Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering | Open Access Articles

Pro Bono Analytics: A Program By Informs To Match Members Willing To Volunteer Their Analytical Skills With Nonprofit Organizations Working In Underserved Areas Or With Underserved Populations [Poster], Rina Schneur, Victoria Chen, Jim Cochran, Terry Cryan, Arnold Greenland, David Hunt, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Paul Rubin

Michael P. Johnson

•INFORMS members (and non-members) volunteer to work with charitable organizations

•Charitable organizations (non-profits) request analytics help

•Pro Bono Analytics committee assists non-profits with formulation & scoping

•Volunteers provide service free (except expenses)

•Win-Win:

- Clients get helpful analytics

- Volunteers get experience and do something charitable

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Pro Bono Analytics – Addressing Business Problems Faced By Nonprofit Organizations, David Hunt, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Pro Bono Analytics is an INFORMS program that matches volunteers with nonprofit organizations working in underserved areas and for underserved populations. The nonprofits tend to be small and without the resources to utilize traditional operations research and advanced analytical methods. This talk will focus on how to communicate the value of OR/analytics to nonprofits, and perhaps more importantly, what we have learned about applying OR/analytical methods to problems that truly matter to our nonprofit clients.

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Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani

Michael P. Johnson

Main Street organizations develop local development initiatives that support economic and social goals. We describe an application of value-focused thinking and community-based operations research to identify economic development performance metrics and decision alternatives for local development interventions. Using interviews with stakeholders in three Boston communities, we show how values structures vary across communities and stakeholder groups and how attributes can be quantified using a variety of data sources. We conclude by presenting a composite values structure to support improved operations management and strategy design for all Boston Main Street districts.

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An Agenda For Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or/Ms/Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau

Michael P. Johnson

Diversity and inclusion have been widely studied and debated, most often within the social sciences. What contributions can operations research, management science and analytics make to this domain of inquiry? This talk will critically examine assumptions and practices within the decision sciences that may support as well impede diversity- and inclusion-related research, and propose a research agenda that can challenge yet enrich our profession.

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Estimating Strategic Impacts Of Foreclosed Housing Redevelopment Using Spatial Analysis, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Community-based organizations engaged in foreclosure response wish to quantify the relative value of housing units for redevelopment. We measure the 'strategic value' of property acquisition candidates based on proximity to site-specific neighborhood amenities and disamenities, given the relative importance of that proximity to CDC organizational and community objectives. We show that strategic values can differ in systematic ways depending on the types of amenities and disamenities identified as relevant for acquisition decisions, the relative importance assigned to those amenities and disamenities, and the utility maximization objectives of the organization.

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James M. Resume.Doc, Jim Maskil

Jim Maskil

No abstract provided.

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Forecasting Oled Tv Technology Using Bibliometrics And Fisher-Pry Diffusion Model, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul Unsal Daim, Paul Sklar

Joseph Cho

The market of flat panel displays is experiencing rapid growth with the advancement of digital technologies in broadcasting service. The next challenge of LCD is OLED in TV market. The study attempts to investigate the trends in advanced or emerging technologies by determining their technology diffusion rates due to the lack of experiential data. With the development of information and communication technology, one of the recent methods to assist in technology forecasting is data mining in bibliometric or textual data from various sources such as patents, journals, and research awards. The information extracted from diverse sources can be employed in …

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Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani

Michael P. Johnson

Main Street organizations are community-based nonprofits across the USA dedicated to local economic development through physical improvements, technical assistance to businesses, marketing and placebuilding. In this paper we identify metrics associated with success in local economic development and generate decision opportunities for improved program design and implementation. Our community partners, Main Street organizations in the city of Boston, want to ensure that data they collect about their service areas can help them measure progress towards achieving their individual goals as well as identify programs and initiatives that make best use of their resources and expertise. Using a mixed methods, inductive …

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In Memoriam: Howard Raiffa, Jeffrey Keisler

Jeffrey Keisler

No abstract provided.

