ASOR
ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
December 2010
Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research | College of Business Administration | Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, OH
Department News
There have been some personnel changes in the department this past year. The College of Business Administration underwent staff reorganization this fall which affected the department. It was determined that the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research and the Department of Finance would share support staff. Marsha Olivarez continues as department secretary with the Department of Finance and is now also in that position with ASOR. Pat Prezkop was reassigned to the Graduate and Executive Programs in Business (GEPB) area of the college and is Graduate Secretary for the M.S. in Applied Statistics and M. of Accountancy programs since these are now administered from GEPB. Danny Myers accepted the university’s retirement incentive package and retired in June. Danny joined the department in 1984 and we wish to thank him for his many years of dedication and service to the Operations Research program and profession, the university, college and department. Chris Rump is on faculty improvement leave this academic year and is a Visiting Faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.
College of Business receives additional recognition
The College of Business is pleased to announce that our undergraduate business program ranks in the top 50 programs among public institutions for 2010! BusinessWeek ranks BGSU’s undergraduate business program at #45 in the U.S. among public institutions and #91 in the country among all programs. Company recruiters rank the program #24 among all universities. This puts us in a select group of business programs compared to the more than 1,500 undergraduate business programs nationwide. The College of Business Administration’s undergraduate program is once again ranked as one of the Best Undergraduate Business programs in the country by one of the nation’s most well-respected publications: U.S. News & World Report. This ranking was begun five years ago and the College of Business at BGSU has been included in this ranking for all five years. Dean Rodney Rogers commented that, “this external recognition validates the College’s stature as a ‘major league’ business college that is committed to the undergraduate educational experience.”
In This Issue Department News College of Business Administration News Chair’s Note Department Personnel News Department Alumni News BGSU News
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2010 Robert A. Patton Book Scholarship Prospective Student Day at the University of Michigan School of Public Health 2010 James A. Sullivan Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award First Annual ASOR Tailgate Party Ralph C. St. John Guest Speaker Series
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Chair’s Note
Season’s Greetings from the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research! I am happy to share with you the accomplishments of our alumni, students, faculty, and staff. This semester has been busy after my return from a one-year faculty improvement leave spent at the University of Michigan. The Center for Business Analytics will start expanding its role to assist area businesses in analyzing and solving problems using quantitative methods as well as offer training seminars in the use of quantitative methods and software. We are excited about the opportunities this will provide for our students and faculty. If your company needs to conduct training in the use of quantitative methods or if you have a project we can assist you with, please keep us in mind. As part of our foray into business analytics, I am happy to report a number of curricular initiatives we are currently undertaking. We are proposing a new undergraduate specialization that will be housed within ASOR. The new specialization is called Business Analytics and Intelligence. We will work closely with the MIS faculty to deliver this new specialization. As part of that proposal, a new undergraduate course in data mining has been proposed and approved by the college. You may also recall that about two years ago we created an Operations Research specialization within the MSAS program. We are in the process of modifying its curriculum and renaming it as a Business Analytics specialization. These are exciting initiatives we are undertaking for the next year or two, and I will update you on the developments of these initiatives. Thanks to all of you who have made financial contributions to the ASOR Foundation or assisted the department in other ways during the past year. Your tax deductible contributions support a variety of departmental activities. The