Austin Buchanan
@austinlbuchanan.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering & Management. Interests in #orms #networks #districting. Senior Member of INFORMS. Blogs at https://farkasdilemma.wordpress.com/ Website: https://austinlbuchanan.github.io/
The TN state constitution requires maps to split as few counties as possible. Our recent paper finds the enacted map splits twice this amount bsky.app/profile/aust...
Academics and experts are awaiting a decision on Tennessee’s state House and Senate maps after the TN Supreme Court heard arguments on the redistricting plans in October 2024. www.wkrn.com/news/tenne…
Tennessee redistricting lawsuit still pending amid Congressional map battle in Texas
“When the only thing that matters to legislatures is drawing lines and squeezing out as many Republican or Democratic seats as possible, that’s the surest way to make sure that nobody is really rep…
www.wkrn.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The TN state constitution requires maps to split as few counties as possible. Our recent paper finds the enacted map splits twice this amount bsky.app/profile/aust...
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
Americans momentarily searched for Redistricting more than Taylor Swift yesterday.
November 6, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Americans momentarily searched for Redistricting more than Taylor Swift yesterday.
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
For anyone who missed the talk, he talked about this in the #ROW some time ago:
youtu.be/ZpMgnrKhWzU?...
youtu.be/ZpMgnrKhWzU?...
November 2, 2025 at 7:29 AM
For anyone who missed the talk, he talked about this in the #ROW some time ago:
youtu.be/ZpMgnrKhWzU?...
youtu.be/ZpMgnrKhWzU?...
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
The 2025 ICS Student Paper Award winner is Hao Hao (CMU) for the paper "Robust Paths: Geometry and Computation," co-authored with Peter Zhang.
November 1, 2025 at 10:37 PM
The 2025 ICS Student Paper Award winner is Hao Hao (CMU) for the paper "Robust Paths: Geometry and Computation," co-authored with Peter Zhang.
Brad gave my favorite talk at this year’s INFORMS #orms
The 2025 ICS Harvey J Greenberg Research Award was presented to Braden L. Crimmins, J. Alex Halderman, and Bradley Sturt for their paper "Improving the Security of United States Elections with Robust Optimization."
November 1, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Brad gave my favorite talk at this year’s INFORMS #orms
This Halloween, I’m now “Almond Joy tastes good” years old
November 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This Halloween, I’m now “Almond Joy tastes good” years old
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
The @stechlab-labels.bsky.social labeler is indeed very useful to weed out who to follow
seriously the @stechlab-labels.bsky.social labeler is hella cool, some really interesting data that they’re processing and flagging
October 30, 2025 at 11:49 PM
The @stechlab-labels.bsky.social labeler is indeed very useful to weed out who to follow
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
The simplex algorithm is super efficient. 80 years of experience says it runs in linear time. Nobody can explain _why_ it is so fast.
We invented a new algorithm analysis framework to find out.
We invented a new algorithm analysis framework to find out.
Beyond Smoothed Analysis: Analyzing the Simplex Method by the Book
Narrowing the gap between theory and practice is a longstanding goal of the algorithm analysis community. To further progress our understanding of how algorithms work in practice, we propose a new alg...
arxiv.org
October 27, 2025 at 1:43 AM
The simplex algorithm is super efficient. 80 years of experience says it runs in linear time. Nobody can explain _why_ it is so fast.
We invented a new algorithm analysis framework to find out.
We invented a new algorithm analysis framework to find out.
Congrats to my former student Maral for winning the Best Paper Award from the @informs.bsky.social Section on Telecommunications and Network Analytics! #orms
October 26, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Congrats to my former student Maral for winning the Best Paper Award from the @informs.bsky.social Section on Telecommunications and Network Analytics! #orms
I have arrived at the @informs.bsky.social Annual Meeting. #orms Believe it or not, I was here for the Olympics back in 1996 too. I took a photo of Charles Barkley on a police horse using my kid camera
October 25, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I have arrived at the @informs.bsky.social Annual Meeting. #orms Believe it or not, I was here for the Olympics back in 1996 too. I took a photo of Charles Barkley on a police horse using my kid camera
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
Revisiting last week’s open problems scandal, I wrote about LLMs as Lore Laundering Machines and why some are blind to the novelty whitewashing.
Lore Laundering Machines
When insight comes from willful forgetting.
www.argmin.net
October 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Revisiting last week’s open problems scandal, I wrote about LLMs as Lore Laundering Machines and why some are blind to the novelty whitewashing.
Soundtrack for the 2nd DIMACS Implementation Challenge youtu.be/dYNnQo-xgE8?... #orms
International Colouring Contest (Mark Radcliffe Session, 11/22/1994)
YouTube video by Stereolab - Topic
youtu.be
October 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Soundtrack for the 2nd DIMACS Implementation Challenge youtu.be/dYNnQo-xgE8?... #orms
Industrial enginering professor Don Ratliff makes an appearance on This American Life, sort of
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
My Other Self
Podcast Episode · This American Life · 10/12/2025 · 1h
podcasts.apple.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Industrial enginering professor Don Ratliff makes an appearance on This American Life, sort of
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
For nearly 80 years, an algorithm called the simplex method has been one of the most widely used tools for when a logistical decision needs to be made under complex constraints. A new update makes it faster than ever. www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
Researchers Discover the Optimal Way To Optimize | Quanta Magazine
The leading approach to the simplex method, a widely used technique for balancing complex logistical constraints, can’t get any better.
www.quantamagazine.org
October 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
For nearly 80 years, an algorithm called the simplex method has been one of the most widely used tools for when a logistical decision needs to be made under complex constraints. A new update makes it faster than ever. www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
[new paper] Political districting to maximize whole counties, coauthored with Maral Shahmizad
github.com/maralshahmiz...
github.com/maralshahmiz...
