Curiosity and talking to people -2
Yesterday after dinner while I was on my way to the library when I met a friend of mine, a FP student in campus doing his Ph.D in the field of Operations Research. I casually asked him what his thesis topic was and who his guide was.I came to know that he was doing his thesis under one of the most feared profs in the Operations Management Department.To show my symapathy to him is not the only reason for this post, the main reason is to give an idea about the kind of problems he was working on.
He was working on problems regarding the assignment of aircrafts of different sizes to different trips at different points in time given the routes and the demand on each route.He was telling me that airlines in developed countries have developed complicated mathematical models to optimize the assignment and have saved millions of dollars in the process. He was trying to develop some models for indian airline companies.He was telling me that there was a lot of problem getting data regarding indian airline companies unlike those in US.One interesting idea that came up during the discussion was regarding how low cost airlines could be looking for alliances with other means of transport providers like railways and even road transport providers to make a lot of small towns which are close to cities but which are directly inaccessible by air because of lack of airports.This has advantages for both the business traveller and the reasonably affluent town dweller and could also increase revenues for the airlines because of the potential increase in demand(we have not discussed feasibility and profitability).This will also relieve the traveller from the worry of finding the connecting means of transport to her destination.Though the idea of connecting flights is not new, extending it to other means of transport might be novel.
Whether or not the idea is novel or not, the point I am trying to make is that a little bit of curiosity can go a long way in helping us learn about new ideas if not generating new ones. This reminds me of the advice of a CEO which I have read somewhere,he says its more important to be interested than be interesting.
He was working on problems regarding the assignment of aircrafts of different sizes to different trips at different points in time given the routes and the demand on each route.He was telling me that airlines in developed countries have developed complicated mathematical models to optimize the assignment and have saved millions of dollars in the process. He was trying to develop some models for indian airline companies.He was telling me that there was a lot of problem getting data regarding indian airline companies unlike those in US.One interesting idea that came up during the discussion was regarding how low cost airlines could be looking for alliances with other means of transport providers like railways and even road transport providers to make a lot of small towns which are close to cities but which are directly inaccessible by air because of lack of airports.This has advantages for both the business traveller and the reasonably affluent town dweller and could also increase revenues for the airlines because of the potential increase in demand(we have not discussed feasibility and profitability).This will also relieve the traveller from the worry of finding the connecting means of transport to her destination.Though the idea of connecting flights is not new, extending it to other means of transport might be novel.
Whether or not the idea is novel or not, the point I am trying to make is that a little bit of curiosity can go a long way in helping us learn about new ideas if not generating new ones. This reminds me of the advice of a CEO which I have read somewhere,he says its more important to be interested than be interesting.
posted by Vamshi Jandhyala at 12:09 PM
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