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Systems Social Seience: A Design Inquiry Approach For Stabilization And Reconstruction Of Social Systems, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

This paper explores novel approaches under the design inquiry paradigm that promise to help organizations better understand and solve socio-technical dilemmas. Design inquiry is contrasted with scientific inquiry (Section 1). Section 2 presents a meso-scale model of models methodology for design inquiry that synthesizes systems science, agent modeling and simulation, knowledge management architectures, and domain theories and knowledge. The goal is to focus computational science on exploring underlying mechanisms (white box modeling) and to support reflective theorizing and discourse to explain social dilemmas and potential resolutions. Section 3 then describes an evolving agent modeling and simulation testbed while Section 4 …

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Rich Socio-Cognitive Agents For Immersive Training Environments: Case Of Nonkin Village, Barry G. Silverman, David Pietrocola, Ben Nye, Nathan Weyer, Oleg Osin, Dan Johnson, Ransom Weaver

Barry G Silverman

Demand is on the rise for scientifically based human-behavior models that can be quickly customized and inserted into immersive training environments to recreate a given society or culture. At the same time, there are no readily available science model-driven environments for this purpose (see survey in Sect. 2). In researching how to overcome this obstacle, we have created rich (complex) socio-cognitive agents that include a large number of social science models (cognitive, sociologic, economic, political, etc) needed to enhance the realism of immersive, artificial agent societies. We describe current efforts to apply model-driven development concepts and how to permit other …

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Holistically Evaluating Agent Based Social System Models, Gnana K. Bharathy, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

The philosophical perspectives on model evaluation can be broadly classified into reductionist/logical positivist and relativist/holistic. In this paper, we outline some of our past efforts in, and challenges faced during, evaluating models of social systems with cognitively detailed agents. Owing to richness in the model, we argue that the holistic approach and consequent continuous improvement are essential to evaluating complex social system models such as these. A social system built primarily of cognitively detailed agents can provide multiple levels of correspondence, both at observable and abstract aggregated levels. Such a system can also pose several challenges, including large feature spaces, …

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A Systems Approach To Healthcare: Agent-Based Modeling, Community Mental Health, And Population Well-Being, Barry G. Silverman, Nancy Hanrahan, Gnana K. Bharathy, Kim Gordon, Dan Johnson

Barry G Silverman

Purpose Explore whether agent-based modeling and simulation can help healthcare administrators discover interventions that increase population wellness and quality of care while, simultaneously, decreasing costs. Since important dynamics often lie in the social determinants outside the health facilities that provide services, this study thus models the problem at three levels (individuals, organizations, and society). Methods The study explores the utility of translating an existing (prize winning) software for modeling complex societal systems and agent's daily life activities (like a Sim City style of software), into a desired decision support system. A case study tests if the 3 levels of system …

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Social Learning And Adoption Of New Behavior In A Virtual Agent Society, Benjamin D. Nye, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

Social learning and adoption of new behavior govern the rise of a variety of behaviors: from actions as mundane as dance steps to those as dangerous as new ways to make IED detonators. However, agents in immersive virtual environments lack the ability to realistically simulate the spread of new behavior. To address this gap, a cognitive model was designed that represents the well-known socio-cognitive factors of attention, social influence, and motivation that influence learning and the adoption of a new behavior. To explore the effectiveness of this model, simulations modeled the spread of two competing memes in Hamariyah, an archetypal …

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Social Learning And Adoption Of New Behavior In A Virtual Agent Society, Benjamin D. Nye, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

Social learning and adoption of new behavior govern the rise of a variety of behaviors: from actions as mundane as dance steps to those as dangerous as new ways to make IED detonators. However, agents in immersive virtual environments lack the ability to realistically simulate the spread of new behavior. To address this gap, a cognitive model was designed that represents the well-known socio-cognitive factors of attention, social influence, and motivation that influence learning and the adoption of a new behavior. To explore the effectiveness of this model, simulations modeled the spread of two competing memes in Hamariyah, an archetypal …

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Human-Robot Interaction: Proximity And Speed—Slowly Back Away From The Robot!, Keith R. Macarthur, Kimberly Stowers, Peter A. Hancock

Keith Reid MacArthur

This experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of proximity and speed of approach on trust in human-robot interaction (HRI). The experimental design used a 2 (Speed) × 2 (Proximity) mixed factorial design and trust levels were measured by self-report on the Human Robot Trust Scale and the Trust in Automation Scale. Data analyses indicate proximity [F(2, 146) = 6.842, p < 0.01, partial ŋ 2 = 0.086] and speed of approach [F(2, 146) = 2.885, p = 0.059, partial ŋ 2 = 0.038] are significant factors contributing to changes in trust levels.