Robert A. Patton Book Scholarship and the James A. Sullivan Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award recognize exceptional students with a modest financial reward. The Ralph C. St. John Guest Speaker Series brings guest speakers to campus to share their knowledge and experiences. This series has been very well-received by our graduate students and many others within the campus community. Some of our best speakers have been our former students. I encourage you to volunteer to share your career experiences at an upcoming seminar. For those of you who wish to make a financial contribution this year, a contribution form and a postage-paid envelope are enclosed for your convenience. Please also check to see if your employer has a program for matching contributions. Please keep in touch. We enjoy hearing about your personal news and take great pride in your professional accomplishments. We would also love to hear from you if your employer has internship or employment opportunities for our current students. As always, we are ready to assist our alumni and friends wherever possible. From time to time we receive news of job opportunities for candidates with several years of work experience. By having your most recent contact information on file, we will be able to alert you of these opportunities in a timely fashion. Happy Holidays to you all! Arthur Yeh, Professor and Chair (419) 372-8386 byeh@bgsu.edu
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Department Personnel News
Nancy Boudreau (nboudre@bgsu.edu) continues as Director of the Center for Business Analytics and Graduate Coordinator in charge of recruitment for the M.S. in Applied Statistics. The Center will now provide statistical support to area businesses. Jane Chang (changj@bgsu.edu) continues as Associate Professor with the department. Diane Conway (dconway@bgsu.edu), M.S.A.S., continues as an Instructor with the department. Herb McGrath (rnmcgra@bgsu.edu) is Graduate Coordinator in charge of admitted students in the M.S. in Applied Statistics program. Herb was elected Secretary of the Statistics Division of the American Society for Quality and presented “Dispersion Contrasts for Replicated Designs” at the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, Canada, in August. Marsha Olivarez (molivar@bgsu.edu) has been with BGSU since 1984. Marsha is completing course work for a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies. Pat Prezkop (prezkop@bgsu.edu) may now be contacted in Graduate and Executive Programs in Business and her new phone number is 419-372-2748. Pat plans to retire in May 2011. Madhu Rao (rao@bgsu.edu) continues as Senior Associate Dean of the College. Chris Rump (cmrump@bgsu.edu) attended the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX, in November where he presented a paper entitled “Constrained Clustering for Departmental Reorganization.” During his faculty improvement leave, Chris is working with colleagues in the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. The focus of his study there involves modeling the dynamics of supply chain operations. In particular, the study will investigate the chaotic instability
that may arise in supply chain performance due to lags in delivery time, and how this behavior may be mitigated or exacerbated by facility location decisions. Ken Ryan (kjryan@bgsu.edu) was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor this spring. During the past year, Ken had one journal publication published, Ryan, K.J. and Bulutoglu, D.A. (2010), “Minimum aberration fractional factorial designs with large N,” Technometrics, 52, 2, 250-255, was awarded a BGSU Faculty Research Committee Research Incentive Grant for June 2010-May 2011, and spent two weeks in July at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, visiting the Statistical Sciences Group and working on collaborative research. Tom Smith (tasmith@bgsu.edu) continues as an Instructor with the department. Tom has expanded his teaching area and will be teaching OR 3800, Introduction to Management Science, in the spring. Arthur Yeh (byeh@bgsu.edu) returned from Faculty Improvement Leave and resumed duties as Chair of the department. During his FIL, Arthur worked with faculty from the University of Michigan on using statistical quality control techniques to assess the overall quality of cardiac surgeries performed at a cardiovascular center in England. He also worked with two faculty members at Tsinghua University in Beijing on developing multivariate control charts. He spent a few weeks in May and June visiting a number of universities in Taiwan and in China. Arthur will be involved with the Center for Business Analytics by reaching out to the area business community to give information about the services that are available at the Center.
