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Incorporated in 1990 as a private computer and graphics facility by Dr. Raymond Taylor, the Operations Research and Education Laboratory (OREd) initially provided computer programming and operations research consulting to doctoral students and faculty researchers from several universities. These individuals pursued topics that applied operations research to education: thus, the name "OREd."
The teaching mission of OREd evolved partly as a response to North Carolina's fiscal crisis of the early 90s. During that era, it was nearly impossible to start new programs on a university campus, though there was a clear need to advance operations research in education and public administration. OREd responded to this challenge by building a state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory for continuing professional education and by sponsoring a series of workshops on decision science in the public sector. The first laboratory and classroom was built in Oriental, North Carolina in 1991. Since then, the Lab has expanded to provide a number of specialized services, and it has made its resources available to clients and to students from several universities.
In January 2000, the operation of OREd transferred to the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) at North Carolina State University. The Lab's transfer to ITRE was a logical one, because by the late 1990s, OREd's activities were primarily focused on Integrated Planning for School and Community (IPSAC) and the School Bell Time Optimizer project. Both products require data from the Transportation Information Management System, a statewide geographical information system (GIS) based school bus routing and scheduling system conducted by the Pupil Transportation Program at ITRE.
Since the transfer to ITRE in 2000, additional staff was added to OREd with expertise in mathematics, statistics, GIS, and planning. With the capable staff and resources from the university, OREd’s excellent reputation flourishes.
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