2007 Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award in Supply Chain Optimization

Sponsored by The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida

Supply Chain And Logistics Engineering (SCALE) Center

Award Summary

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, through its Supply Chain And Logistics Engineering (SCALE) Center (www.ise.ufl.edu/scale), is pleased to announce a doctoral dissertation proposal award competition in the area of Supply Chain Optimization. The purpose of this competition is to promote leading edge research in the application of optimization techniques in the areas of supply chain and logistics management, and to create a forum for the timely dissemination of innovative research to industry and academia through the SCALE Center’s annual Supply Chain Optimization Conference and online technical report series.

Eligibility

This competition is open to any graduate students pursuing a doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering or Operations Management (or a related field) at any institution of higher learning that has not yet fully carried out the dissertation research (that is, they have just completed the dissertation proposal phase towards the doctoral degree, and are at the beginning stages of dissertation work). Eligibility requires that the student has no less than one year until the final dissertation defense. The award seeks to recognize novel optimization-based approaches for solving problems within the broad area of supply chain management. Such proposals should place an equal amount of emphasis on relevant supply chain applications contexts for the research, and the optimization-based methods employed to solve the associated problems.

Award Amounts

We will identify up to three finalists, who will be invited to present their work in a special session at the 6th Annual Florida Supply Chain Optimization Conference (www.ise.ufl.edu/cao/conf2007) which will be held in Gainesville, Florida, February 16-17, 2007. All finalists will receive up to $500 in (domestic) expenses to travel to the conference. In addition, the top award will support travel expenses incurred in conducting the proposed research of the awardee and will consist of $1,500 which may be used for travel within the U.S.

Competition Deadlines and Administration

Doctoral students will be required to submit a description of their proposed dissertation work (limited to a total of 5 pages, including references, appendices, etc., typeset in 12pt font) by November 15, 2006. A review committee of SCALE Center faculty and their peers will then choose a pool of no more than three finalists, who will be notified by December 15, 2006. These finalists will then submit a more detailed description of their proposed work (up to 15 pages) by January 31, 2007. Finalists will present their work at a special session at the 6th Annual Florida Supply Chain Conference and the winner, who will be chosen from the finalists by the review committee, will be announced at the conference dinner. A one-page description of the finalists’ research proposals will be included in the conference program. The winner will be expected to submit a technical report for inclusion in the SCALE Center’s technical report series within one year of receiving the award.

Proposal Submission

Initial proposals should be submitted electronically to Professor H. Edwin Romeijn via email in PDF file format by November 15, 2006. We do not require any special formatting for the initial proposals other than the 5-page limit and 12pt font size.