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Department Alumni News
Graham Blatz, M.S.A.S. (2010), will graduate in December and has accepted a position with First Solar, Inc., in Perrysburg, OH. Graham has been working at First Solar as part of his assistantship duties which led to this job. George Chamaa, M.S.C.S./O.R. (2007), is Transportation Manager at The Home Depot in Birmingham, AL. Mario Colangelo, M.S.A.S. (1997), is a Data Analyst at Progressive Insurance in the Cleveland, OH, area. Jennifer Collister, M.S.A.S. (1995), is a Consulting Actuary with Towers Watson in Cleveland, OH. Tingting Dai, M.S.A.S. (2009), received her MBA from BGSU in August and returned to China. Tingting met and assisted a group of BGSU Executive MBA students, faculty and staff who traveled to Beijing in September. Chia-Jen “Charles” Ding, M.S.A.S. (2004), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Qiansha Ding, M.S.A.S./O.R. (2010), graduated in August and accepted a position with Amazon.com, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. Mark Ewing, M.S.A.S. (2010), will graduate in December and has accepted a position with Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport, TN. This opportunity came about because of a job announcement from Mike Morrow, B.S.B.A. (1989), who is with the Applied Statistics Group, Global Quality, at Eastman Chemical and also will be Mark’s mentor when he joins the company. After Mark was hired, Mike was very complimentary on how well the faculty and coursework had prepared Mark for his technical interview during the site visit. Ziqian Geng, M.S.A.S. (2009), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
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Rob Green, M.S.C.S./O.R. (2007), is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH. Bill Herald, M.S.A.S. (1978), continues as a Research Consultant with CustomerSat. We now have started a second generation within the M.S. in Applied Statistics program since Bill’s daughter, Amy, is a first-year student in the program. Paul Hurd, M.S.A.S. (2003), is an actuary at Grange Insurance in Columbus, OH. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics sponsored an event in October with Paul giving an informal, informational session on actuarial careers and careers with Grange Insurance. Nan Jia, M.S.A.S. (2007), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Yin “Meggie” Jiang, M.S.A.S. (2004), is a Senior Pricing Analyst at Nationwide Insurance, Columbus, OH. Meggie is married to Tiger Shen. Vahid Joshaghani, M.S.C.S./O.R. (2009), completed the M.S. in Financial Engineering at Kent State University in May. Diana (Printz) Kucharski, M.S.A.S. (1993), is Director of Data Management at Equable Ascent Financial, LLC, in the Chicago area. Erin Leatherman, M.S.A.S. (2008), is in the third year of the Ph.D. program in Statistics at the Ohio State University. This fall, she started as a Research Associate with Tom Santner and Angela Dean and is working on Design and Computer Experiment problems. Erin passed her second qualifying exam on her first attempt this fall. John Leopold, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in May and accepted a position as a Junior Clinical Biostatistician with DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. (a division of Johnson and Johnson) in Warsaw, IN. John and Angie were married in May.
Yu Diana Li, M.S.A.S. (1995), returned to China in 2000. Her last job in China was CEO of an on-line entertainment company called Shanda. The company was publicly traded on NASDAQ and had revenue of $767 million in 2009. She left Shanda earlier this year to start a new on-line company with her husband. Diana has won numerous awards for her leadership in business, as well as for her contributions to many community organizations. This is an example of what our graduates accomplish in their many career paths. Siyu Lin, M.S.A.S./O.R. (2010), graduated in August and is a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Xiaodong Ma, M.S.A.S. (2010)/Ph.D. Psychology, will graduate in December and is teaching in the Houston area. Joseph Mayoraglo, M.S.A.S. (1991), continues with McDonald’s USA in the Chicago area. Manoj Mohite, M.S.C.S./O.R. (2003), took a job assignment in India earlier this year and is Assistant Vice President, HSBC EDPI, Bangalore, India. Mukund Padmanabhan, M.S.A.S. (1999), is a statistical consultant with Hoffman-La Roche in the greater New York City area. Mary Elvi Paler, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in August and accepted a position as a faculty member at Southwestern College, at the Dayton, OH, campus. Andrea Reese, M.S.A.S. (2000), is Chair of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, FL. Gary Rensi, B.S.B.A./M.S.A.S. (1992), is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Columbus State Community College, Columbus, OH.
with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at BGSU. Sai Sampathkumar, M.S.A.S. (2001), is Director, Domore Tools and Accessories, LTD., in Chennai, India. Xiaoyu Sang, M.S.A.S. (1998), is a Manager II in Credit Modeling at Washington Mutual in the greater Seattle, WA, area. Mark Sembower, M.S.A.S. (2002), is a Statistician with Pinney Associates, Inc., in Pittsburgh, PA. Mark presented a guest lecture this spring (see page 8). Mark and his wife, Cara, are the parents of a young daughter, Annabeth. Liang Shan, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in August and is in the graduate program in Statistics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Qi “Tiger” Shen, M.S.A.S. (2003), is a Consultant for Reinsurance/Risk Management at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, OH. Haoliang “Eric” Song, M.S.A.S (2002), is with Takeda Pharmaceuticals in the Chicago area. Zhiyuan “Samuel” Sun, M.S.A.S. (2007), is a Biostatistician at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH. Terri Torres, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in August and is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Mathematics at the Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR. Jim Velayas, M.S.A.S. (1977), continues with his consulting firm, Empirical Research Solutions, Inc., San Antonio, TX. Bindu Viswanathan, M.S.A.S., (1994), defended her thesis in Conservation Biology at Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, this fall. Shufang Wang, M.S.A.S. (2005), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Jim Roll, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in May and is in the Ph.D. program in Statistics
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Xiaofu “Steven” Wang, M.S.A.S. (2000), returned to China in 2008 and is with AonCOFCO Insurance Brokers/Aon Consulting in Beijing. Zhijie “Jet” Wang, M.S.A.S., (2009), completed his M.Ed. in Educational Administration and Supervision at BGSU this August.
