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Recap: INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society Conference 2023

Mike Hewitt | August 21, 2023

From July 23 to July 26, 2023, Quinlan’s Supply Chain and Sustainability Center (SCSC) hosted the 2nd annual INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) Society Conference. 

The conference welcomed over 200 academic and industry professionals to Loyola’s water tower campus, with over 150 talks presented in Quinlan’s Schreiber Center and keynote presentations in Lewis Towers. Attendees arrived from more than 80 organizations located in over 15 countries from Asia, Europe, and North America. Over 90 attendees were PhD students, many of whom were supported either by a grant from the National Science Foundation or from Flexport, one of the conference’s sponsors.

Conference Topics

Conference topics included the design of public transportation systems; freight transportation over air, ground, rail, and sea; last-mile delivery; and ride-sharing. There were also many talks focused on sustainable freight transportation including fleet management issues and the use of EVs in both last-mile and longhaul freight transportation. The conference included a tutorial on how Julia—a high level, dynamic programming language—can be used in supply chain analytics. The tutorial was presented by Przemyslaw Szufel, a leading expert of the software.

Keynote Presentations

Complementing the 150 talks were two keynote presentations. The first, by Dr. Kara Kockelman, professor of transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, focused on the use of shared autonomous and electric vehicles in public transportation systems. The second, by Dr. Kevin Zhang, data scientist at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, focused on tools provided by the Department of Transportation to assist organizations with performing risk assessments of their supply chains.

Both TSL and the SCSC are grateful to the following sponsors for helping make this event such a success: NAWA – Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, University of Arkansas, Georgia Institute of Technology, The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, Northwestern University, and Flexport.

The conference was organized by Dr. Mike Hewitt, executive director of Loyola’s Business Leadership Hub and faculty director of the Supply Chain and Sustainability Center, along with the assistance of Ashlyn Weber and Ryan Sinon. You can view more conference photos here.

About INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society

TSL is a world-leading, international, scientific organization focused on all topics of transportation science and logistics, ranging from air and freight transportation to urban transportation planning to intelligent transportation systems. TSL educates students and practitioners through multiple channels, including its flagship scholarly journal Transportation Science and by regularly hosting events such as its triennial conference in which research findings are disseminated. Visit the TSL website.