Title: Integration of Machine Learning and Optimization for Supply Chain Optimization

Abstract: We are trying to develop the AI techniques that can be explained by an automatic synthesis of decision-making models through the integration of machine learning and optimization. By constructing a feedback loop of machine learning and optimization, a closed-loop data-driven system that can improve the machine learning accuracy and significantly reduce the computational time required for optimization through machine learning methods even in a shortage of teaching data. From the viewpoint, our recent topics on dynamic multi-commodity network design problem, virtualization of supply chains, mass customization of product design and supply chain planning, inverse optimization for scheduling problems, imitative learning will be discussed.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Frederik Schulte (TU Delft)

Date: 16.10.2019
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Room: FaKo Raum (U3-140)

Title: Platform Operations Research: Foundations and the Cases of Coup Scooter Sharing and Quicargo Collaborative Trucking

Abstract: Over the last decade, platforms have emerged in numerous industries and often transformed them, which poses new challenges for operations research. Platform providers mostly do not have immediate control over the physical resources to move people or goods. They often operate in a multi-sided market setting where it is crucial to design clear incentives to motivate a third-party to engage in an adhoc kind of collaboration. As a consequence, collaboration incentives become an integral part of decision support models for platform providers, and they need to be developed on an operational planning level to be applied in a dynamic way. Naturally, this involves a trade-off between the interests of platform provider, customers, and various transportation service providers. In this work, we investigate the real-word case of Coup scooter sharing and propose a dynamic pricing approach that engages users in fleet management operations such as charging and repositioning of vehicles. First results indicate that this approach effectively increases vehicle utilization and revenues. As a second real-world case, we look at the platform provider, Quicargo, who operates as an intermediary between shippers and carriers in a less-than-truckload (LTL) business. We introduce a planning model that minimizes the price this platform pays to its carriers and enforces collaboration incentives for carriers. We explore possible policies to be implemented by the platform and find that their business even remains profitable when the platform guarantees increased profit margins to their carriers as incentives.

Am Donnerstag und Freitag (22./23. August 2019) findet erstmalig die internationale Konferenz zum Thema Challenges in Managing Smart Products and Services (CHIMSPAS) statt. Organisiert wird die Konferenz vom iTIME – Ko-Organisator*innen sind J.-Prof'in Nicola Bilstein und Prof. Christian Stummer.

Ein Interview mit den Organisatoren lesen Sie hier: https://50jahre.uni-bielefeld.de/2019/08/20/wie-smarte-produkte-unternehmen-herausfordern/

Alle Informationen zur Konferenz finden Sie über folgenden Link: chimspas-2019.de

Speaker: Prof. O.P. Vyas, Professor, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad-India 

Date: Wednesday 05.06.19 from 16:00 to 17:00
Place: FaKo Raum (U3-140)

Title: Data driven Business Intelligence: From Predictive to Prescriptive Analytics

Abstract:
Business Data analytics has gathered a lot of attention during the last years. Although descriptive and predictive analytics have become well-established areas, prescriptive analytics has just started to emerge with a different paradigm. Prescriptive analytics aims to prescribe decisions on the basis of the predictive analytics outcomes and involves an interdisciplinary approach with advances from Optimization and Decision Sciences.
Referred to as the "final frontier of analytic capabilities," prescriptive analytics suggests decision options to take advantage of the results of descriptive and predictive analytics.  Prescriptive Analytic approaches propose to help businesses make better decisions by factoring in knowledge of possible situations, available resources, past performances and current happening as well.
The Prescriptive Analytics assumes special significance as the huge amount of Businesses moving from traditional "brick and mortar" shops to Online Enterprises warranting to have recommendations in rather more prescriptive ways. The proposed talk aims at exploring the opportunity and challenges involved, owing to introduction of "optimization" in "Business Analytics" arena with the novel paradigm of Prescriptive Analytics.

An der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften wird am 22.+23. August die International Conference on Challenges in Managing Smart Products and Services (CHIMSPAS) stattfinden. Ausführliche Informationen bietet die Konferenz-Website. Wir bieten bis zu zehn Studierenden die Möglichkeit zur kostenlosen Teilnahme an der Konferenz. Informationen zur Bewerbung um einen dieser Plätze finden Sie hier.

Der Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Gunnar Flötteröd findet am 3.5.2019 um 14 Uhr c.t. in Raum W9-109 statt.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ingo Kaiser (Miele) will talk about "Challenges in digitalizing established products – practical experiences and lessons learnt at Miele" at the International Conference on Challenges in Managing Smart Products and Services (CHIMSPAS) taking place at Bielefeld University on August 22-23 2019.

