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Distinguished teacher set
to help students
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Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Eric Denardo ’58 is the Kenan Distinguished
Teacher this year.
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The
way to teach liberal arts students about operations research
and other decision sciences is not to bog them down with theory,
but to focus on applications and problems.
So said Eric Denardo ’58, a professor
of operations research at Yale University. Professor Denardo
is visiting the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
as the Kenan Distinguished Teacher in Operations Research and
Financial Engineering (ORFE). He taught ORF 105: The Science
and Technology of Decision Making this fall, and he will
return to teach it again next fall.
Philosophical similarities
Professor Denardo explained that he and ORFE Department Chair
Erhan Çinlar share similar views about
operations research. Professor Çinlar first broached
the subject of creating an ORFE course that would reach out
to A.B. students, and Professor Denardo, who had been having
success with a similar course at Yale, was happy to oblige.
“I start with applications that are interesting and realistic.
That’s the motivating concept behind the course,”
he said. “The students’ intuition comes springing
to life. They can put this new knowledge to use, and they’re
not encumbered by abstract notation.”
The course is another example of how SEAS is serving the greater
University community. ORF 105 is not intended for ORFE majors,
but instead for nonmajors and A.B. students.
“I leave off the calculus. I don’t focus on math,”
Professor Denardo said. “I focus on applications, and
I draw examples from everywhere, from economics to epidemiology.”
Excel masters
One appealing element of the course is that Microsoft Excel
is an integral part of the curriculum, and Professor Denardo
said that his students will become proficient Excel-users by
the end of the semester.
“Technology has made operations research so much more
accessible,” he said.
Professor Denardo enjoys being back on the Princeton campus,
because it reminds him of his own college years.
He recalls being taught by John Archibald Wheeler,
the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics, Emeritus.
Professor Wheeler was one of the leading figures in the development
of general relativity and quantum gravity, one of the first
American scientists to focus research on nuclear fission, and
was the man who coined the term “black hole.”
In 2001 Princeton created an endowed professorship, the John
Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professorship in Physics, to honor
him.
“You don’t get much better company than that,”
Professor Denardo said. “It was a wonderful time to be
at Princeton.”
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