The Education and Professional Development Colloquium (EPD) is an annual event designed to bring together students, junior analysts, and senior professionals to provide mentoring and professional development opportunities.
The purpose of the EPD is to challenge undergraduate students by presenting them with an opportunity to perform National Security operational research work. Students do this by participating in the Richard E. Rosenthal competition. The Rosenthal Student Competition is a “quick reaction analysis” competition which allows students from all participating institutions to work on an OR problem together, demonstrate their skills and learn different ways to approach a problem toward a team solution.
Young analysts who participate will learn about different formal education expectations of military, government civilians, private industry employees, and academics. This year's EPD will bring together speakers, practitioners, and students of operations research for an overdue look at military operations research beyond the military operation.