Call for Entries 2025-26

The Brij Disa Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), in collaboration with the Ahmedabad Chapter of the Operational Research Society of India (ORSI), is pleased to announce the continuation of its industry-wide competition. This initiative aims to encourage, recognize, and reward outstanding applications of Operations Research, Management Science, and Analytics in practice across India.

Modeled after the Franz Edelman Award of INFORMS, USA, this award seeks to highlight and honor exemplary real-world applications of management science and analytics that have demonstrated significant impact.

Award Details

• The award will be presented to the client organization, not to individuals.
• The authors of the winning work will be acknowledged with a certificate.

Eligibility and Rules for Entry

1. Focus on Application: The competition is designed to recognize applied work with substantial impact, rather than theoretical or methodological contributions. Entries that have resulted in significant financial benefits or policy changes will have a stronger chance of winning.
2. Geographical Scope: The competition is exclusively for work conducted in India by organizations based in India. Multinational companies (MNCs) with operations in India may participate, provided the work was primarily executed in India, and the first OR the lead author and corresponding author are from India.
3. Disclosure Requirement: The client organization where the work was implemented must be explicitly named. Anonymous entries will not be considered.
4. Commitment to Submission:
   • Participating organizations must submit a technical paper (approximately 8,000 words) by October 2024.
   • The paper will be published in OPSEARCH (aligned with IJAA, INFORMS).
   • A letter from senior management (preferably a board member, CEO, or CXO) confirming the real-world implementation and financial impact of the work must be included.
5. Verification Process: A panel of jurors or their representatives will contact the client organization to verify claims made by the authors. This process will take place over a period of 7 to 10 days.
6. Presentation Requirement:
   • The finalist organizations will be required to deliver a 35-minute presentation of their work in January 2026.
   • The presentation will be videotaped and archived in the IIMA library for educational purposes.
7. Selection Process:
   • A maximum of six projects will be selected as finalists.
   • Only one project will be declared the winner.
   • Each organization may submit up to three entries.

Jury Panel

The jury will consist of top researchers and academicians with expertise in applied analytics from both corporate and academic sectors.

• Chairperson: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Prasad, Distinguished Engineer / Chief Data Scientist, IBM India.
• Editor & Coordinator: Prof. Goutam Dutta, Professor (Retd.), IIM Ahmedabad.

Entry Procedure

Interested participants should submit a 2-3 page (or 1,500-words) summary of their work, covering, the problem statement, the OR/MS/Analytics methodology applied, the solution implemented

• The financial impact and/or policy changes achieved

Additionally, please provide:

• The names and email IDs of all authors
• The name, email ID, and mobile number of a senior management representative from the organization (preferably a CEO, MD, CTO, or Board member). Note: This representative cannot be listed as an author.

Submission Deadline

Email the 1,500-word summary by June 30, 2025, to:

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Prasad
Chief Data Scientist / Distinguished Engineer, IBM India
skprasad@gmail.com | sanprasa@in.ibm.com

Prof. Goutam Dutta
Professor (Retd.), IIM Ahmedabad
goutam@iima.ac.in

Deadlines (Subject to Change)

1. Last date for the Entry:                                          June 30, 2025
2. Last date for selection of Semifinalists:   July 25, 2025
3. Last date for selection of Finalist:                 September 5, 2025
4. Last date of submission of paper:                December 5, 2025
5. Presentation at IIMA:                                              January 11, 2026
6. Declaration of winner:                                                      January 11. 2026
7. Publication of Special Issues                            TBA