The Importance of Being Caring

Flying out yesterday to Ithaca from Pittsburgh – 40 minutes Wheels-up to Wheels-down on a Bombardier Challenger 350 – to attend my son’s commencement at Cornell, I thought I would fuse – see The Importance of Being Skeptical for a few other such titles –  Oscar Wilde with Teddy Roosevelt:

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

For what occasion?

Dear Sridhar,

Thank you for indicating your availability. We are thrilled you will be able to join us in this event on July 29 celebrating Wally’s retirement and contribution to the field!

Would you be interested in presenting some of your latest research in one of the following areas at the conference? I am sure the audience would love to learn from you. The presentations will be 20-30 minutes and the planned areas are: healthcare, supply chain, AI, and frontier operations management.

Thank you very much for considering!

Best,

Guihua, Jun, Soroush

I inquired whether I should present a single research paper, or a mini-overview of a collection, if it should be on a conventional topic or whether it could be about quantum.

Hi Sridhar-

Any of these could work. I think a mini overview of a collection of some of your work in OM might work best, given the focus of the conference. Bonus points if any connection to Wally’s contributions could be highlighted.

But none of these are required. Everyone attending would benefit from listening to any 20-30 minute presentation you could offer.

Thanks, and looking forward to it!

Cheers,

Soroush

So, who is Wally – no, he is not the fictional character from Leave It to Beaver – and what is the conference?

The Height of Operations: Processes and People (Hopp) Conference

The conference will feature the latest research in operations management and related fields (healthcare, supply chain, AI and frontier operations management) and honor Wallace Hopp‘s contributions to our field and community. The conference will be held at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan on Tuesday July 29, 2025, with a dinner reception on Monday July 28, 2025.

And so, I have decided to present:

Patient AIDE- Artificial Intelligence (AI), Devices and Experts for Personalized CARE.

Here is the abstract:

Devices capture data. Generative AI augments the data. Analytical AI responds to the data. Experts evaluate the data. Combined harmoniously, AI, devices, and experts (AIDE) can comprehensively aid in personalized care. This mini-preview highlights three healthcare research initiatives – (a) Wearables to combat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), (b) Liquid Biopsy for early cancer diagnosis, and (c) GenEx, an iterative procedure that utilizes Generative AI and Expert feedback to develop a decision-support system for personalized dosage. I situate them in my AIDE and CARE frameworks that have also informed my venture capital investments (such as in the Unicorn start-up BillionToOne) as well as in philanthropic funding of futuristic research (Spooky Imaging). If care is a virtue, then analytics merged with technology, thoughtfully guided, supported with mathematics and money, is my expression of it.

Indeed, I am hoping that this writeup could also serve to satisfy this companion invitation:

Hi Sridhar,

Thank you for agreeing to contribute to the POM special issue for Wally.

Thanks again! –

Pinar

Off now to see:

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 American action spy film. The sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), it is the eighth and final installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, whose box office revenues are over $4.3 Billion (on a budget of $1.5 Billion).