkins
Chong Chen
Yue Zhang
Rachel Lewis
Jinjin Fu
Centre for Operations Excellence, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
"Patient choice analysis and demand prediction for a health care diagnostic company."

2012

First Prize
Peter Vanberkel
Richard J. Boucherie
Erwin W. Hans
Johann L. Hurink
Wineke A. M. van Lent
Wim H. van Harten
"Implementing algorithms to reduce ward occupancy fluctuation through advanced planning"
Second Prize
Derek Atkins
Vanessa Noonan
Marcel Dvorak
Argelio Santos
Rachel Lewis
James Gurling
Liping Liang
Andy Chen
"Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries: Modeling the Care Journey from Accident to Post-Discharge"

2011

Not awarded

2010

First Prize
Burcin Bozkaya
Erhan Erkut
Dan Haight
Gilbert Laporte
"Designing New Electoral Districts for the City of Edmonton"
Second Prize
Kent J. Kostuk
Keith A. Willoughby
"A Decision Support System for scheduling a professional sports league"

2009

First Prize
Andrea Cameron
Corinne MacDonald
Eldon Gunn
"Improving Production and Inventory Planning for Scotsburn Ice Cream"
Second Prize
Sonya Vanderby
Michael W. Carter
Christopher Feindel
Timothy Latham
"Modelling the Future of the Canadian Cardiac Surgery Workforce Using Systems Dynamics"

2008

First Prize
Vincent S. Chow
Derek Atkins
Wenhai Huang
Martin L. Puterman
Neda Salehirad
"Reducing Surgical Ward Congestion at the Vancouver Island Health Authority through Improved Surgical Scheduling"

2007

First Prize
Mustapha Ouhimmou
Sophie D'Amours
Daoud Ait-kadi
Robert Beauregard
Satyaveer Singh Chauhan
"Optimization helps Shermag Gain Competitive Edge"

2006

First Prize
Saeed Zolfaghari
Vinh Quan
Ahmed El-Bouri
Banafsheh Namiranian
Maryam Khashayardoust
"Heuristics for large scale labour scheduling problems in retail sector"
Second Prize
Mehmet Aydinel
Ximena Cerda
Eric Cope
Mats Gerschman
Taraneh Sowlati
"Optimization of Production Allocation and Transshipment for a Leading Canadian Forest Products Company"
Third Prize
Bao Nguyen
David Hopkin
Dr. Handson Yip
Dr. John Fawcett
"Concepts of Operations for the Side Scan Sonar Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Developed at DRDC Atlantic"
Third Prize
Eric Cope
Ian Fichtenbaum
Neda Salehirad
"Optimizing Cargo Heating Practices at Teekay Shipping Corporation"

2005

First Prize
Li Chen
Mats Gerschman
Fredrik Odegaard
David K. Puterman
Martin L. Puterman
Ryan Quee
"Improving the Efficiency of Porter Operations in Two Vancouver Hospitals"

2004

First Prize
Bernard Gendron
"Scheduling Employees in Quebec’s Liquor Stores with Integer Programming"

2003

First Prize
Derek Atkins
Mehmet A. Begen
Bailey Kluczny
Anita Parkinson
"Reducing Pre-Board Screening Queues at Vancouver International Airport"
Second Prize
Brunilde Sansò
Frédéric Bodevin
"Assessing User QoS in a Deployed GPRS Network"

2002

First Prize
Ernest Urbanovich
Ella E.Young
Martin L. Puterman
Sidney O. Fattedad
"Early Detection of High Risk Claims at the Worker's Compensation Board of British Columbia"
Second Prize
Marko Blais
Sophie D.Lapierre
Gilbert Laporte
"Solving a Home Care Districting Problem in an Urban Setting"
Third Prize
A. Ingolfsson
E. Erkut
S. Budge
"Simulation of a Single Start Station for Edmonton EMS"

2001

First Prize
Jean-Marie Bourjolly
Leslie Dejoie
Ke Ding
Oumar Dioume
Michel Lominy
"DOCAF (TM): A Commercial Software Package for Frequency Allocation in Cellular Phone Networks"
Second Prize
Erhan Erkut
Steve Kabanuk
Russ Fenske
Jerry Davis
"Improving the Emergency Service Delivery in St-Albert"

2000

Honourable Mention
Bao Nguyen
Dr Kevin Ng
"Modeling Canadian Search and Rescue Operations"

1999

Claude Berger
Fabien Chauny
André Langevin
Richard Loulou
Diane Riopel
Gilles Savard
Jean-Philippe Waaub
Agnès Wizere
"EUGÈNE : Un système d'aide à la décision pour la planification à long terme de la gestion intégrée des déchets domestiques"

1998

Erhan Erkut
Anthony Myroon
Kevin Strangway
"TransAlta redesigns its service delivery network"

1997

Paul Comeau
"DSS TANKER - A fuel management model for Air Transport Group"

1996

Michel Gamache
François Soumis
Daniel Villeneuve
Jacques Desrosiers
Éric Gélinas
"The preferential bidding problem at Air Canada"

1995

Maurice Elliott
"Optimizing gas production allocation"

1994

John Blake
Mike Carter
"An analysis of emergency room wait time issues via computer simulation"

1993

Michel Gamache
François Soumis
Gerald Marquis
Jacques Desrosiers
"A column generation approach for large scale aircrew rostering problems"

1992

Michael Carter
Gilbert Laporte
"A general examination scheduling system"

1991

Michael Scriabin
Jason Farlette
Dilip Kotak
Michael A. Matthews
"Air capacity planning symbiotic system (AIRSYM): Combining artificial and human intelligence"

1990

Jacques Ferland
Charles Fleurant
"Computer aided scheduling for a sport league"

1989

Eldon A. Gunn
Glenn Allen
John C. Campbell
Barclay Cunningham
Peter Rutherford
"One Year of OR: Models for Operational and Production planning in the Coal Industry"

1988

First Prize
Michael Carter
"A Lagrangian Relaxation Approach to the Classroom Assignment Problem"
Second Prize
Jacques A. Ferland
Gilles Guénette
"Decision Support System For the School Districting Problem"

1987

Not awarded

1986

Gilbert Laporte
"A System for Assigning Students to Course Sections at the École Polytechnique de Montréal"

1985

Not awarded

1984

A tie
Michel Goulet
"Système de Prévision des Déboursés"
A tie
Cary Swoveland
"Risk Analysis of Regulatory Options for the Transport of Dangerous Commodities by Rail"

1983

Iain R. Grunwell
"Simulation for Training Railway Yard General Yardmasters"

1982

Not awarded