Cornell's operations research school is operating under a new name.

Now the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE) uses "information" for the "I" in its acronym instead of "industrial," a move that was made official in January.

The fresh new name, school officials say, hopefully will help communicate their academic mission more clearly.

"To some extent it's a reflection of reality as much as a change of direction for the unit," said David Shmoys, an ORIE professor in charge of a publicity campaign for the new name. "This is really a better labeling of what the unit actually is."

A field that is only about 50 years old, operations research is actually rooted in the logistical underpinnings of military operations, Shmoys explained. Operations research grew out of a tradition that was based in industrial engineering, back when the economy was heavily manufacturing oriented.

As the economy evolved into a predominantly service industry, "industrial engineering" in the school's title began to feel obsolete.

"For virtually any element of the service industry, a primary commodity is information," Shmoys said. "And that is exactly the reflection of what's going on in the name change."

Serious consideration for the change began a little over a year ago, according to school director Jim Renegar. The process involved discussions with Dean Kent Fuchs, other engineering directors and chairs, approval from Provost Biddy Martin and, eventually, presentation to the Cornell Board of Trustees.

Now, a publicity campaign is taking the form of brochures and other literature, aimed at prospective students and alumni. Communicating the change folds into the double task of communicating what "operations research" is, anyway -- a perennial challenge.

Operations research is "the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions," according to the school's Web site. By nature, the field is interdisciplinary and constantly evolving, Renegar said.

As for information engineering, that is harder to pin down. "It's about understanding what information is important, how to structure it effectively, and how to make efficient use of it to aid in decision-making," Renegar said.

In its earlier history, the term "operations research" might have brought to mind the classic example of efficient materials flow at United Parcel Service. The breadth of operations research, and now information engineering, has grown to include financial models, too, Shmoys said.

For example, how to build quantitative models for buying and selling options or how to build financial models of credit risk is all operations research, he said. This tendency toward more business applications explains why some ORIE courses are cross-listed with MBA courses at the Johnson School.

By calling themselves operations research and information engineering, school officials hope to be a trendsetter for other ORIE programs.

"We hope that by capturing this name and putting it in the forefront, we'll not only reflect what is happening, but what will happen, in a more pervasive way, and show leadership in the field," Shmoys said.