Analytics Competition Names Finalists, Including Boston, IBM, Louisville, Microsoft

INFORMS, an international association for professionals in operations research and analytics, has selected six finalists for the 48th annual Franz Edelman Award for Achievements in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science, according to a recent release. This year’s finalists offer contributions to wind energy production, environmental protection, consumer fraud deterrent, school bus scheduling, airline safety, and contract pipeline management. The finalists for the 2019 Edelman Award are: Boston Public Schools. Half of Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) 55,000 students take a yellow school bus to one of 125 schools each day. Planning the 45,000 miles for 646 buses daily was a significant undertaking, requiring 10 people and more than 3,000 hours. BPS held a nationwide months-long challenge to produce more effective results. The winning submission came from nearby MIT, which created a new bus routing algorithm generating a solution that was 20 percent more efficient in about 30 minutes.