Junrui Xu, M.S.A.S./O.R. (2010), graduated in August and is a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Yan Amy Yu, M.S.A.S. (1999), is working as Manager of the Advanced Analytics Team with Alliance Data in Columbus, OH.
Cheng Wenren, M.S.A.S. (2010), graduated in August and is in the Ph.D. program in Statistics with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at BGSU.
Babak Zafari, M.S.C.S./O.R. (2008), is a Ph.D. student at the School of Business, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Xue Wu, M.S.A.S.(2010)/M.A.Econ, graduated in May and accepted a fellowship in the Ph.D. program in Economics at the Ohio State University.
Nanhua Zhang, M.S.A.S. (2006), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Xi Xia, M.S.A.S. (2007), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Fang Xiang, M.S.A.S. (2006), continues in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Xiaobo “Tony” Zhong, M.S.A.S. (2009), recently accepted a position with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Jeremy Xu, M.S.A.S. (1997), has his own consulting firm, Jeremy Xu Consulting.
University Recognizes 100 Most Prominent Alumni
As BGSU turned 100 years old in 2010, many celebrations have been held across campus in honor of this milestone. One of these Centennial celebrations was to honor BGSU’s top 100 most prominent alumni who have launched their careers following their successful education at the University. Numerous honorees graduated from or have invested in the business college and we are proud to recognize their outstanding success and applaud their generosity. For a complete list of all 100 BGSU honorees, go to http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/alumni/ programs/page18614.html
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2010 James A. Sullivan Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award
This spring the outstanding graduate assistant award was presented to Rainier Sabangan, M.S.A.S., in recognition of his superior contributions to and performance of his graduate assistantship duties. We were very pleased that Jim Sullivan could join us for the lunch and presentation. Rainier and Jim are pictured here.
2010 Robert A. Patton Book Scholarship
This fall, the book scholarships were awarded to second-year students, Ms. Mei Chen, M.S.A.S. and Ms. Wen Yang, M.S.A.S., for their outstanding scholastic accomplishments.
Prospective Student Day at the University of Michigan School of Public Health
In October, the department sponsored a group of M.S.A.S. students to travel to Ann Arbor for the Prospective Student Day at the School of Public Health. This is a very strong connection for our program since at the present time we have 7 alumni in the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics there.
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First Annual ASOR Tailgate Party
The department broke tradition this year and had a tailgate party instead of the usual department picnic. On September 18, faculty, staff and students gathered outside of Doyt Perry stadium and enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs as well as other tailgate fare. Perhaps this is the start of a new tradition!
Ralph C. St. John Guest Speaker Series
We are very happy with the continued success of the guest speaker series which has included visits and talks by alumni and other guests. We are pleased that Ralph has joined us for all the presentations. We wish to thank Ralph and our alumni for their continuing financial support of this speaker series. In April, Mark Sembower, M.S.A.S. (2002), presented “Statistical Consulting for the Pharmaceutical Industry”. Mark is a Statistician
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with Pinney and Associates, Inc., in Pittsburgh, PA. In October, Polona Carson, Ph.D. (MBA-BGSU), and Fei Li, Cooper Tire and Rubber Co., Findlay, OH, presented “Using Statistics in Two Functions within a Manufacturing Company”. Polona is an Analytical Chemist in the Materials Laboratory; Fei is a Business Analyst in the Global Quality Department. Although their jobs are seemingly from different functions, they both rely on statistics.