By Alleli Domingo

The  Operations Research Society of the Philippines conducted its  3rd  National  Conference on  November 13, 2009 at Dusit Thani Hotel , Makati City .  The theme  was “OR: Paving the Way to Recovery.” Participants were OR educators, practitioners, and students from various places.

The opening plenary speaker  was Dr. Leonardo Q. Liongson,  a professor in the Institute of Civil Engineering of the University of the Philippines  Diliman. He explained the  mathematical aspects of simulation and optimization of water resources system, with emphasis on flow forecasting. He tackled the technical distinction between the operations and decisions for managing low flows and those for floods.

The closing plenary speaker was Dr. Benito Teehankee, associate professor of business and governance in the Ramon v. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business of De La Salle university. He advocated for the inclusion of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the teaching of OR and management science courses.  He stressed the importance of capturing quantitative and qualitative criteria for balanced decision- making.

The conference was a venue for disseminating the results of studies on multi-disciplinary problems. The papers presented showcased the power, impact and versatility of Operations Research and affirmed that the field flourishes all year-round. Technology for teaching was explored at the session for OR teachers, Junior OR analysts shared their views from the workplace. There were tutorial/demos on OR software for industry applications.

The parallel sessions ran along the following themes: theory and applications of data envelopment analysis. schedule optimization, operations research in human factors and medical applications, supply chain management, mathematical modeling and the environment, OR in Education, OR tools for strategy, and system dynamics.

The conference ended with the induction of the new officers and members of the Board of Directors, individual members from the academe and the industry, corporate members as well as student chapter representatives.

The national gathering fostered collaboration for sustained interest in the “science of better” amidst challenging times.