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Attending To Scientific#12; Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina M. Quan, Chandra Anne Turpen, Andrew R. Elby

Gina Quan

Ford (2015) argues for viewing “scientific practice” not as a list of particular skills, but rather, more

holistically as “sets of regularities of behaviors and social interactions” among scientists. This

conceptualization of scientific practices foregrounds how they meaningfully connect to one another and are

purposefully employed in order to explain nature. We apply this framework in the context of undergraduate

research experiences (UREs) to understand the early forms of student engagement in scientific practices,

and how these specific forms of engagement may be consequential for students’ future participation. Using

video from interviews with students and research mentors, we argue that …

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Community-Based Operations Research: Data Analytics And Decision Modeling For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

‘Community-based operations research’ is an extension of multiple traditions in OR/MS to produce research for local change. CBOR attempts to incorporate critical thinking, evidence-based policy design and prescriptive decision modeling. This presentation introduces a theory of CBOR and reviews current applications to support a collection of new scholarship. These applications include foreclosure response, vacant land management and local economic development. We conclude with suggestions to expand the field of CBOR.

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How Can Value Elicitation In Adult Basic Education Support Learners’ Success In Goal-Setting Policy?, Alma H. Biba, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

For the last two decades, federal legislation and Massachusetts’ state ABE policies have linked adult learners’ educational outcomes to accountability requirements. Using a multi-method approach ABE learners’ goal setting was presented as a decision problem in order to reveal and disentangle the conflicting preferences fueled by outcome-based accountability requirements. Elicitation of values using value-focused thinking (VFT) methodology revealed that learner’s self-defined goals are consistently distinct from program-defined goals, that teachers recognize this disjunction, and that efforts to reconcile the two could yield significant improvements in ABE program outcomes.

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Balancing Research And Funding Using Value Of Information And Portfolio Tools For Nanomaterial Risk Classification

Jeffrey Keisler

Risk research for nanomaterials is currently prioritized by means of expert workshops and other deliberative processes. However, analytical techniques that quantify and compare alternative research investments are increasingly recommended. Here, we apply value of information and portfolio decision analysis—methods commonly applied in financial and operations management—to prioritize risk research for multiwalled carbon nanotubes and nanoparticulate silver and titanium dioxide. We modify the widely accepted CB Nanotool hazard evaluation framework, which combines nano- and bulk-material properties into a hazard score, to operate probabilistically with uncertain inputs. Literature is reviewed to develop uncertain estimates for each input parameter, and a Monte Carlo …

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A Virtual Environment For Enterprise Engineering Education, Can Saygin, Benjamin Dow, Raymond Kluczny, Majdi Najm, Scott Grasman

Dow Scott

Several resources highlight the need to effectively use modern technology to gain more productive and rewarding undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education. In addition to the growth of information technology, the importance of hands-on practice and active learning has been highlighted in various resources. These factors, coupled with inadequate and insufficient real-world experiences in undergraduate education, have become a major reason for under-qualified and under-employed graduates. This paper discusses the creation of the University of Missouri Virtual Enterprise, which provides context for development of learning modules for enterprise engineering education. This approach will improve the undergraduate education experience by …

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Operational Resilience: Concepts, Design And Analysis, Alexander A. Ganin, Emanuelle Massaro, Alexander Gutfraind, Nicholas Steen, Jeffrey Keisler, Alexander Kott, Rami Mangoubi, Igor Linkov

Jeffrey Keisler

Building resilience into today’s complex infrastructures is critical to the daily functioning of society and

its ability to withstand and recover from natural disasters, epidemics, and cyber-threats. This study

proposes quantitative measures that capture and implement the definition of engineering resilience

advanced by the National Academy of Sciences. The approach is applicable across physical, information,

and social domains. It evaluates the critical functionality, defined as a performance function of time set

by the stakeholders. Critical functionality is a source of valuable information, such as the integrated

system resilience over a time interval, and its robustness. The paper demonstrates the formulation …