October 13, 2025 at 2:23 PM
[new paper] Political districting to maximize whole counties, coauthored with Maral Shahmizad
github.com/maralshahmiz...
github.com/maralshahmiz...
She’s an industrial engineer!
BREAKING: For her work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
María Corina Machado of Venezuela wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Opposition activist María Corina Machado of Venezuela has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel committee praised her as a key figure in unifying Venezuela's political opposition.
bit.ly
October 10, 2025 at 11:03 AM
She’s an industrial engineer!
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
October 16 Safeguarding Democracy Project Webinar: “Redistricting and Re-Redistricting Controversies and the 2026 Election” electionlawblog.org?p=152405
October 16 Safeguarding Democracy Project Webinar: "Redistricting and Re-Redistricting Controversies and the 2026 Election" #ELB
Thursday, October 16 Redistricting and Re-Redistricting Controversies and the 2026 Elections (webinar) 12:15pm-1:15pm PTRegister here.Guy-Uriel Charles, Harvard Law School, Moon Duchin, Director, Data...
electionlawblog.org
October 8, 2025 at 2:47 PM
October 16 Safeguarding Democracy Project Webinar: “Redistricting and Re-Redistricting Controversies and the 2026 Election” electionlawblog.org?p=152405
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
Congratulations to Thomas Rothvoss and Lang Liu, the inaugural winners of the Trevisan Prize at Bocconi University.
cs.unibocconi.eu/trevisan-pri...
cs.unibocconi.eu/trevisan-pri...
Trevisan Prize 2025 – Winners
cs.unibocconi.eu
October 6, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Congratulations to Thomas Rothvoss and Lang Liu, the inaugural winners of the Trevisan Prize at Bocconi University.
cs.unibocconi.eu/trevisan-pri...
cs.unibocconi.eu/trevisan-pri...
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
Network Science, and three of its avengers, featured in the latest @veritasium.bsky.social video (one of the largest youtube channels for Science education)!! youtu.be/CYlon2tvywA?... @stevenstrogatz.com Duncan Watts @barabasi.bsky.social
Something Strange Happens When You Trace How Connected We Are
YouTube video by Veritasium
youtu.be
October 1, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Network Science, and three of its avengers, featured in the latest @veritasium.bsky.social video (one of the largest youtube channels for Science education)!! youtu.be/CYlon2tvywA?... @stevenstrogatz.com Duncan Watts @barabasi.bsky.social
TIL that Fruit Bats redid the entire Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream youtu.be/E8jDhs5MuvE?...
Rocket
YouTube video by Fruit Bats - Topic
youtu.be
October 1, 2025 at 1:30 AM
TIL that Fruit Bats redid the entire Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream youtu.be/E8jDhs5MuvE?...
Reposted by Austin Buchanan
Yeah, I have fair point. I do all of my journal writing in Quarto, so that I can swap between formats, which lets me write Quarto => Typst. If a journal requires LaTeX, you just swap the engine and Quarto produces the LaTeX file.
September 27, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Yeah, I have fair point. I do all of my journal writing in Quarto, so that I can swap between formats, which lets me write Quarto => Typst. If a journal requires LaTeX, you just swap the engine and Quarto produces the LaTeX file.
On INFORMS Connect, Austin Saragih (MIT) advertised their new Python package (SCGraph) for accurate distances and shortest paths in *real* road networks (and rail, maritime, multimodal). #orms
Getting Started: github.com/connor-makowski/scgraph
Paper and Tutorial: ssrn.com/abstract=5388845
Getting Started: github.com/connor-makowski/scgraph
Paper and Tutorial: ssrn.com/abstract=5388845
SCGraph: A Dependency-Free Python Package for Road, Rail, and Maritime Shortest Path Routing Generation and Distance Estimation
SCGraph (Supply Chain Graph) is a dependency-free Python toolkit that provides fully offline, accurate multimodal routing and network-based distance estimation
ssrn.com
August 30, 2025 at 11:46 PM
On INFORMS Connect, Austin Saragih (MIT) advertised their new Python package (SCGraph) for accurate distances and shortest paths in *real* road networks (and rail, maritime, multimodal). #orms
Getting Started: github.com/connor-makowski/scgraph
Paper and Tutorial: ssrn.com/abstract=5388845
Getting Started: github.com/connor-makowski/scgraph
Paper and Tutorial: ssrn.com/abstract=5388845
“The radium water worked fine until his jaw came off”.
WSJ article from 1990 about Eben Byers:
www.scribd.com/document/188...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_By...
WSJ article from 1990 about Eben Byers:
www.scribd.com/document/188...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_By...
The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Fell Off | PDF | Radiation Therapy | Radioactivity
WSJ story about the 1932 death of pro golfer and industrialist Eben Byers, who suffered progressive radium poisoning.
www.scribd.com
August 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
“The radium water worked fine until his jaw came off”.
WSJ article from 1990 about Eben Byers:
www.scribd.com/document/188...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_By...
WSJ article from 1990 about Eben Byers:
www.scribd.com/document/188...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_By...