Celebrating the Success of ETF 2025 and Our Community Leaders!

By Scott Cohick

The Emerging Techniques Forum (ETF) 2025—marking its 10th anniversary—was a tremendous success. Held 2–5 December 2025 and hosted by Systems Planning & Analysis (SPA), the event brought together 96 registrants for three days of vital discussions on analytic methods, AI, and the future of operations research in national security.

This year’s program reflected the rapidly shifting analytic landscape. Artificial intelligence dominated the agenda, with presenters underscoring the need for transparency, verification, and governance as AI becomes increasingly embedded in decision‑support systems. Bayesian networks saw renewed interest for their interpretability compared to black‑box models. Senior leaders emphasized accelerating the fielding of analytic tools, adopting more agile development approaches, and improving the integration of logistics and protraction‑of‑war considerations into campaign models. These conversations reinforced ETF’s role as a venue where emerging techniques directly connect to operational and strategic challenges.

ETF 2025’s success was made possible through the leadership and contributions of several CANA team members. Scott Cohick, Principal Operations Research Analyst, served as Conference Chair and provided steady guidance through major challenges—including a venue change and a government shutdown—ensuring the forum remained strong and impactful. Nick Ulmer, serving as MORS President, played a central role in championing the forum’s vision and supporting its execution at the enterprise level. Walt DeGrange, CANA’s Senior Director of Analytics, contributed as a presenter, bringing forward critical insights that enriched the technical dialogue. Together, their efforts exemplified CANA’s commitment to strengthening the operations research profession.

A massive thank you is also due to all the Planning Committee volunteers who met tirelessly from March through November. Your dedication was the engine behind this year’s success.

Planning is already underway for an even better ETF in 2026. If you’re eager to help shape the future of operations research, please reach out to get involved.