<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
span.apple-converted-space
{mso-style-name:apple-converted-space;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style>
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Dear colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">We are excited to announce the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://routingchallenge.mit.edu/"><span style="color:#0563C1">Last Mile Routing Research Challenge</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>hosted
by Amazon and supported by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:black">The Last Mile Routing Research Challenge in a nutshell</span></i></b><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The Last Mile Routing Research Challenge is a three-month scientific competition open to students and researchers from all over the world. Its goal is to encourage innovation at the intersection of operations research
and data science. Specifically, participants will be asked to develop innovative, data-driven approaches to solving realistic route planning problems with the objective of outperforming traditional, optimization-driven methods in terms of solution quality
and computational cost.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:black">What’s at stake?</span></i></b><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The winners of the Last Mile Routing Research Challenge will be awarded significant<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>cash prizes of US$175,000</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in total.
Members of the best participating teams will also be given the opportunity to advance their careers in last-mile logistics by presenting their work in front of industry and academic experts from Amazon and MIT. Academic publication opportunities will also
be provided to participants with particularly promising solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:black">Are you interested in participating in this challenge?</span></i></b><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Sign up<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://routingchallenge.mit.edu/"><span style="color:#0563C1">here</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to receive news and updates
on the event or to apply for participating in the challenge yourself. <b>Participant</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>registration is now open!</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">More information on the Last Mile Routing Research Challenge, its objectives, rewards and eligibility criteria can be found on the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://routingchallenge.mit.edu/about-the-challenge/"><span style="color:#0563C1">competition
website</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>as well as this recent<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.amazon.science/blog/amazon-mit-team-up-to-add-driver-know-how-to-delivery-routing-models"><span style="color:#0563C1">post</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>by
Amazon Science. We look forward to welcoming a large and ambitious group of international contestants to this unique event. Sign-up today to reserve your spot!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Kind regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Dr. Matthias Winkenbach</span></b><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Director, MIT Megacity Logistics Lab<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Director, MIT CAVE Lab<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Prof. Yossi Sheffi</span></b><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Director, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black">The Last Mile Routing Research Challenge is hosted by Amazon and scientifically supported by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.</span></i><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#27313D">—<br>
<b>Matthias Winkenbach</b>, PhD<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL)<br>
</span><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#3C485E">Director, <b>MIT Megacity Logistics Lab</b> | Director,<b> MIT Computational and Visual Education (CAVE) Lab</b></span><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#27313D"><br>
<a href="http://winkenbach.mit.edu"><span style="color:#0563C1">http://winkenbach.mit.edu</span></a> |
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwinkenbach"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwinkenbach</span></a> |
<a href="mailto:mwinkenb@mit.edu" title="mailto:mwinkenb@mit.edu"><span style="color:#03386D">mwinkenb@mit.edu</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>