TEC header

Organizers:

Croatian Operational Research Society in collaboration with prof. James J. Cochran (Louisiana Tech University), Faculty of Economics in Osijek & Department of Mathematics, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

About the TEC

The Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium (TEC) workshop is organized in conjunction with the KOI 2014 conference with the aim to enhance the quality of teaching OR courses at universities.

Chair:

James J. Cochran, Louisiana Tech University, USA

Invited lecturers:

James J. Cochran, Louisiana Tech University, USA
Michael J. Fry, University of Cincinnati, USA
Jeffrey D. Camm, University of Cincinnati, USA

The purpose and importance of the workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to enhance the quality of teaching operational research (OR) and related courses (courses in quantiative methods, analytics and information sciences) by using active learning, software simulation, and modeling tools.

The tools of OR are tremendously relevant and useful in the modern world. The speed of ICT development and networking require advanced methods of business analytics to process large amounts of data. It is increasingly important that we efficiently use resources, and this can be accomplished through the tools of operations research. Operations researchers are constantly finding new and novel ways to apply the discipline in business, engineering, and even the sciences. OR methods has potential to be used to resolve societal issues, and to improve the quality of life for everyone.

Who can apply and how?

This workshop is aimed for: academic teachers, young researchers, and high school teachers from Croatia and other countries in order to enhance their knowledge and skills in modern way of teaching OR.

There is no registration fee for the TEC Workshop but the participants need to register in advance.

If you are attending KOI conference, you can register for the TEC workshop at the same time while registering for KOI conference – simply by using KOI Registration form under the Registration and Fees left-side menu (one of the questions in the form will be about attending TEC workshop).

If you only plan to attend TEC workshop and not to attend KOI conference, you can register for the TEC workshop by sending e-mail to: hdoi@hdoi.hr with the following information (put “TEC registration” in the subject of the message):

  • First and last name
  • Institution
  • Country
  • Position (or occupation)
  • E-mail

The workshop will be also a sustainable event, in a way that several participants from Croatia will be instructed by the TEC lecturers to continue organizing such workshops in Croatia and other countries, especially in the Central and Eastern Europe, in order to continuously improve the quality of OR teaching.

Topics:

 Topic

Instructor

 Modeling for Insights  Jeffrey D. Camm
 Excel-Based Tools for Teaching Analytics Michael J. Fry
 Engaging and Re-Engaging Students with Active Learning  James J. Cochran

Each lecture will be given in a 90-minute session per day from September 24-26 2014. The lectures will be case-based, with the usage of computer facilities. Place of event is the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, Trg Ljudevita Gaja 7, 31000 Osijek, Croatia.

The Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium (TEC) has been previously organized by INFORMS & J.J. Cochran in USA, Uruguay, South Africa, Colombia, Kenya, India and Argentina.

Instructors of TEC Croatia 2014

Cochran imageProfessor James J. Cochran has a rich experience in OR teaching methods. He has published a number of papers in journals, 5 books, and other publications in the area of OR. He is the Editor in Chief of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, Vol 8, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, and was the Editor in Chief of the INFORMS Transactions on Education from 2007-2012. Professor Cochran has served as President, Vice President – Projects, and Vice President – Meetings of INFORM-ED (INFORMS’ Forum on Education). He is also the Founding Chair of IFORS/INFORMS International Education Initiative, he was the General Chair of INFORMS 2005 Conference in San Francisco and is a member of INFORMS’ Publications, Diversity, Education, Student Affairs, and Strategic Marketing Committees. He established and has organized INFORMS’ Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium series and annual Case Competition.

James J. Cochran received M.B.A. in 1985 from Wright State University. He then earned a Ph.D. in Quantitative Analysis from the University of Cincinnati in 1997. Currently an Associate Professor at Louisiana Tech University, he has previously been on the faculty at Wright State University, Drexel University, Miami University, and Stanford University. He has published a number of papers in journals, 5 books, and other publications in the area of OR. He received a number of awards, such as INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice, 2008 and others.

jeffrey cammJeffrey D. Camm is the Head of the Department of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems at University of Cincinnati, and Director of the Center for Business Analytics at the same university. He was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and Stanford University. He earned his BS from Xavier University, Cincinnati, in Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude, 1980, and PhD in Management from Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 1984. He coauthored six books, and a number of research papers in relevant journals such as Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Interfaces, Management Science and others. He received a number of awards, such as INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice, 2006 and others.

 

michael fry imageMichael J. Fry is an Associate Professor with Tenure at Department of Operations, Business Analytics & Information Systems, University of Cincinnati, as well as the Assistant Director of the Center for Business Analytics, University of Cincinnati. He earned M.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan in 1998, and a PhD degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan in 2002. He is the author of four books, several book chapters, and has published a number of papers in relevant journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and others.

 

Outcomes of the workshop

It is expected that the workshop will enhance the quality of OR teaching such that it will (a)  introduce academic teachers with the skill of enforcing active learning among students in classroom learning and distance learning, (b)  introduce teachers to intensively use software tools to teach on practical examples (such as Excel add-ins for optimization, mathematical programming, scenario-based analysis etc.), and (c) improve the quality of building and using models in teaching OR.

TEC Croatia 2014 Preliminary program

Location and Venue

The workshop will take place at Faculty of Economics in Osijek, University of Osijek, Trg Ljudevita Gaja 7, Osijek, Croatia.

City of Osijek is located at the North-East of Croatia in Slavonia region near the border of Hungary. It can be reached by car, bus or train. Nearest airports are in Zagreb and Budapest. Please find more information about travel, city of Osijek, hotels etc. on web site http://www.osijek.hr/en/.

For hotels and directions on how to reach us see the Location and Venue.

Workshop Contact

To register for TEC Croatia 2014 workshop, click here. There is no registration fee for the TEC Workshop, but the registration process is obligatory so that we can reserve enough seats in the lecture room.

For questions about TEC Croatia 2014 contact us:
Croatian Operational Research Society
Trg J.F. Kennedya 6, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
hdoi@hdoi.hr
http://www.hdoi.hr/tec
Marijana Zekic-Susac
University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics in Osijek
Trg Ljudevita Gaja 7, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Tel: +385 31 224-456
Fax: +385 31 211-604
e-mail: hdoi@hdoi.hr