Western blog

Enduring Operational Research subjects and principles for Quality Assured Analytics

Join The OR Society's Western OR Discussion Group, on October 1st 2018 for an interesting talk delivered by Ian Mitchell. Mr Mitchell, is the Operational Research Manager at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and will be discussing 'A Principled Basis for Decision: Enduring Operational Research (OR) subjects and principles for Quality Assured Analytics'.

Refreshments will be provided, beginning at 17:15, with the talk commencing at 17:45.

Venue: Room 4D05, D Building, UWE Frenchay campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY google maps

Further Information:

Speaker: Ian Mitchell, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Talk Title: A Principled Basis for Decision: Enduring Operational Research (OR) subjects and principles for Quality Assured Analytics.

Abstract: In a world of change, some things don't. This presentation proposes that efficiency, effectiveness, human interactions and behaviour remain perennial foci for much OR analytics and that quality analytics depend on perennial principles of assurance. Professor Pat Rivett's three subjects for his 1964 BBC documentary about Operational Research: Cutting the Queue, Playing It Through and The Human Factor, are examples of analysis of efficiency, effectiveness and behavioural OR. These remain major subjects for OR although the means to analyse them have evolved. Confidence in analysis is the other perennial aspect. The presentation describes the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) approach to model assurance. Analytical tools for Big Data and Artificial Intelligence provide wider domains for OR. In that wider domain clarity of purpose and assurance of quality will remain essential enablers for a principled basis for decision.