(AGENPARL) – LUXEMBOURG mer 05 aprile 2023

Can you sum up your educational and professional background? 

I received a BSc in Industrial Engineering and Management Science and a MSc in Operations Management and Logistics both cum laude from Eindhoven University of Technology. My PhD was funded by and in collaboration with the Dutch Railways and received the Doctoral Dissertation award for the best PhD thesis in Operational Research in Europe in from 2015-2015. Prior to joining the University of Luxembourg, I held appointments at the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam. I also held a visiting appointment at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2015. 

How would you explain your research to someone that knows absolutely nothing about it?

We make algorithms to help people make better decisions, especially in logistics and supply chain management. Examples include setting safety stocks in supply chains, facility location decisions, and routing. Uncertainty is a key challenge when making decisions (uncertain future customer demand, uncertain lead-times, uncertain congestion). Our algorithms therefore combine techniques from mathematical optimisation as well as from statistics and probability theory. 

What inspires you in your work?

Two things inspire me: (1) The impact of better decisions in practice. For example, new maintenance rules that make MRI scanners available more reliably (which is great for the patients) as well as at lower cost (which is great for all who contribute into the healthcare system). (2) The sheer enjoyment of solving a puzzle. I get a real thrill from the puzzle that many problems pose and the moment the pieces of the puzzle come together in your mind. The joy of this “eureka” moment is both the joy of research (when you have such a moment yourself) and the joy of teaching, when you can help students experience their own eureka moments.

 What is your favourite course to teach and why?

All my courses are favourites for different reasons. My course on Inventory Management for master students covers both deep theory and very pragmatic applications and ranges from forecasting problems to lot-sizing and safety stock optimisation. I really enjoy the class discussions as our students bring insights from different industries that they have worked in. It is a moment of learning for the students and myself to explore new applications of theory in different industries.

Fonte/Source: https://wwwfr.uni.lu/index.php/fdef/actualites/introducing_professor_joachim_arts