Get to know the members of ORSSA: Marno du Plessis

In this edition of Get to Know the Members of ORSSA, we introduce Marno, who is based at Discovery in Sandton. As an active member of the Operations Research community, Marno shares his perspectives and enthusiasm for OR.

Marno, starting with a fun one, If you had to describe Operations Research using only a movie title, what would it be?

"I would say the title has to be: The Min, The Max, The Linear Programming!"

What is your academic and professional background?

"I obtained a BEng in Industrial Engineering as well as an MEng in Industrial Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. Since 2020 I have been working as a data scientist at Discovery’s Head Office in Sandton."

What type of OR-related work are you currently involved in?

"At the moment I am more involved in Generative AI as opposed to “traditional” OR. But, having said that, I am in fact trying to bridge the two worlds by considering different types of optimisations behind customer-facing Generative AI applications. For example, how do we maximise customer experience and operational gains for the business whilst minimising the risks of financial loss by, for example, providing an incorrect response to a customer."

How (and when) did you first get involved with ORSSA?

"I was introduced to ORSSA by my academic supervisor Prof Jan van Vuuren during my fourth year of my undergrad degree. I attended the annual ORSSA conference in 2018 held at the CSIR head offices in Pretoria and I was fortunate enough to present as a finalist in the fourth years/honour’s category of the annual student competition."

Have you had positions on the Exec of ORSSA (and if so, when and what position)?

"I was Head of External Liaison in 2023 and then Head of Member Relations 2024 and 2025."

What do you enjoy most about being part of ORSSA or the OR community?

"Well, my wife says I’m a nerd and ORSSA is a great place for nerds! I enjoy the small, but tightknit nature of the ORSSA community and being able speak the same “language” by looking at life through a mostly analytical lens. "

What excites you about the field of OR?

"People might not realise it, but OR is everywhere! In your GPS, when Uber allocates you to a driver, the trucks that deliver the milk you buy, in traffic light cycles (admittedly, if you are lucky enough to have working traffic lights), and so much more. And without OR, people would not have had LLMs to write their e-mails for them!"

What OR method, tool, or concept do you find yourself using most often and why?

"Not only at work, but even in everyday life, using a framework of decision variables, constraints and objective functions when making decisions. It helps me to think systematically and prevents me from making unnecessarily rash and potentially sub-optimal decisions."

What is one common misconception people have about OR?

"That it is an outdated discipline with no place among the “mainstream” fields of AI and data science."

What skills do you think are most important for students or early-career OR practitioners to develop today?

"It sounds almost ridiculous, but I would say the ability to think deeply. In my opinion, it is very easy to get lazy and to outsource any remotely complex piece of work to AI. AI can be a tool to help solve a problem but can never be the solution itself. If you cannot think critically about a problem, you won’t know how to solve it."

What has been your favourite ORSSA memory over the years?

"I got a job through ORSSA! I posted a short CV in the ORSSA newsletter and when it was published late in December of 2019, I thought no-one would read it. But lo and behold, my would-be manager at Discovery saw my CV and the rest is history!"