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Fostering Effective Cooperative Cross-Cultural Efforts in Operations Research and Statistics through Undergraduate Education

On my trips to Africa I am frequently reminded of the safari big five: the rhinoceros, bison, lion, leopard, and elephant. These species are referred to as the big five because they are apparently the most challenging African species to hunt (my only safari experience involved hunting these animals photographically!). This phrase has led me to consider the big five of African development (a term with an admittedly elusive definition). I have concluded these are, in no particular order: agriculture and nutrition; water; preventative, curative, and therapeutic health care; economic opportunity; and transportation.

These five broad issues are certainly not independent. For example, availability and effectiveness of health care is surely reliant on the other four issues. Economic opportunities are meaningless and are unlikely to develop without the support of adequate agricultural, water, health care, and transportation systems. A successful agricultural system cannot exist in the absence of viable economic, water, transportation, and health care systems. This extreme interconnectedness complicates efforts to improve these systems; however, consideration of this interconnectedness can also yield great insight into approaches that may be effective. Reflecting on the social systems that connect the big five of African development, I immediately think of politics and education. While I certainly have no insight into politics (as I grow older I feel as though I actually understand less about politics), I do have some thoughts on how undergraduate O.R. and statistics courses can be used to this end. In this talk I will discuss how O.R. scholars and practitioners can cooperatively mobilize their students to work toward these goals by i) invigorating and energizing introductory O.R. classrooms and ii) applying O.R. through classroom projects to meaningful and important social problems.