I started Punk Rock Operations Research on April 2, 2007. Fun fact: I published two posts on that first day. The first post introduced the blog (it’s “Hello World” moment). The second post, the first “real” post on Punk Rock OR, was a post about Al Blumstein entitled “Murder and the Operations Researcher.” Al has truly inspired me throughout my career.

When I visited Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in 2018, where Al was a professor and former dean, I gave a talk in the Alfred Blumstein Classroom. It meant so much to me that I took a picture of it (see below). At that time, this is what I wrote about Al Blumstein:

I saw Dr. Al Blumstein of Heinz College give a talk about criminal justice and operations research when I was a graduate student, and he is part of the reason why I pursued research in public safety in emergency medical services. I gave my seminar in the Alfred Blumstein Classroom at CMU. It was an honor.

I will continue to remember Al Blumstein and his legacy.

The image of Al Blumstein at the top of this post was created using the NEOS server.

Read more about Al Blumstein:

• Al Blumstein’s New York Times obituary. You can read this obituary using the link I provide, even if you do not have a subscription.
• Official obituary 
• INFORMS History of O.R. Excellence: Biographical Profile 
• Carnegie Mellon obituary
• The video below was created in 2018 to celebrate the life, work, and legacy of Al Blumstein at his 50th anniversary at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College [32 minutes]

• AI Fundamentals & Applications for Engineers – Learn how to apply AI concepts to real-world engineering challenges
  • March 31 – April 1, 2026 https://interpro.wisc.edu/courses/artificial-intelligence-fundamentals-and-applications-for-engineers/
• AI Strategy & Governance – Understand how to lead AI initiatives responsibly, ethically, and at scale
  • May 12-13, 2026
    go.wisc.edu/ai-strategy

Both courses are two days, offered in a synchronous, hybrid format through UW-Madison’s Interdisciplinary Professional Programs (Interpro). That means you can join from anywhere—no travel to Madison required—while those who prefer an in‑person experience are welcome to join me on campus.

I’m thrilled to partner with InterPro on these offerings. Their team excels at helping instructors create engaging, practice‑focused learning experiences that bring cutting‑edge engineering topics to professionals around the world.

One powerful alternative, which I learned about while reading The Ethical Algorithm by Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth, is differential privacy. Instead of hiding or coarsening data, differential privacy deliberately introduces random noise into computations so that the contribution of any individual becomes statistically indistinguishable. Differential privacy adds mathematically calibrated randomness that protects individuals without sacrificing insight. This enables analysts to extract meaningful trends while ensuring that no single person’s information can be confidently inferred.

Randomization is the key idea behind differential privacy. An example of this approach is the randomized response technique, originally developed by Stanley Warner in the 1960s to collect data about sensitive topics.

Here’s a version of randomized response that I teach in my stochastic processes course. Suppose a researcher wants to estimate how many people hold certain political beliefs, but respondents may be reluctant to answer honestly. Each respondent privately flips two coins before answering. If both coins land heads, they report their true political leaning (conservative, liberal, or moderate). For any other combination of flips, they report “liberal” or “conservative,” regardless of their actual belief. This predetermined procedure forces a random liberal/conservative response, even when untrue, so the math becomes easy to correct by the researcher.

Because most responses are deliberately randomized, an outsider cannot infer an individual’s true answer and respondents may be more willing to answer honestly as a result. When the researcher aggregates responses from many people, the known probabilities of the coin flips allow them to mathematically remove the noise and estimate the overall proportions accurately, without knowing the ground truth for any single respondent.

This small but powerful idea illustrates how randomness can protect privacy without sacrificing the ability to learn from data. The fascinating part is that even though most responses are fake, the aggregate estimate is still accurate.

The same principles we teach in courses on probability and stochastic processes underpin differential privacy systems widely used by government and industry, including by the U.S. Census Bureau and Google.

For the students I teach (mostly engineering students), this topic offers a compelling example of how probability theory shapes practical algorithms that are mathematically elegant and also responsible.

Their responses guide me. Throughout the course, I weave in topics they care about, including budgeting, investing, understanding student loans, and even cryptocurrency. Several interactive course examples aim to teach students about the cost of credit card balances, how mortgages work (and when to refinance), when to purchase insurance, and the benefits of saving for retirement as early as possible.

I end the semester with a fun lecture summarizing my personal finance lessons.

I developed my first personal finance lecture in 2010, when I was at Virginia Commonwealth University. I enjoyed giving annual talks to the Honors College, and one year I decided to switch my talk from research to personal finance, so students would gain some practical knowledge that they could immediately use.

