Four George Mason University master’s and PhD students and Professor Karla Hoffman are part of the FCC team named as one of six finalists for the INFORMS Franz Edelman Prize.
A team of four George Mason University master’s and PhD students, and Professor Karla Hoffman, is part of the FCC team named as one of six finalists for the INFORMS Franz Edelman Prize. First awarded in 1972, the prize is named in honor of Franz Edelman, who founded the Operations Research division within RCA, one of the first corporations to embed operations research as a business imperative.
Hoffman’s team worked with the FCC to complete the world’s first two-sided auction of valuable low-band electromagnetic spectrum, reclaiming channels from TV broadcasters to meet the exploding demand for wireless services.
“This auction would not have been possible without the use of operations research tools to solve complicated design and implementation challenges,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “The success of these tools speaks for itself, and the team’s work is exemplary of the data-driven approach to policymaking that I believe should be this agency’s hallmark.”
The Commission purchased spectrum from TV broadcasters, sold the acquired spectrum to wireless providers, and assigned the remaining broadcasters to new channels in a smaller TV band. Operations research tools, including optimization software and satisfiability solvers, were essential to the spectrum clearing target calculations, auction winner determinations, and final TV channel assignments.
The auction repurposed 84 MHz of TV spectrum for wireless use, raised nearly $20 billion in revenue, paid over $10 billion to winning broadcasters, provided nearly $2 billion for relocation costs for non-winning broadcasters, and contributed over $7 billion to reduce the federal deficit. The final channel assignments, which included all 2,900 U.S. and Canadian TV stations, enabled 78 percent of the stations to remain on their existing channels, providing an estimated savings of more than $200 million in relocation costs.
The Franz Edelman Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes given by INFORMS. The purpose of the Franz Edelman competition is to bring forward, recognize and reward outstanding examples of operations research, management science and advanced analytics in practice in the world. ... Since its inception, cumulative benefits from Edelman finalist projects has topped the $250 billion mark.