Practice
real-world optimization
Over 24 days, you'll mimic the complete lifecycle of a real-life optimization project: framing, modeling, solving, and deploying a solution that drives business impact.
A daily habit that helps you think, build, and communicate like a modern OR engineer.
Participate in the event
Days
Hours
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Seconds
P.S. You won't be able to sign up when the counter goes to zero
Is the Advent right for you?
Do you want to go beyond building models and start solving real business problems?
You know how to model and code, but you want to see how OR actually drives decisions inside companies. You're ready to connect your technical skills with business strategy and impact.
Have you tried applying OR in real projects, but got stuck between theory and practice?
You've built prototypes, maybe even deployed a model, but translating your optimization work into something stakeholders use still feels like a mystery. You want to learn how others make that leap successfully.
Are you already building optimization tools and want to operate like a modern OR engineer?
You're implementing models that work, but you want to go further, designing solutions that are scalable, communicable, and valuable across teams. You're ready to treat OR as engineering, not just math.
Backed by leaders in Operations Research
There are 3 killers of great OR
The "last mile" problem
You can build great models, but getting them used is another story. Deployment, integration, and maintenance are the unspoken bottlenecks of most OR projects.
The communication gap
You know your model works, but decision-makers don't see it. Translating optimization results into business value is still the hardest (and most underrated) skill in our field.
The isolation trap
OR often happens in silos: a single engineer, a single notebook, a single solver. Without feedback loops, collaboration, or iteration, good ideas never compound into real impact.
Start practicing OR that makes an impact
💥 Stop building useless models
The biggest trap in OR is optimizing beautifully… for nobody.
Over these 24 days, you'll learn to design optimization solutions that plug into real processes, move real money, and earn real trust from decision-makers.
🧩 Learn the full flow
From models to production.
You'll practice going beyond equations. From data to formulation, from solver to deployment, you'll see how OR lives inside real products and portfolio operations.
💬 Communicate your value
Like an engineer that gets business.
Optimization isn't over when the solver stops. You'll learn to translate results into decisions that matter, and make stakeholders want your model in production.
🎄 Welcome to The Advent of OR
Here is how it works...
The Advent of OR is a 24-day email experience where you'll follow a single, real-world optimization problem from messy data to a working business decision.
Each morning in December, you'll receive a short email (5-7 minutes to read) containing:
🧩 A lesson or framework on how OR projects work in practice, from scoping and modeling to deployment and communication.
📈 A step forward in a real business case inspired by portfolio rebalancing operations.
⚙️ A mini-exercise or reflection to apply what you've learned that day to your own context.
Instead of isolated examples, you'll watch the same problem evolve across the 24 days, just like it does inside a company.
You'll see how modeling decisions affect business metrics, how trade-offs are made, and how optimization fits within real constraints like cost, time, and uncertainty.
At the end of the event, you'll be invited to a live roundtable discussion with experts from FICO, Nextmv, and GAMS, who will share how leading teams build and deploy optimization systems in the real world.
24 daily emails that guide you through a complete OR project, step by step.
1 real business problem, explored from multiple angles: data, modeling, deployment, and impact.
A final roundtable featuring industry experts and sponsors.
A recap PDF at the end of the event with key takeaways and frameworks.
Exclusive access to professional tools.
Want an early taste?
Get the first email that sets the stage for what's coming this December.
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
P.S. You won't be able to sign up when the counter goes to zero
Who will join the roundtable?
Experts from our sponsors with decades of accumulated experience in Operations Research.
We'll talk about topics related to the lyfecicle of optimization projects, like:
Why you need software engineering practices in OR projects.
The benefits of separating modeling from solving.
One crucial thing to do when starting projects.
Carlos Zetina
PhD & Decision Intelligence @ FICO
Carolyn Mooney
Co-Founder & CEO @ Nextmv
Michael Bussieck
CEO @ GAMS
What you get
24 daily emails to follow one real optimization case
Over 24 days, you’ll receive short, story-driven emails that walk you through a single real-world optimization problem from start to finish.