In developing that lecture, I realized that the most important personal finance habits are simple yet powerful. Others have noted that the best personal finance advice is straightforward and can fit on a notecard. I agree.

When I told my parents about the lecture, my mom offered one piece of advice: “Tell them to pay their credit card off in full every month.” I included it in my list. I credit much of my own financial success to my parents who made prudent financial decisions and set my up for financial success. I’m grateful for that advantage. Not everyone has access to that kind of guidance, so I use this lecture to share excellent advice from my parents and others more broadly.

I revived my personal finance notes when I started teaching Engineering Economic Analysis last year, and I turned the notes into a list of 10 simple rules. The list is printed below, and the lecture provides more context, information, and examples.

Including personal finance topics is rewarding for me. I enjoy seeing students connect classroom concepts such as the time-value of money to real-world decisions. At one point in the semester, we compared alternatives for paying for my daughter’s braces using the material in class and real financing options from my daughter’s orthodontist. It is my hope that students end the semester with the tools to invest wisely, manage risk, and plan for the future. If I can help students start their financial journey on solid ground, that’s a win that lasts far beyond graduation.

Professor Albert’s 10 rules for a flourishing financial future

1. Track your expenses
2. Set a budget and manage your big expenses
3. Pay your credit card statement in full every month
4. Start a Roth IRA as early as possible
5. Build and maintain an emergency fund
6. Invest in low-fee, well-diversified mutual funds (not individual stocks)
7. Borrow wisely by only taking out low-interest loans
8. Protect what matters against catastrophic losses (and skip extended warranties)
9. Don’t gamble
10. Remember the time value of money & other lessons from Engineering Economic Analysis!

What financial habit or piece of advice would you add to my list?

For more reading:

• 10 movies about engineering ethics
• why I’m excited to teach engineering ethics this fall

Several highlights come to mind:

• I was honored to be elected as an INFORMS Fellow, a milestone that means so much to me.
• ISE Day launched and was celebrated throughout the world.
• I was invited to give talks throughout the world, including Norway, Italy, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and more.
• Developing and teaching a new course at UW-Madison, AI in Systems, as well as the positive feedback from the community, was incredibly rewarding (Read my blog posts about this course here).
• Opportunities for personal growth, including baking and starting piano lessons, challenged me in a good way.

This year wasn’t without its challenges. A family issue required my attention and energy. This personal setback gave me the opportunity to reflect on my priorities and values, and I’m proud of how I showed up for the people who needed me the most.

If I had to choose one word to summarize 2025, it would be compassion.

While I am naturally a compassionate person, I leaned into compassion for others in 2025 and, for the first time, I learned how to show myself compassion. And while I have a lot of room for improvement in the self-compassion department, this shift helped me grow in ways I didn’t expect, both professionally and personally. I became a better teacher, mentor, and human being.

As we head into the new year, I’m carrying these lessons forward, keeping compassion are at the heart of everything I do.

What word would define your year?

For more reading:

• A thanksgiving post on gratitude

Each case begins with a review of the National Society of Professional Engineer (NSPE) Code of Ethics, followed by a review of the facts. Then, students work in groups to discuss questions that explore gray areas where there are no clear cut answers. I tell them that if they take away one thing from this class, it should be the lessons learned from these engineering ethics case studies.

To complement the case studies, I shared a curated list of films that illustrate engineering and financial ethics in action and make the principles of ethics tangible. Below are five documentaries and five fictional films that raise important questions about engineering ethics and can serve as conversation starters.

Documentary movies:

• Titan: The OceanGate Disaster
• Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
• The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
• The Social Dilemma

Fictional movies:

• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Wall Street
• Jurassic Park
• Gattaca

Honorable mentions:

• Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Ex Machina

What movies that relate to engineering ethics would you add to these lists?

Update (December 20, 2025): I posed this question on LinkedIn and received several good suggestions. The two movies with the most suggestions were:

• The Martian
• Margin Call

When I served as department chair (from 2021-24), I kept a stack of notecards in my office along with a list of faculty and staff birthdays. Before every birthday, I would pull out a card and write a short note of appreciation.

My schedule was incredibly busy and this practice made it even busier. Yet, I looked forward to writing those notes. They were a welcome break from the endless demands on my time. The reflection and recognition of the good work being done in the department genuinely transformed my mindset in a good way.

