Yu-Hong Dai <dyh@lsec.cc.ac.cn>, Xujin Chen <xchen@amss.ac.cn>, Degang Liu <dliu@amt.ac.cn>
The 14th Triennial Conference of the Association of Asia Pacific Operational Research Societies (APORS 2024, https://apors2024.casconf.cn/) was successfully held in Hangzhou, China, from November 15 th to 18 th , 2024. Over 160 participants from 14 countries and regions enjoyed a rich and engaging program of scientific and cultural activities.
During the opening ceremony, IFORS President Janny Leung highlighted that APORS represents the most diverse region among IFORS’s four regional
organizations. Geographically, the thirteen APORS member societies span two continents and ten time zones, representing nearly half of the world’s population! This triennial APORS conference provides an invaluable opportunity for operations researchers across this vast region to share experiences and to exchange ideas.
Prof. Ya-xiang Yuan, representing the Chinese Association of Science & Technology, welcomed all participants from the Asia Pacific regions to China. The conference chair Prof. Yu-Hong Dai, serving as the president of APORS and the host society (ORSC), expressed his pleasure in welcoming all the attendees and officers to the beautiful city of Hangzhou. He emphasized that OR theories and applications face great opportunities and challenges in the era of big data and AI, highlighting the conference’s role in facilitating the presentation of new research and fostering insightful discussions. He expressed his hope that all participants would benefit from the conference and enjoy their time in Hangzhou.
Under the theme of OR in Data Sciences, APORS 2024 featured a Distinguished Lecture sponsored by IFORS, delivered by Prof. Stein W. Wallace on “Modeling with Stochastic Programming”. Four invited keynote speakers gave their plenary talks: Prof. Xiaojun Chen from Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nonconvex- nonconcave Min-max Optimization Problems with Cardinality Penalties, Prof. Guohua Wan from Shanghai Jiaotong University on “Recent Advances in Appointment Scheduling in Healthcare Services: A Survey and Extensions”, Prof. Tiande Guo from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences on “How to Find the Optimal Pivoting Path of the Simplex Method for Solving LP?”, and Prof. Stefan Pickl from Universität der Bundeswehr München on “Date-driven Optimization of Critical Infrastructures-Artificial Intelligence and Resilience Strategies as part of Operations Research”. The conference also included 38 invited talks and 20 poster presentations across three parallel sessions.
The conference program also featured a youth forum, where the six winners of the 2023/2024 APORS Young Researcher Best Paper Award presented their work on OR theory, applications, and collaborative research across APORS member societies. A women’s forum showcased presentations by four women scientists and a panel discussion.
On November 15, preceding APORS 2024, a one-day IFORS workshop for OR Teaching attracted over 100 attendees from universities in mainland and Hong Kong SAR of China. The IFORS Tutorial Lecturer Prof. Erhan Erkut shared his OR teaching experiences, focusing on teaching skills and methodologies. Three other tutorial speakers from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and Huhan University presented topics of teaching methods, advanced teaching skills, and curriculum programs.
During the conference, IFORS hosted a Tea Gathering for representatives of the APORS or IFORS member societies to meet each other, promote the work of IFORS, and provide information about IFORS for those interested in getting involved. An APORS council meeting was held and addressed several key agenda items, including bids for the next APORS conference, election of APORS officers for 2025-2027, and ongoing and new initiatives to strengthen communication and exchange among APORS members, especially young operational researchers. It has been decided that the next APORS Youth Forum will be held in Hong Kong at the end of 2025, hosted by ORSHK. The APORS 2027 conference will be hosted by the Australian Society for Operational Research (ASOR) in Perth, Australia.
