For over 50 years, the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) has remained one of the foremost government sponsored professional organizations with a goal to improve the quality of analysis that informs national and homeland security decisions. MORS recently held its 90^th Symposium in Quantico, Virginia from June 13^th-16^th. The event is one of the leading national and homeland security events for exchanging information, examining research, and discussing critical national security topics. This year it was hosted by the Marine Corps University with the theme of “Innovative Analysts Supporting Integrated Deterrence.”

Typically, the four days consist of over 600 presentations in 30+ working groups with attendance usually exceeding 850 participants. This year’s Keynote speaker was Lieutenant General Karsten S. Heckl, who currently serves as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, and the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration. There were 35 working groups, two distributed working groups, one focus session, and three separate “other” sessions for Tutorials, Demos, and a Special Session, respectively.

Two Technomics employee-owners served as Co-Chairs for two different Working Groups. Subject Matter Expert Peter Braxton served as Co-Chair for Working Group 20: Analytical Support to Training and Education. The first focus of this working group was to breakdown and measure current analytical support functions, data governance, and training to assess how data and associated analytics support DoD decision-making. Working Group 20 also wanted to educate others on using data analytics to transform data into information and therefore reduce inherent risk and to ensure the analytic work force stays proficient in the application of these methods and tools. Program Manager Jeff Cherwonik served as a Co-Chair for Working Group 26, Cost Analysis throughout the year, but was unable to attend the event. Working Group 26’s goal was to strengthen the community’s knowledge by focusing on today’s “cutting edge” topics in cost analysis and data analytics.

Associate Project Manager John Woodcock also served as one of the Co-Chairs for the Focus Session – Analytic Capability Development. This Focus Session states that it uses the “man, train, and equip” ideology to help create and enhance the analytic capability of active organizations in the National Security field.

Technomics had eight employee-owners in attendance for the Symposium. Attendees pictured above from left to right include, Senior Associate Charles Truxillo, Lead Analyst Maggie Dozier, Lead Analyst Wayne Cleary, Senior Associate Samantha Hair, Lead Analyst Cadence Doyle, Senior Associate Travis Quinn, Senior Analyst Christian McGurik, and Associate Project Manager John Woodcock. Cadence, Maggie, and John presented at the Symposium. Cadence and John were technical presenters while Maggie presented on soft skills.

On June 15^th, Cadence gave her presentation, “Using Linear Programming to Create Optimal Budget Scenarios” in the Focus Session on Analytic Capability Development. The presentation delivered an “analytical approach to create optimal budget scenarios”. John also presented his abstract, “MILCON Parametric Cost Estimating in R” during this Focus Session, which aimed to introduce some of the “publicly available MILCON and sustainment data and the estimating methodology, and then propose a concept for a questionnaire-based tool that can assist military planners with CoA or scenario development.” John also presented this for Working Group 26. Maggie presented in the Special Session Working Group with her presentation “Building Trust– Effective Strategies for a Positive Work Environment,” which she co-authored with Renee G. Carlucci, FS, Brittlea S. Brown, and Sarah E Stewart. Maggie is a co-lead for the Community of Practice, Women in MORS, which was created by Brown, Stewart, and Carlucci in 2019. It was created with the intention of recognizing the contributions and challenges that women face in the Operations Research field today. 

The four days also had several other events alongside these working sessions. Day 1 had the Rist Prize Competition and a Symposium First-Timer Orientation. Day 2 had a Chair Kick-Off, a Plenary/Sponsor Panel, a Networking Lunch, and an Awards, Prizes, and Fellow Recognition Dinner. Day 3 had a Junior Analyst Networking Lunch and a social later in the evening. Day 4 was the last day of Working Sessions and ended with final Special Sessions and Demos. Technomics was excited to have been able to attend and present at such an amazing networking and learning opportunity. Technomics is looking forward to contributing to the MORS community throughout the year and attending the next MORS Symposium.

References:

[https://www.mors.org/Events/Symposium/90th-Symposium]

[https://www.mors.org/Communities/Communities-of-Practice/Women-in-MORS]

[https://www.mors.org/Portals/87/Documents/Events/2022/90th-Symposium/202...