2022 September

From an outsider’s perspective, the games seem to have been a huge success from the point of view of the overall aims of the movement and for the participants, spectators and locals. Reports of the buzz of the games and of the city are widespread and this must bring a warm glow of satisfaction to the organisers. Aside from this impressive amount of engagement on many levels, the games set quite aggressive targets with regard to sustainability and environmental impact too

ISMOR is the annual international symposium sponsored by the UK Ministry of Defence, under the auspices of The OR Society. This year, the event took place in mid-July, based at Royal Holloway University London, and for the first time was run in a hybrid format, with both presentations and Q&A being provided live and virtually.

The US House of Representatives has passed the “Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act” (323 – 92), which is intended to modernise the way STEM subjects are taught across America. In particular, it recognises operations research as a “foundational element of data-driven decision-making, and directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide competitive grants to modernize STEM education through mathematical and statistical modelling, including data-driven and computational thinking.”