In this episode, we're continuing our special relaunch series by welcoming one of this year's INFORMS Annual Meeting plenary speakers – a pioneer in the fusion of machine learning and optimization, and a leader in advancing AI for real-world engineering challenges.

Pascal Van Hentenryck is a Fellow of INFORMS and AAAI, and has made groundbreaking contributions to constraint programming and optimization systems that are still used in industry decades later. His current research focuses on integrating AI with mathematical optimization to solve incredibly complex and large-scale problems in energy, transportation, supply chains, and more.

At the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, he delivered a plenary address titled "Learning to Optimize: Foundations and Industrial Impact," exploring how machine learning and optimization can work hand-in-hand to meet real-time demands in today's dynamic systems.

In our latest episode in the Resoundingly Human podcast refresh, Ramayya Krishnan, Carnegie Mellon University, and plenary speaker at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, shares how today's rapid advances in AI technology create new opportunities for synergy with OR/MS, with broad implications for workforce development, public policy and education.

Welcome back to Resoundingly Human, the INFORMS podcast! After a short break this summer, we are back with more great content and interviews featuring INFORMS members whose work is helping make Smarter Decisions for a Better World. In this episode, Margaret Brandeau, professor at Stanford University, and the opening plenary speaker at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, gives valuable insight into how operations research is helping to inform better public policy to save lives.