Lecture: Airplane Boarding and Space-Time Geometry

Fri., Mar 28, 2008 - Time: 11:00am - 12:00noon

Professor Eitan Bachmat of the Computer Science Department at Ben Gurion University - Isreal (Visiting Brandeis University) will deliver this lecture as part of the Spring 2008 Operations Research / Management Science Seminar series. All are invited to attend.

Title: Airplane Boarding and Space-Time Geometry

Abstract: It is hard to think of a process that is more boring than boarding an airplane. In the hope of relieving, or at least shortening, some of the pain, airlines have devised various boarding strategies which lead to announcements like "All passenger from rows 40 and above are now welcome to board the plane, or more recently, "Zone 1+2 passengers are now welcome to board", or even unassigned boarding. In the talk we will try to overturn the negative image that airplane boarding has and will try to portray it as a very exciting process. We will present an analytical model for airplane boarding and try to figure out what are the better strategies. Surprisingly, the model is based on the same math that models relativity theory. In particular, if time permits, we will use airplane borading to suggest a nice interpretation for Einstein's law of motion. The talk is entirely self contained. Partly based on joint works with D. Berend, L. Sapir, S. Skiena, M. Elkin and V. Khachaturov.

More information about Professor Eitan Bachmat.

This series is organized by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Support for this series is provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of Finance and Operations Management, and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund.

Check here for more details about this speaker series.

Location: SOM 112 (wheelchair accessible)

Contact Information

Trisha Woolley
(413) 577-2761
twoolley@som.umass.edu