IISE Operations Research (or) Division Undergraduate Student Research Dissemination competition

Sponsored by Clemson University, Industrial Engineering Department and The University at Buffalo, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

This award recognizes scholarly work as well as ability to communicate results effectively from an undergraduate student or student teams. This award will encourage more participation from undergraduates in research and in division-level activities. Furthermore, since the award includes a presentation to decide the winner, students are encouraged to improve both their written and technical presentation skills. Engagement will encourage student members to become regular members beyond graduation.

Application Process

  • The application process will consist of a paper followed by a presentation. The first author of the paper must be an undergraduate student at the time of submission, and though the work may contain faculty authors, it must be predominantly the work of a student or student team. Graduate student co-authors are also encouraged. 
  • The paper must present original research, the research must have been conducted while the applicant was a student, and the paper must not have won or been considered for an award in another competition.
  • If the abstract is accepted, a research paper must be emailed to the organizers for review by January 18, 2026. All paper submissions will be evaluated by external referees using double-blind reviewing. The paper format must follow IISE Conference Proceedings guidelines. Applicants who also wish to submit their papers to the conference proceedings must use the conference submission website. However, you are NOT required to submit the paper for the proceedings in order to participate in this competition.
  • The finalists will be determined by the paper, and the winner will be determined based on the paper and the oral presentation.
  • Finalist students must attend the 2026 IISE Annual Conference & Expo, May 16 -  19, Arlington, Texas, to participate in the finals.

Please read the paper evaluation guidelines

Important Dates

  • Abstract submissions close November 10, 2025
  • Abstract decisions will be made by December 15. 2025
  • Full paper submissions are due January 25, 2026
  • Paper reviews completed by February 22, 2026
  • Paper decisions to authors by February 25, 2026
  • Speaker registration deadline: March 8, 2026

Committee Chair

Dr. Dua Weraikat

Conflict of Interest Policy

  • Societies and divisions must follow standard conflict of interest guidelines. Those guidelines include, but are not limited to:
  • Officers and Board members of the S/D should be ineligible for awards during the period of their service, without approval by the Senior VP for Technical Operations (SVP). Exceptions may only be made by the SVP when awards are time sensitive (i.e., a Student Best Paper Award for a Student Board Member, when the student is graduating), and the impacted board member(s) or officer(s) must recuse themselves from the award process. For awards that are not time-sensitive, the nominee should wait until their Officer or Board service is complete to be nominated.
  • The awards committee (or judging committee) should not include members who have either a personal or professional relationship with the nominees. For example, a faculty member should not be judging a paper competition where a student from the same university is a nominee for best student paper award.
  • The awards committee (or judging committee) should actively change its membership on a rotating basis from year to year to ensure fairness, equity, and diversity. That is, some members of the judging committee should roll off the committee and new members should roll on.

2025 Winners

1st Place:
Jean-Christophe Raymond-Bertrand
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
"Investigating Unintended Consequences of Automated Traffic Law Enforcement in Commuting""

2nd Place:
Pedro Vieira Rocha
Military Institute of Engineering (IME), Brazil
"A Cut-Based Mixed Integer Programming Formulation for the Hop-constrained Cheapest Path Problems"

Past winners

Operations Research Division page

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