Am Institut für Technologische Innovation, Marktentwicklung und Entrepreneurship ist aktuell eine Stelle als Studentische bzw. Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (SHK/WHF) ausgeschrieben. Alle Informationen zur Ausschreibung finden Sie im Aushang.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue on "Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems" in Annals of Operations Research

Submission Deadline: January 7th, 2019

Complex systems are a common phenomenon in real-world decision making. The behavior of such a complex system stems from numerous relationships and various interactions between diverse entities of the system or between a given system and its environment: innovation diffusion on consumer markets may serve as an example. Computer simulations provide an opportunity to alter a modeled system, to observe its emergent behavior, and, thus, to answer what-if questions.

This special issue of the Annals of Operations Research aims at discussing recent advances in modeling and simulation of complex systems. Methods to be applied include agent-based simulation, multi-agent systems, simulation-optimization approaches, etc. Potential topics to consider (but not limited to) are:
(*) diffusion processes in markets, societies, or ecosystems
(*) applications in various areas including, for example, smart products, smart production systems, or autonomous production
(*) impact of peculiarities of some complex system, e.g., word of mouth or social influence
(*) parametrization and validation issues

We hope the special issue will document the state-of-the-art in modeling and simulation of complex systems and provide a framework for future research that moves the field forward by better solving relevant problems with more realistic assumptions, and by leveraging the best research in related disciplines. Researchers from all disciplines are invited to consider this special issue as an outlet to publish their high quality work on the above or related topics.

Instructions for authors can be found at:
http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/operations+research/journal/10479

Authors should submit their manuscripts via the Journal’s online submission site (http://www.editorialmanager.com/anor/), choosing “S.I.: Simulating Complex Systems” as the article type. All papers submitted to the special issue will be peer reviewed in accordance with the standard procedures of the Annals of Operations Research journal.

Submitted papers should not have been previously published or be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Papers must contain original research results that are significant relative to the relevant literature.
The use of real-world data is valued. Still, submitted papers must highlight their (algorithmic) contribution to the state of the art in this field of operations research and they should discuss some simulation experiments (i.e., numerical illustrations (examples) may not be sufficient).

Important Dates:
(*) Submission Start Date: July 1st, 2018
(*) Paper Submission Due: January 7th, 2019

Guest Editors:

Christian Stummer
Department of Business Administration and Economics
Bielefeld University
Universitaetsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, GERMANY
e-mail: christian.stummer@uni-bielefeld.de

Martin Zsifkovits
Department for Informatics
Universität der Bundeswehr, Munich
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 Neubiberg, GERMANY
e-mail: martin.zsifkovits@unibw.de

Karl F. Doerner
Department of Business Administration
University of Vienna
Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, AUSTRIA
e-mail: karl.doerner@univie.ac.at

Download the CfP.

Herr Dr. Kaiser wird am 11. April, 17-18:30, in U3-140 einen Gastvortrag zu "Smart Home – Herausforderungen in Industrie und Forschung" halten.

The Department of Business Administration and Economics at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld, NRW, Germany) invites applications for a position as a

Junior Professor (W1) for Law & Economics.

Applicants should have a strong research track record in the area of Law & Economics. Candidates with a research focus on the economic analysis of legal aspects relevant for innovation, industry evolution, firm dynamics or competition are of particular interest. The position is expected to contribute to the research area ‘Economic and legal aspects of smart products’, developed in cooperation between the Department of Business Administration and Economics and the Department of Law and will be part of the (Research-) Institute for Technological Innovation, Market Development, and Entrepreneurship (iTIME).

It is expected that the successful candidate has the potential to cooperate with existing work groups in the Department of Business Administration and Economics and will make active use of the various opportunities available for engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations within Bielefeld University, in particular also with colleagues at the iTIME. The successful candidate will participate in activities at the iTIME and will contribute to the teaching within the Bachelor, Master and Doctoral programs of the Department. Furthermore, it is expected that the successful candidate actively contributes to applications for external grants. Experience in interdisciplinary research as well as in obtaining external research grants is considered a plus.

Applicants should hold a doctoral degree in a relevant field and have additional academic qualifications, as reflected in the quality of the doctoral dissertation. Publications in recognized (international) journals as well as experiences abroad and teaching experience are desirable but not required.

The employment as Junior Professor (W1) is initially limited to 3 years, with the possibility to extend it for another 3 years after a positive interim evaluation.

Applications from suitably qualified handicapped and severely handicapped persons are explicitly encouraged.

Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements in the provision of equal opportunity and has been recognized as a family-friendly university. The university welcomes applications from women. Applications are handled according to the state's equal opportunity statutes.