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Procesy Cieplne I Aparaty (Lab), Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

-

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On Convergence Analysis Of Dual Proximal-Gradient Methods With Approximate Gradient For A Class Of Nonsmooth Convex Minimization Problems, Sanming Liu, Zhijie Wang, Chongyang Liu

Chongyang Liu

In this paper, we consider the problem of minimizing a nonsmooth convex objective which is the sum of a proper, nonsmooth, closed, strongly convex extend real-valued function with a proper, nonsmooth, closed, convex extend real-valued function.

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Nonlinear 3d Finite Element Modeling For Structural Failure Analysis Of Concrete Sleepers/Bearers At An Urban Turnout Diamond, Minh Vu, Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Mario Attard

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Railway urban turnout is a special track system used to divert a train from a particular direction or a particular track onto other directions or other tracks. It is a structural grillage system that consists of steel rails, points (or called “switches”), crossings, steel plates, rubber pads, insulators, fasteners, screw spikes, beam bearers (either tim- ber, polymer, steel, or concrete), ballast and formation. There are two types of turnouts, a conventional turnout and a tangential turnout. Standard conventional turnouts are designed typically for straight main line track. The combination of switch length, heel angle, and cross rate defines the turnout …

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Inżynieria Chemiczna Lab., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

-

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Empirical Analysis Of Volunteer Convergence Following The 2011 Tornado Disaster In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Emmett Lodree, Lauren B. Davis

Dr. Lauren B Davis

Volunteer convergence refers to the mass movement of volunteers

toward affected areas following disaster events. Emergency

management professionals sometimes refer to volunteer convergence as

``the disaster within the disaster,'' which is an indicator of the

tremendous challenge that managing the post-disaster influx of

spontaneous volunteers presents. In order to develop effective

strategies for managing volunteer convergence, it is imperative that

emergency managers and coordinators understand the nature of

convergence from a quantitative perspective. This paper presents a

case study of volunteer convergence following the April 2011 tornado

disaster in Tuscaloosa, …

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Oled Tv Technology Forecasting Using Technology Mining And The Fisher-Pry Diffusion Model, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul U. Daim

Joseph Cho

Purpose – Due to rapid technological evolution driven by display manufacturers, the television (TV) market of ﬂat panel displays has been fast growing with the advancement of digital technologies in broadcasting service. Recently, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) successfully penetrated into the large-size TV market, catching up with light-emitting diode (LED)-liquid-crystal display (LCD). This paperaimstoinvestigatethemarketpenetrationofOLEDtechnologiesbydeterminingtheirtechnology adoption rates based on a diffusion model. Design/methodology/approach – Through the rapid evolution of information and communication technology,aswellasaﬂoodofdatafromdiversesourcessuchasresearchawards,journals,patents, business press, newspaper and Internet social media, data mining, text mining, tech mining and database tomography have become practical techniques for assisting the forecaster to identify early signs …

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Smart Engagement: Planning And Decision-Making In Distressed Urban Neighborhoods, Justin Hollander, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Eliza D. Whiteman

Michael P. Johnson

This book addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with the use of decision science and information technologies to help stabilize and revitalize distressed urban communities in the United States.

While cities in the U.S. grow and decline at various rates and for different underlying reasons, neighborhoods within cities that have faced sustained demographic and socio-economic challenges over time may have multiple factors in common, such as physical blight, widespread vacancies, underserved and marginalized populations and, in some cases, local markets that do not respond to traditional economic development strategies. These distressed communities are often indicative of high levels of spatial …

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Course Syllabus: Ppol-G 742 Community-Based Operations Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

This elective course in the Public Policy PhD program provides an introduction to a wide range of decision models, methods and applications that help practitioners and researchers better understand how to represent common services and systems, and how to design practical solutions that can help people and organizations do their jobs better. Examples of public sector applications we will address include: emergency and post-disaster planning, human services, energy and natural resources and housing and community development. This course emphasizes special challenges in community-based public-sector decision-making. Communities of interest may be defined by geography, population, or a particular type of service …

