Begin: Operations Research in Disaster Risk Management

I have joined a research group here in the Ateneo, and we are focusing on (1) operations research and (2) disaster risk management. Basically, we will look into how management science can contribute to management of disaster relief operations.

Some definitions:

Operations Research -  as defined by the European Operations Research Societies is "the scientific approach to the solution of problems in the management of complex systems". (Altay and Green, 2006)

Disaster Operations - "the set of activities that are performed before, during and after a disaster with the goal of preventing loss of human life, reducing impact in economy and returning to a state of normalcy". (Altay and Green, 2006)

I am quite excited with this research area as it is something of great relevance here in the Philippines! Also, I think I can bring in contributions based on my knowledge in project management and risk management.

I have a lot to read though, specially to catch up with my colleagues on Operations Research and System Dynamics!

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References: Altay, N., & Green, W. G. (2006). OR/MS research in disaster operations management. European Journal of Operational Research, 175(1), 475–493.

Mendeley for Research Groups

I had just recently joined a research group in our school. This is an interdisciplinary research group and we are working on two research projects involving sustainability, disaster risk management, management science, and institutions management. To start off we are trying to build a repository for the research group. My colleague introduced Mendeley to us. It seems to have good reference management system and file sharing mechanism! As my colleague says, it's the i-tunes for research.

I am optimistic with it, my only reservation is that I have grown too comfortable with using EndNote for my referencing. But Mendeley seems to have an equally good referencing system too... If our group's repository works out, then I might completely migrate to using Mendeley.