This prestigious award acknowledges exceptional scientific contributions to the theory, methodology, and practice of Operational Research (OR) in Transportation and Logistics by an undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoctoral fellow. The award was named in honour of Professor Gilbert Laporte for his outstanding contributions to the development and applications of OR in Transportation and Logistics in Canada and beyond.
Entry Requirements
Submission
To enter the competition, please submit your entry by the deadline March 30, 2026 using the “Student Paper Competitions” link on the conference website: https://site.pheedloop.com/event/cors2026/home. A supervisor letter must also be submitted certifying that the entrant and the paper satisfy the eligibility conditions.
The jury is composed of Maryam Darvish, Borzou Rostami and Okan Arslan. Any questions related to the competition should be sent by email to the committee chair: Okan Arslan.
Selection Criteria
Awards
The CORS Transportation and Logistics Special Interest Group (SIG) is excited to announce the call for nominations for the position of Vice-President (President-Elect).
This leadership role provides an excellent opportunity to shape the future direction of our community, foster collaboration, and promote excellence in transportation and logistics research and practice. The elected Vice-President will serve as President-Elect for one term (2 years), followed by assuming the role of President. The responsibilities of the SIG officers are outlined in the SIG bylaws.
We encourage all eligible members of the SIG to consider nominating themselves or others who demonstrate a commitment to advancing the field and supporting our vibrant community. Nominations should include a brief statement outlining the nominee’s qualifications and vision for the SIG.
Deadline for nominations: March 1, 2025
Please submit your nominations via email to the current President, Sibel Alumur Alev (sibel.alumur@uwaterloo.ca), and Vice President (President-Elect), Okan Arslan (okan.arslan@hec.ca).
Transportation and Logistics Special Interest Group Seminar
by Leandro C. Coelho
Canada Research Chair in Integrated Logistics, Université Laval
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 10:00 am EST
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.
Our annual SIG meeting will be held on Monday, June 3, 2024, from 5:00-6:00 pm during the CORS conference in London, Ontario in room Suite 300 at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel. We will host a wine & cheese as well as a beer & pizza party during this annual gathering! We look forward to seeing you all in London, Ontario during the CORS Annual meeting!
We invite researchers to submit their papers to the special issue in INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research dedicated to the founding of the Transportation and Logistics SIG. The special issue is on novel applications and methodologies of operations research in emerging topics in transportation and logistics. The deadline is December 31, 2023, but the authors are encouraged to submit sooner than the deadline. Papers will be reviewed as they are received.
The award recognizes exceptional scientific contributions to the theory, methodology, and practice of Operational Research in Transportation and Logistics. It is named in honour of Professor Gilbert Laporte for his outstanding contributions to the development and applications of OR in Transportation and Logistics in Canada and beyond.
Congratulations to our four finalists, who presented their outstanding research at this year's CORS Conference. Honours go to the winner, Amin Ahmadi Digehsara, and the runner-up, Mina Torabi Milani.
This prestigious award acknowledges exceptional scientific contributions to the theory, methodology, and practice of Operational Research (OR) in Transportation and Logistics by an undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoctoral fellow. The award was named in honour of Professor Gilbert Laporte for his outstanding contributions to the development and applications of OR in Transportation and Logistics in Canada and beyond.
Entry Requirements
Submission
A cover letter (at most two pages) along with a pdf copy of the paper must be submitted by the application deadline on March 10, 2025, to the committee chair Sibel Alumur Alev (sibel.alumur@uwaterloo.ca) with the subject “Gilbert Laporte Student Paper Award Application”. The cover letter should at minimum discuss the motivation, the contribution and potential impact of the paper to the fields of transportation, logistics and operations research, and the role of the student in writing the paper. All co-authors must be CC’d in this email.
The jury is composed of Sibel Alumur Alev, Okan Arslan, and Gilbert Laporte.
Selection Criteria
Awards
This year, we held the inaugural "Gilbert Laporte Student Paper Award", recognizing exceptional scientific contributions to the theory, methodology, and practice of Operational Research (OR) in Transportation and Logistics! We had excellent submissions and four outstanding finalists who presented their work at this year’s Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) Conference.
The winner is Laura Kolcheva (PhD Student at Polytechnique Montréal) for “Online Stochastic Optimization for Real-Time Transfer Synchronization in Public Transportation Networks”.
Honorable mention went to Xin Wang (PhD Student at HEC Montréal) for “Crowdkeeping in Last-Mile Delivery”.
The jury was composed of Sibel Alumur Alev (chair), Elena Fernandez, and Gilbert Laporte himself. Thank you to everyone who participated and supported this competition! We look forward to holding it again next year.
The inaugural Gilbert Laporte Student Paper Award finalists and the titles of their papers are (in no particular order):
>> Maedah Sharbaf, Ph.D. student at HEC Montréal, "Risk-based shelter network design in flood-prone areas: An application to Haiti"
>> Bo Lin, Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, "Machine Learning-Augmented Optimization of Large Bilevel and Two-stage Stochastic Programs: Application to Cycling Network Design"
>> Xin Wang, Ph.D. student at HEC Montréal, "Crowdkeeping in Last-Mile Delivery"
>> Laura Kolcheva, Ph.D. student at Polytechnique Montréal, "Online Stochastic Optimization for Real-Time Transfer Synchronization in Public Transportation Networks"
Our four finalists will be presenting their papers on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, from 1:45-3:15 pm (Suite 300) at the CORS conference. The winner will be announced during the CORS banquet reception to be held on Tuesday night.
We look forward to seeing you all in London, Ontario during the CORS Annual meeting!
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If you are a CORS member and you are interested in joining the group, please fill out the "Join a Special Interest Group" section of this form.
If you are not a CORS member, you need to renew your CORS membership (see the application and renewal forms) and select the groups you're interested in.