Researchers gather at NSF-funded 'Machine Learning & Supply Chain Management Workshop' at Lehigh University on Dec 13-14, 2021
Over the past 18 months, the phrase "global supply chain" has been as prominent as ever across news reporting and popular discussion.
With this global crisis swirling in the backdrop, Lehigh University's Institute for Data, Intelligent Systems, and Computation (I-DISC), with support from the National Science Foundation's TRIPODS+X program, convened a group of top researchers from across the country and around the world to explore innovative approaches to strengthening the global supply chain. Academic, industry, and government researchers focused on supply chain and logistics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, or associated fields were encouraged to attend.
"Most of the prominent recent applications of machine learning for supply chains were focused on descriptive or predictive analytics," says Larry Snyder, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at Lehigh and co-director of I-DISC, who served as a co-organizer of the TRIPODS+X event. "For example, clustering methods have been used to segment customers or suppliers in a descriptive way, and deep neural networks have been applied predictively to forecast demand. Our workshop took a bit of a different direction: we focused on the use of machine learning for prescriptive analytics within the supply chain—on using the power of machine learning not just to analyze, but to optimize, efficiency and resiliency across the global supply chain."
On December 13-14, 2021, preeminent researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence and supply chain management gathered at Lehigh's Iacocca Hall for the "TRIPODS+X Workshop on Machine Learning & Supply Chain Management," featuring speakers from academia and industry, to foster a vibrant exchange of ideas and to stimulate new collaborations. Due to the latest wave of COVID-19, the event was held in a hybrid format. More than 50 participants and speakers attended the event in-person, and an additional 144 participants attended remotely. Participants represented over 70 academic institutions and 10 companies, from the US and 21 other countries around the world including Europe, Middle East, Asia, and South America.
The workshop featured thirteen invited speakers, a poster session for students, and a panel discussion to promote further exploration at the intersection of machine learning and supply chain management. With the kind permission of the speakers, the workshop presentations and panel discussion can be viewed online here.
Based in part from RCEAS News Article 11.08.21