Junfei Lei, Assistant Professor in Technology, Operations, and Innovation at Nova SBE, has received the Panos Kouvelis Best Disruptive Technologies Paper Award from the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) for his paper "Cost Optimization in Cloud Computing: Capacity Reservation for Intermittent Random Demand Surges."

The award recognizes outstanding research published in the Production and Operations Management journal that advances the understanding and application of disruptive technologies.

The research addresses a key challenge faced by digital businesses: how to manage cloud infrastructure costs when demand is unpredictable. By developing a strategic capacity reservation framework, the study helps organizations balance long-term cloud commitments with the flexibility needed to respond to sudden demand surges, reducing costs while maintaining operational resilience.