Distinguished ADSE Seminar Series
Managing the Hyflex Scheduling Activity using Excel Dynamic Arrays
| Date | 15 SEP 2021 (Wed) |
|---|---|
| Time | 10:30am |
| Speaker | Dr. Larry J. LeBlanc Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA |
| Venue | Online via Zoom |
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the rapid adoption of remote teaching modalities including hyflex (hybrid flexible) where students attend some class sessions in person and some online. Managing the hyflex course requires faculty to quickly generate four reports, and to update these reports rapidly when the authorities adjust the rules, students add/drop, or the number of course sessions is changed. The creation of these reports is tedious and error-prone, and they need to be automated; however the nature of the task precludes traditional Excel programming approaches. We utilize Excel’s new “dynamic array” capabilities (which are available only in Excel 365) to automate the creation and updating of the reports needed to manage the hyflex course. We show how to program the reports and discuss the importance of taking an iterative approach to creating cell formulas that work. To help the reader learn these dynamic array functions, we provide a tutorial on the principles and new concepts of dynamic arrays, explain how they relate to legacy array functions, and present dynamic array functions including SEQUENCE, FILTER, and XLOOKUP.
About the Speaker
Dr. Larry J. LeBlanc is a Professor of Operations Management in the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in the U.S. He was a guest editor of the special issue of the prestigious journal Interfaces (currently the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics) on Spreadsheet Applications of Management Science and Operations Research. Dr. LeBlanc teaches one of the most popular electives in the Owen School, “Spreadsheets for Business Analytics” to MBAs. He has taught advanced Excel to Boeing, FedEx, Nissan North America, Johnson Controls, Community Health Systems, Nu-kote, the Rogers Group, Recovery Green Roofs, and KOSTA. He has received the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence twice in past years. He was an invited speaker at the INFORMS workshop on Teaching of Management Science in Atlanta in July, 2007.
Dr. LeBlanc’s research interests include reducing spreadsheet error risk in optimization models, optimization in medical systems and supply chains, telecommunication network design and analysis, and computer implementation of algorithms for large-scale optimization models.
He has 75 publications in referred journals. He has served as Secretary and Council Member of the Telecommunications Section of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Prior to that, he served as Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Council Member of the Transportation Science Section of INFORMS. He received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering/Management Science from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Dr. LeBlanc was a scientific advisor to France Telecom and received a Japanese Government award for travel to Tokyo to study manufacturing efficiencies of Japanese factories. He has also developed solution techniques for large-scale traffic models. LeBlanc's consulting activities include assignments in the areas of optimization models for scheduling, production and personnel assignment, forecasting, aggregate production planning, project planning and inventory control. He has provided consulting services for a long list of clients including Ingram Barge, Ingram Periodicals, Nu-kote International, Heery International, The Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, Dr. Pepper, U.S. Army Inventory Research Office, Trailways, Mississippi Chemical Company, McDermott, Port Everglades Steel Corporation, Eaton Corporation, and the Carbon/Graphite Group.
Enquiry: 3442 8422
All are welcome!
Last modified on 6 September, 2021