It was a long day, and relatively interesting. I am not directly involved in Operations Research much these days, but there were a number of my chemical engineering friends at this symposium, as well as a people from business and other engineering disciplines.
As usual with conferences, the most fun was in conversation outside of the formal talks. Sirdar, a masters student at UIC, happened upon the symposium because he likes to attend conferences and talks provided by the local universities. What a great way to take advantage of the city!
And Praveen Gupta runs his own company, where he is attempting to develop a business performance index, based on Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard techniques. He is "perpetually laid off," rather than self-employed.