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Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Michael P. Johnson

Pro Bono Analytics – Addressing Business Problems Faced By Nonprofit Organizations, David Hunt, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani

Michael P. Johnson

An Agenda For Diversity And Inclusion-Related Research Within Or/Ms/Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr., George Chichirau

Michael P. Johnson

Estimating Strategic Impacts Of Foreclosed Housing Redevelopment Using Spatial Analysis, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

James M. Resume.Doc, Jim Maskil

Jim Maskil

Forecasting Oled Tv Technology Using Bibliometrics And Fisher-Pry Diffusion Model, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul Unsal Daim, Paul Sklar

Joseph Cho

Measuring Success: Community Analytics For Local Economic Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Sandeep Jani

Michael P. Johnson

In Memoriam: Howard Raiffa, Jeffrey Keisler

Jeffrey Keisler

Systems Social Seience: A Design Inquiry Approach For Stabilization And Reconstruction Of Social Systems, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

Rich Socio-Cognitive Agents For Immersive Training Environments: Case Of Nonkin Village, Barry G. Silverman, David Pietrocola, Ben Nye, Nathan Weyer, Oleg Osin, Dan Johnson, Ransom Weaver

Barry G Silverman

Holistically Evaluating Agent Based Social System Models, Gnana K. Bharathy, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

A Systems Approach To Healthcare: Agent-Based Modeling, Community Mental Health, And Population Well-Being, Barry G. Silverman, Nancy Hanrahan, Gnana K. Bharathy, Kim Gordon, Dan Johnson

Barry G Silverman

Social Learning And Adoption Of New Behavior In A Virtual Agent Society, Benjamin D. Nye, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

Social Learning And Adoption Of New Behavior In A Virtual Agent Society, Benjamin D. Nye, Barry G. Silverman

Barry G Silverman

Human-Robot Interaction: Proximity And Speed—Slowly Back Away From The Robot!, Keith R. Macarthur, Kimberly Stowers, Peter A. Hancock

Keith Reid MacArthur

Attending To Scientific#12; Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina M. Quan, Chandra Anne Turpen, Andrew R. Elby

Gina Quan

Community-Based Operations Research: Data Analytics And Decision Modeling For Community Development And Social Change, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

How Can Value Elicitation In Adult Basic Education Support Learners’ Success In Goal-Setting Policy?, Alma H. Biba, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Balancing Research And Funding Using Value Of Information And Portfolio Tools For Nanomaterial Risk Classification

Jeffrey Keisler

A Virtual Environment For Enterprise Engineering Education, Can Saygin, Benjamin Dow, Raymond Kluczny, Majdi Najm, Scott Grasman

Dow Scott

Operational Resilience: Concepts, Design And Analysis, Alexander A. Ganin, Emanuelle Massaro, Alexander Gutfraind, Nicholas Steen, Jeffrey Keisler, Alexander Kott, Rami Mangoubi, Igor Linkov

Jeffrey Keisler

Procesy Cieplne I Aparaty (Lab), Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

On Convergence Analysis Of Dual Proximal-Gradient Methods With Approximate Gradient For A Class Of Nonsmooth Convex Minimization Problems, Sanming Liu, Zhijie Wang, Chongyang Liu

Chongyang Liu

Nonlinear 3d Finite Element Modeling For Structural Failure Analysis Of Concrete Sleepers/Bearers At An Urban Turnout Diamond, Minh Vu, Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Mario Attard

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Inżynieria Chemiczna Lab., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

Empirical Analysis Of Volunteer Convergence Following The 2011 Tornado Disaster In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Emmett Lodree, Lauren B. Davis

Dr. Lauren B Davis

Oled Tv Technology Forecasting Using Technology Mining And The Fisher-Pry Diffusion Model, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul U. Daim

Joseph Cho

Smart Engagement: Planning And Decision-Making In Distressed Urban Neighborhoods, Justin Hollander, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Eliza D. Whiteman

Michael P. Johnson

Course Syllabus: Ppol-G 742 Community-Based Operations Research, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson