At the General Assembly last Friday, The Danish Operations Research Society (DORS) awarded the DORS Prize 2023 for the best master's thesis to Ella Pirttikangas for her thesis Case Study: Assignment Problem under Operational Uncertainty in Maintenance. Ella conducted her thesis at DTU Management under the supervision of Associate Professor Dario Pacino.
Every year, DORS awards the DORS Prize to the best OR thesis of the dear. An evaluation committee consisting of operations research experts decides the winner by evaluating the submitted theses. During the evaluation, emphasis is put on theses that analyze and solve practical problems using OR. This year, the committee consisted of:
• David Sacramento, Optimization Specialist at Sealytix.
• Martin Kidd, Mathematical Optimization Specialist at Vattenfall.
• Hildur Sigurjonsdottir, DORS board member and evaluation committee chair
In the thesis, Ella studied decision-making problem of an industrial maintenance service provider, where the tactical decision of assigning equipment to technicians is made under the uncertainty of the operational circumstances due to unplanned maintenance activities that occur stochastically. Ella used and tested several solution methods such as mathematical modelling, metaheuristics, and simulation to provide managerial insights, and presented extensive analysis of the data collection, implementation, and results.
The committee found the thesis to be well written and it was easy to see that Ella had put much effort and care into the work.
DORS congratulates Ella Pirttikangas on the DORS Prize 2023!
