Members of the Health AI & Analytics Lab were actively engaged at the 2026 Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) Conference, with several students presenting their research and earning recognitions in prestigious competitions. The conference highlighted the breadth of the lab’s work in healthcare operations, service systems, and applied analytics, with multiple students receiving finalist and award distinctions across several categories.
Student Paper Competition – Undergraduate Category
Two undergraduate teams supervised by Dr. Houra Mahmoudzadeh and Dr. Hossein Abouee‑Mehrizi were named finalists in the highly competitive Student Paper Competition:
-
Ahmed Fawzy – Finalist
Predicting the Day, Not the Case: A Distribution‑Based Overrun Risk Score for Operating Room Scheduling -
Adam Drakich, Jessie Fan, Chris Wang, Gisele Zhang – Finalist
Unlocking the Gains of Flexibility: Quantifying the Value of Mixed‑Specialty Operating Rooms with Optimization
Both projects address important challenges in operating room planning and scheduling, advancing data‑driven approaches to improve efficiency and flexibility in surgical care delivery.
Student Paper Competition – Open Category
- Hamid Arzani – Winner
Equity vs. Efficiency in Service Systems with Differentiated Demand
Hamid Arzani is a former HAIA lab graduate supervised by Dr. Hossein Abouee-Mehrizi and is currently a PhD student at the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Business.
Teaching & Learning SIG – Inaugural Teaching Competition
- Larissa Troper – Winner
LLM‑Driven Planning for Longitudinal Care Operations: A Teaching Case
Supervised by Dr. Hossein Abouee‑Mehrizi
This award recognizes innovative contributions to teaching in operations research, with the winning work integrating large language models into educational material for healthcare operations.
Queueing and Applied Probability SIG – Student Paper Competition
- Amirmohammad Marshalpirgheybi – Winner
Dynamic Control of Multiclass Multi‑Episode Service Systems with Waiting Time Dependent Transitions
Supervised by Dr. Hossein Abouee‑Mehrizi
Congratulations to all students on their excellent presentations and outstanding accomplishments at CORS 2026!