When my term as chair ended, I ended the practice of writing birthday cards. These days, I miss the steady rhythm that the notes of gratitude gave me. Expressing gratitude has always sustained my spirit in challenging times.

I still keep note cards in my office that are ready to go when needed. I even found a good excuse to write one to a student recently.

Today, I want to write a note of gratitude to you, the readers of this blog:

Thank you for reading Punk Rock Operations Research. Blogging has its own rhythm and commitment, and you, the readers, keep me motivated to continue blogging. Your feedback over the years has been invaluable. I especially cherish hearing how this blog has made a tangible difference in your work, thinking, or field of study. I am honored that this blog resonates with so many in the operations research community and beyond.

I am wishing you and yours a truly happy Thanksgiving.

Laura

The initial impact was enormous. We saw a groundswell of activity, largely driven by IISE Student Chapters and ISE departments who organized many in-person events on their campuses as well as industrial and systems engineers from around the globe who stepped up to increase awareness of ISE. The global excitement for ISE Day translated into massive engagement across social media platforms, making ISE Day a truly international event.

To put the level of engagement into perspective, my 20 posts about ISE Day on LinkedIn garnered 93,628 impressions alone. The sheer volume of participation made tracking every post impossible, but the data I was able to collect speaks volumes about the robust participation in ISE Day. Some of the highlights of ISE Day 2025 include:

• 486 attendees at ISE Day virtual events
• ~200 ISEs who shared their ISE stories on social media
• 34 ISE departments in the US who posted on social media
• 25 IISE student chapters who posted on social media
• 23 countries with ISEs who posted on social media
• 5 continents with ISEs who posted on social media

We must ensure that ISE Day 2026 builds upon this momentum. ISE Day Task Force wants your feedback. Please help us make ISE Day 2026 even better by filling out this short survey.

One of the highlights of ISE Day was witnessing hundreds of industrial and systems engineers who shared their career journeys, many using the ISE Day story template that the task force created. The video below offers a glimpse into the movement, showcasing approximately 130 of the ISE stories that were shared publicly on social media:

It meant a lot to be recognized by Don Greene, the CEO of IISE:

My sincere gratitude goes out to every single person who made the first ISE Day an unforgettable international event. Thank you for making this celebration so special.

What was your favorite moment from ISE Day 2025?

Related reading:

• My post introducing ISE Day
• My post featuring my ISE story and ISE Day resources

Note: this post was updated on 11/7/2025 to display the updated numbers of participating countries and continents.

Our institutions are providing us with policies for GenAI use, but these strategies often miss the mark by creating rigid rules in a world full of gray areas. The challenge isn’t just about preventing cheating and maintaining academic integrity; it’s about building a culture of responsible and effective AI use.

Many current GenAI policies are framed from an academic integrity perspective and focus on what students shouldn’t do to avoid consequences. Often, AI statements allow students to use generative AI for editing but not creating. However, the dividing line between “creating” and “editing” with AI is fuzzy.

Don’t believe me? Try to define it yourself—you’ll see how difficult it is to create a rule that a reasonable person could apply with confidence.

A punitive culture built on fear discourages transparency, and students become hesitant to admit when they’ve used AI for fear of penalty, even if they’re trying to use it responsibly.

Meanwhile, faculty are seeing a clear shift in how students study and learn. The biggest concern I hear from other faculty is that students are using GenAI to do the work for them, short-circuiting the development of foundational skills and critical thinking necessary to grow as a scholar and solve real engineering problems after graduation.

The culture has changed, and faculty are up against a powerful force. The concept, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” attributed to management expert Peter Drucker, is crucial for faculty and university leaders to embrace. While institutions can create detailed GenAI strategies, including new academic integrity policies, these efforts fail when they clash with the existing culture of how students are using GenAI. And they are failing. Because culture eats generative AI strategy for breakfast.

If faculty want to make the changes we seek, we need to focus less on crafting policies and more on changing the culture.

Three Practical Ways to Start

1. Engaging with responsible GenAI use is a process, not a policy.

Teaching students how to responsibly use GenAI should not be a one-time activity that starts and ends with an AI statement in a syllabus. A clear statement on my syllabus about GenAI is the start to a conversation, not the end of one.

GenAI statements should explain the why in addition to the what. I frame responsible GenAI use around three core principles that shift the focus from catching misconduct to training students as future professionals.

1. Be transparent about how AI was used.
2. Be responsible for the final work.
3. Be critical by using AI to enhance learning, not replace thinking.

I recommend providing specific examples for students to help them understand the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable use.

