ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING
As the number of electric vehicles being purchased rapidly increases, so does the task of EV charging on electric utility companies. New research by Owen Wu and Şafak Yücel of Georgetown University, USA, and Yangfang (Helen) Zhou of Singapore Management University, published in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (https://doi. org/10.1287/msom.2021.1019), finds that: 1. Allowing drivers to choose from a menu of prices and charging completion times is cheaper for drivers and electric utility companies, and cleaner for the environment. 2. A new electric vehicle charging model can reduce charging cost at public charging stations by 20% and associated emissions by 15% during a summer month. 3. The savings from implementing smart charging can mostly be achieved during peak-demand days.
© Graham Rand
The researchers argue that utilising new business models that promote ‘smart charging’ options can create a win-win situation that strengthens the mass market viability for the entire electric vehicle ecosystem.
O.R. FIGHTING DISEASES THROUGH FRENCH SUPPORT
In the last decade, France has made a major financial commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria across francophone countries, many of which are in the developing world. French project website L’Initiative reports France is maintaining its high level political and financial commitment to multilateral funds, contributing around €700 million a year since 2013. Between 2011 and 2017, €24.5 million of this funding went towards 22 projects and 35 ‘research missions’ that utilised operational research. L’Initiative says the funding for O.R. ‘made it possible to support projects that seek to enhance the effectiveness of Global Fund grants, and the response to the three pandemics overall, in innovative ways.’ This year, the call is for O.R. projects relating to ‘HIV, HPV and associated cancers’. Benefits may include early detection, targeted treatment and improved cures, as well as better vaccination programmes and – ultimately – effective prevention programmes for some of these deadly diseases. Find out more here: https://bit. ly/3tofgvW
$1 MILLION ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PRIZE
Cynthia Rudin, a prominent INFORMS member, has been named the recipient of the Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). The AAAI Squirrel AI Award is being dubbed the Nobel Prize of AI.
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© Cynthia Rudin
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Rudin, is being honoured for her work in pioneering interpretable and transparent artificial intelligence (AI) systems in real-world deployments, the advocacy for these features in highly sensitive areas such as social justice and medical diagnosis and serving as a role model for researchers and practitioners. She is a professor of computer science and engineering at Duke University and is the second recipient of the new annual award. Rudin is also a three-time recipient of the INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award, which recognizes creative and unique applications of analytical techniques. Rudin has applied her interpretable AI algorithms to several projects, beginning with her work with Con Edison, the energy company that powers New York City, where her team was working to predict power failures. She also collaborated with Massachusetts General Hospital designing a system to predict which patients are most at risk of having seizures after a stroke or other brain injury. Her work with the
