Sponsored by the INFORMS Data Mining Society2026 Annual Meeting
DMDASan Francisco · 2026
The 21st INFORMS Workshop

Data Mining &
Decision Analytics

A focused day for consequential research at the intersection of data, learning, optimization, and decisions.

Submit a paper Read the call for papers
DateOctober 31, 2026
LocationSan Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone Center South, 747 Howard Street
Marriott Marquis San Francisco, 780 Mission Street
Paper deadlineAugust 1 · 11:59 PM ET
About the workshop

From patterns in data to decisions that matter.

The INFORMS Data Mining Society invites researchers and practitioners to share recent work in data mining, decision analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and related methodological and applied areas.

Held the day before the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting, DMDA brings together theoretical advances and field-tested applications in a focused, in-person setting.

View the official INFORMS listing
Call for Papers

Submit to the DMDA 2026 paper competition.

The INFORMS Data Mining Society invites full-paper submissions presenting methodological or applied research in data mining, decision analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and related fields.

Paper competition

Submitted papers are reviewed for the DMDA Workshop Best Paper Competition in theoretical and applied research tracks. Four finalists will be selected for each track.

Paper format

  • Maximum of 10 pages total, including abstract, tables, figures, references, appendices, and all other material.
  • One-inch margins, 11-point font or larger, single-column and single-spaced.
  • Include a 50-word abstract.
  • Prepare both a blinded and an unblinded PDF.

Eligibility and review

  • The award nominee or lead author must be a member of the INFORMS Data Mining Society at the time of the 2026 Annual Meeting.
  • Submitted work must be neither published nor accepted for publication elsewhere at the time of submission.
  • An author may serve as lead author on at most one submission per competition track.
  • Review is double-blind. Four finalists will be selected for each track by external referees.

Topics of interest

  • Applied Data Analytics
  • Machine, Deep & Reinforcement Learning
  • Optimization & Decision Analytics
  • Simulation
  • Bayesian Data Analysis
  • Statistical Inference
  • Ethics, Privacy, Security & Fairness
  • Reliability, Quality & Maintenance
  • Network, Graph & Web Analysis
  • Longitudinal Data Analysis
  • Time Series, Spatial & Spatiotemporal Data
  • Image Processing & Computer Vision
  • Text Mining & Natural Language Processing
  • Generative AI & Large Language Models
  • Federated & Distributed Learning
Important dates

Four dates to keep in view.

  1. 01
    Paper submission deadline11:59 PM Eastern Time
  2. 02
    Competition finalists announcedTheoretical and applied research tracks
  3. 03
    Workshop registration deadlineAnnual Meeting registration is required; early pricing ends September 2, 2026 at 11:59 PM EDT (member $750, nonmember $1,080, student/retired $325-$425)
  4. 04
    DMDA WorkshopSan Francisco, California
Submit through Google Forms View official CFP
Program

A one-day program in San Francisco.

Session times, speakers, and room assignments will be published as the program is finalized.

October 31, 2026San Francisco · In person
Workshop registration and welcomeDetails coming soon
Research presentations and invited sessionsDetails coming soon
Lunch and community conversationsDetails coming soon
Data Challenge finalist presentationsDetails coming soon
Workshop closeDetails coming soon
INFORMS 2026 Data Mining Society Data Challenge

Forecasting Infrastructure Resilience Under Extreme Weather.

Participants will develop spatiotemporal forecasting models using real-world power-outage and weather data to predict county-level outage severity during successive extreme-weather events.

The competition is open to currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, with teams of up to four members. Please share this opportunity with interested students, postdoctoral researchers, and colleagues.

Register for the Data Challenge Download announcement
FocusSpatiotemporal outage forecasting
ParticipantsStudents and postdocs; teams up to four
Registration deadlineAugust 31, 2026 (AOE)
Submission deadlineSeptember 25, 2026 (AOE)

Participant information

Eligibility

Open to currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Teams may include up to four members, and interdisciplinary participation is strongly encouraged.

Dataset

Hourly county-level outage data from PowerOutage.com are combined with NOAA URMA and ERA5 weather fields across 302 counties from March 11-19, 2026.

Data access

Registered participants receive an NDA. The Google Drive data package is released after the signed NDA is returned.

Prediction task

Forecast hourly outage severity index (OSI) for 63 held-out counties over March 14-19 at t+1h, t+6h, t+24h, and t+48h horizons.

Submission package

Submit the prediction file, reproducible Python or R code, and a written report of no more than 6 pages excluding references.

Evaluation

Finalists are selected using predictive performance and the rigor, novelty, and clarity of the modeling approach. Code review is part of evaluation.

Prizes

The top three finalist teams present in a special DMDA Workshop session in San Francisco. Prizes are $700, $400, and $250; at least one member from each finalist team must be registered for the DMDA workshop to be eligible for prizes and presentation.

Challenge timeline

  1. July 2026
    Competition opens

    Data and templates available after registration and NDA completion.

  2. August 31, 2026
    Registration deadline

    Anywhere on Earth (AOE).

  3. September 25, 2026
    Submission deadline

    Predictions, code, and report due Anywhere on Earth (AOE).

  4. October 5, 2026
    Finalist notification

    Finalist teams are invited to present in San Francisco.

  5. INFORMS 2026 Annual Meeting
    Finalist presentations

    San Francisco, California

Competition co-chairs

Sponsorships

DMDA 2026 sponsorships.

Sponsorship opportunities are organized in three tiers. Sponsor names and logos will be listed here as commitments are confirmed.

Platinum Level

Sponsor recognition will be listed here.

Gold Level

Sponsor recognition will be listed here.

Silver Level

Sponsor recognition will be listed here.

Workshop co-chairs

Past Workshops

Recent DMDA workshops.