Then, the work begins. Instead of simply telling students to be open, responsible, and critical, we need to show them how we do that ourselves. This takes time and creates a dialogue that unfolds over the course of a semester.

To be transparent, I create and share how I use GenAI in the course—and the many ways in which I do not. To be responsible, I share how I create teaching materials and improve them in a process of continuous improvement. Occasionally, this has involved GenAI, such as when I used generative AI to improve rubrics. Even then, I am extremely critical of the output, heavily editing, rewriting, and reorganizing the final product.

I am teaching a course on engineering economics this semester, and shifting the topic to AI can be awkward in a lecture, although it is becoming less awkward as GenAI becomes a regular topic. My hope is that I become more adept at this in the future.

2. Model how to use GenAI as a professional.

Students are seeking guidance on how to use GenAI professionally and, in my experience, their universities and professors are not providing it. Many policies are not practical or easy to follow. They provide high-level guidance on how—such as “editing” instead of “creating”—without providing prescriptive rules. How is a student supposed to know if their use falls within the “editing” category?

Instead, faculty need to prepare our students for the professional world, where they will undoubtedly use GenAI. We need to model how to use GenAI by sharing our own processes, from brainstorming to drafting, and demonstrate specific ways to use GenAI to learn in our courses without taking shortcuts we want students to avoid.

Professors need to model how to use generative AI and create a welcoming environment where students are comfortable asking questions and engaging in dialogue. We need to prepare students for using GenAI in professional settings (including internships and jobs after graduation).

A colleague once advised me to find a reverse mentor to accelerate my GenAI learning. While I don’t have a reverse mentor right now, I have benefited from a former PhD student who helped me see some of the possibilities for responsibly using GenAI.

3. Rethink How You Assess Learning.

The age of the take-home essay or take-home exam as a primary assessment tool may be coming to an end. To accurately gauge student knowledge, we must shift toward assessments that require students to demonstrate their learning in real-time. Faculty should lean into active learning during class, use more oral exams, and require project presentations where we can ask follow-up questions to probe students’ critical thinking.

Oral exams are making a comeback and are quickly becoming a new best practice. Oral exams are not unlike professional environments, where every day can be a series of oral exams. Professionals work collaboratively on teams, share their work, and ask each other questions. While professionals don’t receive grades, there are real consequences if they don’t understand their work, such as missing out on professional advancement opportunities or recognition.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s professionals.

This GenAI journey is just beginning, and none of us have all the answers. The rise of GenAI presents a challenge for higher education, but it also offers an opportunity. We can move beyond a reactive stance and embrace our role as partners in this journey together, where we guide students in navigating this new landscape with curiosity, openness, and humility and they guide us to better preparing future generations of students for new professional environments. By focusing on culture instead of consequences, we can ensure that our students develop the critical thinking skills they will need for a world where GenAI will be a partner in their intellectual and professional lives.

For more reading:

Artificial intelligence in systems: a 7-part blog series about integrating AI into the industrial and systems engineering curriculum.

Part 1: course syllabus and learning goals

Part 2: schedule, readings, and resources

Part 3: class discussions and assignments

Part 4: role of generative AI

Part 5: projects

Part 6: assessment of the course

Part 7: discussion of teaching AI in the engineering curriculum

In a UW-Madison Teaching Q&A, I discussed developing this AI course.

References:

Clay Shirky. “Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis.” Guest essay, The New York Times, August 25, 2025.

Ethan Mollick, “Post-apocalyptic education,” One Useful Thing, August 30, 2024.

Sarah Muddleston, “How are instructors talking about AI in their syllabi?” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 2025.

Aviva Legatt, “90% Of College Students Use AI: Higher Ed Needs AI Fluency Support Now,” Forbes, September 18, 2025.

I fell in love with operations research after taking a course in optimization. Seeing how optimization models and algorithms in action was intellectually captivating. This passion ultimately led me to a career as an ISE professor.

If you want to hear more about my journey, I discuss this in an interview with Anand Subramanian on the “Subject to” podcast.

What is your ISE story? For ISE Day, please share it with your networks on social media (using hashtags #ISEday and #ISEday2025) to increase awareness of ISE and inspire the next generation.

• The ISE Day participation guide has several prompts for getting started with telling your ISE story.
• A customizable template is available on Google Drive for telling your ISE story on social media in image form. My ISE story using the template is below.
• Other ideas for celebrating ISE Day are available in the ISE Day Playbook, including links to virtual ISE Day events and other post templates.