18.09.2023.
State Secretary Starović opens Symposium on Operational Research “SYM-OP-IS 2023”
Today, State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Nemanja Starović opened the 50th Symposium on Operational Research "SYM-OP-IS 2023", which will be held in Hotel Omorika on Mount Tara in the period September 18-21, 2023.
State Secretary Starović welcomed the audience, saying that it was his pleasure to address the SYM-OP-IS participants.- The Symposium on Operational Research has been bringing together experts in different fields for five decades now, creating an academic space where experience and knowledge pertaining to the development and application of operational research methods in numerous areas of social life, which makes this conference truly special. For members of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, SYM-OP-IS is particularly significant. As you know, operational research was created in the military and its importance has not diminished over time, on the contrary, it is increasing - stressed State Secretary Starović.
The Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, he added, are striving to keep pace with the world’s most developed militaries, which is why we devote a lot of attention to operational research, it is part of the military schools’ curricula, and the officers of our armed forces use operational research methods every day in operations planning.
- Members of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces have been taking part in this symposium with their papers since the very beginning, and in 1983, a section called "Military Applications" was established, which still exists today. This year, our operational researchers are participating in the symposium with more than 50 papers, which is about a third of the total number - State Secretary Starović said, thanking all the institutions involved in the organization of the symposium, as well as the participants, and conveyed good wishes to all.
Head of the Strategic Planning Department, Defence Policy Sector, Colonel Dejan Stojković, PhD, greeted the audience on behalf of his department, which is in charge of the organization of the symposium. Since the first SYM-OP-IS, until today, he said, thousands of authors have published more than 10,000 papers. Since the very beginning, he emphasized, this professional meeting has been a place for intellectual dialogue, exchange of knowledge and bringing together operational researchers from all structures.Speaking about the challenges, Colonel Stojković stressed that new scientific and technological achievements, such as artificial intelligence, which was the subject of much discussion lately, would pose new challenges to operational researchers, but would also create new opportunities that should definitely be seized.
State Secreatary Starović awarded a charter to Tatjana Davidović, PhD, a research fellow from the Mathematical Institute SANU, in recognition of her work on the development of operational research, promotion and implementation of heuristic optimization methods.
Since 1974, the Symposium on Operational Research SYM-OP-IS, an international conference with one of the longest-standing traditions both in our country and in the region, has gathered together researchers, business representatives and experts on operational research. Over the past five decades, the symposium has brought together members of the domestic and international academic and scientific communities aiming to encourage the study of complex problems in the field of operational research. This year, the symposium has brought together authors from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, the USA, the Russian Federation, Algeria, Japan, Nigeria, Malta and Ukraine.In addition to standard SYM-OP-IS sections, this year’s Programme will include a section entitled “History of Operational Research” to mark the 50th anniversary of the Symposium. The Proceedings of SYM-OP-IS 2023 comprise a total of 157 papers by 375 authors, thematically divided into 27 sections.
The organizers of the 50th Symposium are the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces in collaboration with numerous other higher education and research institutions and societies.