Each message blends frameworks, visuals, and reflections so you can see how real OR engineers go from data → model → decision → impact.
The Advent Casebook: inside a real optimization problem
You'll trace a real business problem inspired by portfolio rebalancing operations (data courtesy of FICO).
Each step focuses on a different stage of the process:
- Step 1: Framing the business problem
- Step 2: Modeling and assumptions
- Step 3: Deployment and iteration
- Step 4: Measuring impact and communication
By the end, you'll have your own casebook documenting how you'd approach an end-to-end optimization project.
Frameworks and tools used by modern OR engineers
Throughout the Advent, you'll collect practical assets you can reuse in your work:
Templates for model structure and experimentation
Solver spotlights from FICO Xpress
Reading and resource recommendations to go deeper
The live industry roundtable
Join a closing live session where experts from FICO, Nextmv, and GAMS discuss how optimization moves from model to business impact.
The roundtable brings together voices from industry to reflect on what we’ve learned through the Advent case study, and where modern OR is heading next.
Completion badge + recap PDF
At the end of the Advent, you’ll receive a downloadable Recap PDF summarizing all 24 lessons, frameworks, and key takeaways, plus a digital badge to celebrate finishing the journey.
Exclusive access to professional tools
Thanks to our sponsors, you’ll get limited-time access to premium optimization software used by professionals worldwide:
⚡ Nextmv – explore their decision science platform and run your own models in production-ready environments.
🧠 FICO Xpress – experiment with enterprise-grade optimization capabilities.
🧩 GAMS – test advanced mathematical programming formulations with a professional license.
Each partner provides a unique way to experience how optimization software operates in the real world, so you can learn with the same tools used by leading OR teams.
Join the challenge
Participate, earn advent points, and get rewards!
👋 I'm Borja!
Founder of feasible.club & The Advent of OR
I've spent over a decade working in Operations Research, from academic research to building optimization systems that move real trucks, improve margins, and change how companies make decisions.
After years of seeing brilliant models stay unused, I started Feasible, a newsletter read by 1,900+ OR professionals, to explore one idea:
How can we make optimization matter to the business?
The Advent of OR 2025 was born from that mission: to help engineers see how real-world optimization happens, step by step.
Backed by the global OR community
This year's edition is made possible thanks to the support of both industry leaders and OR institutions:
💼 FICO, Nextmv and GAMS, bringing world-class tools and insights to the Advent, and joining the final roundtable.
🌍 INFORMS and The OR Society (UK), helping the event reach the broader Operations Research community worldwide.
Together, they ensure The Advent of OR is not just an event but a meeting point between academia, industry, and practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Don't worry, we got you. Here are some answers for your questions.
Each email takes 7-10 minutes to read, and optional reflections vary from 5 to 20 minutes.
If you follow along daily, that's about 15-30 minutes a day to sharpen how you think about optimization.
No long videos, no deadlines, just one short lesson in your inbox each morning.
The Advent of OR is for Operations Research engineers, analysts, and advanced students who already know how to model and solve optimization problems, and want to learn how to connect them to real business impact.
If you've ever thought, “I can build models, but how do I make them matter?” this is for you.
No problem. All lessons arrive by email and stay in your inbox, you can catch up anytime or revisit them later.
There's no penalty nor rush.
Yes, completely free.
The Advent of OR is sponsored by FICO, Nextmv, and GAMS, and supported by partners like INFORMS and The OR Society UK, so you can join without paying a cent.
It's practical and business-oriented.
You'll still see solid OR thinking, but the focus is on how optimization is applied, deployed, and communicated inside real companies, not on equations or proofs.
On December 24, we'll close with final remarks and a framework to apply in your daily job.
Participants who share feedback or a short testimonial afterward will receive an exclusive copy of The Modern OR Engineer Playbook as a thank-you.