This award provides funding for travel support for students to attend the INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences) Southwest Regional Conference at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The conference is scheduled to take place on April 18-19, 2008. The format of the conference is very similar to that of an INFORMS General Meeting. It comprises plenary speaker(s), discussion panels, tutorials, and technical sessions. Travel support to this professional conference will benefit students in various dimensions. First, they will have the opportunity to disseminate their research and establish relationships with other researchers in the region. Second, they will gain invaluable experience-based knowledge in establishing student and regional organizations that promote the OR/MS profession. Third, it will help foster the professional preparation of students as future academicians and practitioners. They will have the opportunity to interact with several experienced colleagues in both domains as well as with other students. Lastly, being a regional conference of relatively a much smaller size than an annual INFORMS meeting, the students will have much more significant opportunity to achieve their above outlined objectives effectively and efficiently. In addition, travel support to this conference will provide an INFORMS conference experience to several students who do not attend the annual meetings as well as facilitate a more significant involvement of underrepresented groups in such events.
