On June 27th, the INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Conference on Service Science (Hereinafter referred to as ICSS 2019) was held in mainland China for the first time in the A305 Lecture Hall of the College of Economics and Management of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Professor Qiu Guanghua from the College of Information Sciences and Technology of Pennsylvania State University presided over the opening ceremony of the conference. Huang Zhiqiu, Vice President of NUAA attended and delivered a speech. Professor Paul Messinger, Chairman of INFORMS Service Science Professional Committee, Professor Michael Pinedo from NYU Stern School of Business, Huo Hong, Director of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Professor Saif Benjaafar, Head of Industrial and Systems Engineering Department of University of Minnesota, Professor Grace Lin, Vice President of Asia University, Professor Hua Zhongsheng, Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University and the Yangtze River Scholar Professor, Professor Kwang-Jae Kim, Vice President of Pohang University of Science and Technology of Korea, Professor Fiona Jamison from Fox School of Business and Management, Professor Christoph Heitz from Operations Management of Data Analysis and Process Design Institute of Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Professor Luo Xinggang from Hangzhou Dianzi University, Dr. Jin Dong, Dean of Beijing Institute of Edge Computing, Dr. Aly Megahed from IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., and Dr. Hui Yang from Pennsylvania State University all gave keynote speeches.

（Zhiqiu Huang, the Vice President of NUAA is delivering a speech）

Professor Zhou Dequn, Dean of College of Economics and Management of NUAA, Professor Zhang Yulin, Associate Dean of School of Economics and Management of Southeast University, and Professor Fan Tijun, Director of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of East China University of Science and Technology, attended the ceremony. More than 160 experts and scholars from more than 20 countries and regions came to share and present the latest research results.

（Professor Paul Messinger, President of INFORMS Services Science Professional Committee is delivering a keynote speech）

The conference was initiated by INFORMS, hosted by the College of Economics and Management of NUAA, and co-organized by East China University of Science and Technology. With the theme of “Intelligent Service System, Operation Management and Analysis”, the conference adheres to the concept of “open, innovative and shared” and focuses on service products and service models, service industry scheduling, operational management and analysis in the era of shared economy, product/service design, machine learning and artificial intelligence, medical health, Internet platforms and other related academic issues in the service field.

Michael Pinedo, professor of operations management at New York University Stern School of Business, gave a keynote speech on current service industry scheduling issues and detailed analysis of five types of scheduling models and their applications. Hong Huo, Director of the Department of Management Science of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, analyzed the research hotspots and projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the field of service science management over the past 20 years, and pointed out the future research direction of service science and operation management field. Professor Saif Benjaafar, Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, introduced research on shared economic business models and operations management. Professor Grace Lin, Vice President of Asian University, proposed to use smart analysis and innovative business models to fill the financing gap for SMEs to achieve better financing services.

Professor Hua Zhongsheng from Zhejiang University gave a report titled “Some Key Issues in Service Science Research”, expounding the concept, situation and development trend of service science.  Professor Christoph Heitzjia from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences shared the value of the Bike Sharing System (BSS) in Zurich and Switzerland. Professor Kwang-Jae Kim, Vice President of Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, proposed a new intelligent service concept framework and applied research. Professor Fiona Jamison, CEO of Spring International, gave a presentation on the topic People Analytics in Practice: Connecting Employee, Customer and Operational Data to Create Evidence-Based Decision Making.  Dr. Paul Messinger of the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed new issues and related examples of service science research under machine learning.

The conference was divided into five conference venues for paper report and academic discussion under the themes of aerospace services, power operation management, Internet services, medical and health services and other related topics.

2019 is the implementation of the year for NUAA, and it is the year of promotion of the double-first-class discipline construction project. As an interdisciplinary subject, service science involves areas of management, economics, computer sciense, artificial intelligence, sociology, psychology, etc.. which is an important direction of discipline construction for CEM. With the opportunity of the Conference on Service Science, the College of Economics and Management actively promotes cross-disciplinary integration, explores the frontiers of disciplines, encourages high-level original achievements, and highlights service contributions. CEM of NUAA is precise in condensing disciplines and coordinating resource allocation, and will make new contributions to double-first-class construction.

This Conference on Service Science is at the time of the Nanjing Innovation Week, which aims to promote service innovation based on internationalization, promote innovation collaboration based on integration, build first-class disciplines based on high-end, and provide new ideas for Nanjing to enhance its innovation primacy and build an innovative city with global influence.