On behalf of the Brazilian Operations Research Society (SOBRAPO), I have the great pleasure of welcoming all of you to the 44th Brazilian Operations Research Symposium / 16th Latin Ibero American Conference on Operations Research (XLIV SBPO/XVI CLAIO) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The theme of our joint conference this year is "Operations Research in major sports events". This theme was chosen to motivate our OR community to contribute and to aid decision makers in solving many challenging problems that arise in diverse areas associated with the organization of the World Soccer Cup and the World Olympic Games in Brazil.
This joint edition of the CLAIO and SBPO is devoted to Professors Nelson Maculan, Andrés Weintraub and Hugo Scolnik, on the occasion of their 70th birthday. They are important and well known researchers, responsible for relevant scientific contributions as well as to the formation and strengthening of many Operations Research groups in Latin America.
We had 570 full papers and 126 posters submitted to this event. We would like to thank the reviewers that evaluated with quality this large number of papers in a very short time.
The scientific program is composed of parallel technical and special sessions that includes the 400 works accepted as full papers, and the 111 papers accepted as posters, plenary talks and tutorials covering many diverse areas and aspects of Operations Research. The 2012 edition of the Latin-Ibero-American Spectral Graph Theory Workshop (LIA-SGT Workshop) will also be held simultaneously with CLAIO/SBPO.
The SBPO/CLAIO´s, also serve as a place where you will meet old colleagues, make new ones, exchange ideas, develop new projects, and keep on with the state of the art. This year, we hope you also enjoy the special atmosphere of Rio de Janeiro that is preparing for the World Soccer Cup in 2014 and The World Olympic Games in 2016.
The success of our event has a team effort composed by many individuals. Let me take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all members of the Organizing Committee, chaired by Nair Maria Maia de Abreu, and all members of the Scientific Committee, chaired by Luiz Satoru Ochi. These teams have worked for months and they have spared no efforts in ensuring all the conditions to guarantee the success of this event. We also would like to thank all members of the Program Committee, the Evaluation Committee of the Scientific Initiation works, the Selection Committee of the "Roberto Dieguez Galvão" prize, and the Secretary of SOBRAPO, for their contributions to the event.
We hope that the XLIV SBPO/XVI CLAIO will completely fulfi ll the interest and expectations of each one of the participants.
Welcome to Rio de Janeiro and a good Congress to all of you.
Horacio Hideki Yanasse
President of SOBRAPO
© 2012 SOBRAPO - Annals XVI CLAIO - XLIV SBPO - Workshop LIA-SGT - Rio de Janeiro, RJ