Applications with the usual documents are to be sent by February 14th, 2018 to:

Bielefeld University
Dean of the Department of Business Administration and Economics
P.O. Box 100131
33501 Bielefeld
GERMANY

or, preferably, by email to: lawecon@wiwi.uni-bielefeld.de

The Department of Business Administration and Economics invites applications for a position as a

Junior Professor (W1) in Business Administration or Industrial Engineering for Management of Smart Products.

Bielefeld University (Bielefeld, NRW, Germany) is in the process of creating an interdisciplinary research focus on smart products/systems. As part of this development, existing areas of expertise (e.g., the Institute for Technological Innovation, Market Development, and Entrepreneurship; iTIME) will be strengthened by targeted appointments of new professors and they will be linked to corresponding institutions from other disciplines (e.g., the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology; CITEC). The position advertised here is one of these posts. The hired professor will be assigned to iTIME.

The candidate will support the Department of Business Administration and Economics in its research and teaching activities in the area of economic implications of smart products (e.g., the investigation of drivers and barriers of adoption and diffusion of smart products, corresponding (new) business models, implications on supply chains or controlling, management implications for marketing, production, research & development). The research project KogniHome might serve as a starting point for collaboration with the CITEC. We seek a candidate who has done research in at least one of the above mentioned fields and who is willing and capable to collaborate with colleagues from the engineering sciences.

It is expected that the successful candidate will make active use of the various opportunities available for engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations within Bielefeld University. The candidate is supposed to participate in activities at the iTIME and he/she will be actively involved in the Bachelor's or Master's degree program in Business Administration and Economics as well as in the supervising of PhD candidates. Furthermore, active participation in the acquisition of research funding is expected.

Experience in interdisciplinary cooperation as well as in attracting external research funding thus counts positively.
Prerequisites for awarding the post are a university degree in Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline (e.g., Business Informatics), a relevant doctorate, and teaching aptitude. The scientific qualification for academic work is typically demonstrated by the outstanding quality of the candidate's doctorate. Publications in recognized (international) journals, teaching experiences, and experiences abroad are highly appreciated.

For further information please contact Prof. Christian Stummer (christian.stummer@uni-bielefeld.de).

The employment as Junior Professor (W1) is at first limited to 3 years, with the possibility to prolong it for another 3 years after a positive interim evaluation.

Applications with the usual documents are to be sent by Feb. 14, 2018 to:

Bielefeld University
Dean of the Department of Business Administration and Economics
P.O. Box 100131
33501 Bielefeld
GERMANY

or, preferred, by email to: ManagementIntelligenterProdukte@wiwi.uni-bielefeld.de

Applications from suitably qualified handicapped and severely handicapped persons are explicitly encouraged. Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements in the provision of equal opportunity and has been recognized as a family-friendly university. The university welcomes applications from women. Applications are handled according to the state's equal opportunity statutes.

Frau Dr. Sonja Radas hat am 24. Januar einen Gastvortrag zum Thema "Uncovering Hidden Knowledge in Stated Purchase Intentions: Application of Bayesian Truth Serum" gehalten.

Abstract:
In new product development, purchase intention survey is often used for early sales forecasting and elimination of potentially failing concepts.
Regardless of its usefulness, it is known that there is a systematic discrepancy between stated purchase intentions and purchase incidence, resulting from both temporal and non-temporal causes. The latter, which are most often ascribed to systematic biases, are usually corrected by use of sophisticated statistical models which require large quantities of respondent and product related data.
In this paper we offer a new explanation for this discrepancy: we suggest that those respondents who are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the product report unreliable purchase intentions, which introduces noise in the predictions. So in order to improve forecasting precision, we propose to identify those respondents who are knowledgeable, isolate their purchase intentions and disregard the information from the others. This task is made more difficult by the fact that this knowledge is often tacit, especially for new products with higher degree of novelty.
We address this issue by building a theoretical model that can identify respondents who have tacit product related knowledge. Required data consists of answers to only two questions: (1) "will you buy the product", and (2) "what percentage of your peers will make the same choice as you". Having assumed that respondents themselves have private information about knowledgeable segments (which is invisible to the researcher), we employ the Bayesian Truth Serum methodology to uncover respondents’ belief structure.

Am 23. Oktober hat die erste Mitgliederversammlung von iTIME im neuen organisatorischen Rahmen als Wissenschaftliche Einrichtung der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften stattgefunden. Als Mitglieder des Vorstands gewählt wurden dabei Dietmar Bauer, Martina Darkow, Herbert Dawid, Michelle Haurand, Carla Leite und Christian Stummer.

In der anschließenden Vorstandssitzung wurde Christian Stummer zum geschäftsführenden Direktor und Herbert Dawid zum Stellvertreter des geschäftsführenden Direktors gewählt.