Engineering Commons^™

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Innovation Ecosystems In Facilitating The Adoption Of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Dana Sami Bakry

Dissertations and Theses

Sustainable entrepreneurship has a substantial role of a steadily growing economy and advanced industrial economies. Several strategies have been formed and employed to support the adoption of innovation and technologies in the sustainable entrepreneurship sector. However, the successful outcome of these strategies in achieving their goals depends on how effective they are in satisfying their objectives and thus increasing innovation adoption. One measurement for effectiveness of ecosystem implements can be their support to the input of the process of innovation and technologies adoption and their impact on satisfying regional goals.

The objective of this research is evaluating the effectiveness of …

Machine Learning Predictions Of Electricity Capacity, Marcus Harris, Elizabeth Kirby, Ameeta Agrawal, Rhitabrat Pokharel, Francis Puyleart, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research applies machine learning methods to build predictive models of Net Load Imbalance for the Resource Sufficiency Flexible Ramping Requirement in the Western Energy Imbalance Market. Several methods are used in this research, including Reconstructability Analysis, developed in the systems community, and more well-known methods such as Bayesian Networks, Support Vector Regression, and Neural Networks. The aims of the research are to identify predictive variables and obtain a new stand-alone model that improves prediction accuracy and reduces the INC (ability to increase generation) and DEC (ability to decrease generation) Resource Sufficiency Requirements for Western Energy Imbalance Market participants. This …

Reconstructability Analysis: Discrete Multivariate Modeling, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

An introduction to Reconstructability Analysis for the Discrete Multivariate Modeling course and for other purposes.

Online Grocery Shopping: A Staple Of The Present -- And Maybe The Future?, Henry B. Chao

altREU Projects

This project aims to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people's food shopping tendencies, specifically focusing on the use of online grocers. It uses data collected by a team of researchers led out of Portland State University. This data consists of roughly 8000 surveys distributed starting in September of 2020. The survey asks respondents to discuss their demographics, household resources, and shopping tendencies.

In particular, this project wants to understand how inclined a respondent is to use online grocers based on their personal experience with COVID-19. To do this, the project uses a Latent Class Model (LCM) to classify …

Ronald E. Mcnair Scholars Program Profiles And Abstracts 2021, Mcnair Scholars Program

McNair Symposium

This is the complete event program and provides presentation abstracts and biographies of McNair scholars and their mentors.

Best Used-Car Selling Service In Us, Sirisha Pola, Jennifer Wagner, Fenny Jin, Pallavi Gusain, Alfonso Herrero

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a shift in the way people do things has been seen across many different industries, the automobile industry is not the exception, new car production and distribution has decreased based on the restrictions placed by many countries to ensure the safety of its citizens, this has made it quite difficult on the new car dealerships, in addition, people are seeing that the need for a car has gone down significantly since working from home has become a more and more common. However, there is a sector of the automotive industry that is having a boom, used …

Ronald E. Mcnair Scholars Program Profiles And Abstracts 2020, Mcnair Scholars Program

McNair Symposium

This is the complete event program and provides presentation abstracts and biographies of McNair scholars and their mentors.

A Market Diffusion Potential (Mdp) Assessment Model For Residential Energy Efficient (Ee) Technologies In The U.S., Momtaj Khanam

Dissertations and Theses

The Diffusion of Residential Energy Efficient (EE) Technologies has been studied for many years. Finding ways to bridge the energy efficiency gap and increase the diffusion of these technologies have been of much interest to researchers and practitioners alike. However, in most studies, diffusion is equated to adoption of EE technologies by consumers. The present study tries to break this mindset and develops a model to assess the diffusion of residential EE technologies from the market's perspective. The model assesses diffusion of an EE technology based on the market's ability to provide benefits to customers that are identified to be …

An Assessment Of The Decision-Making Units' Efficiency In Service Systems, Maoloud Yakhlif Dabab

Dissertations and Theses

Most tools and models of performance and quality of service management are generic and do not solve complex technical systems. The critical components of the system need such tools to assess their efficiency to make a better decision about them. One of the primary objectives in the service systems is to improve the ability of efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of critical assets. One of the challenges with improving critical assets is the amount of major capital spending needed to upgrade a technology infrastructure with a high obsolescence rate. This along with usage and reliability issues, makes evaluating mobile cells to …

Narrowing The Cognitive Distance Between Engineers And Customers: A Novel Approach, Based On Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, Byung Sung Yoon

Dissertations and Theses

During concept development, product developers consider product users and their future experience, cost, development and manufacturing efficiency, product function/quality, and differentiation of the product in the market. Development teams often struggle to adequately address all of these considerations, due to the following reasons: (1) Differences in technological and experiential knowledge, methods used, and communication styles that make it difficult for customers/user, marketing, and engineering to communicate effectively. As a result, important factors may not be sufficiently considered. (2) Product design factors, including technological alternatives, functions, features, benefits, and customer value are interdependent: in some cases, customers are willing to sacrifice …

Project Management Assignment Tool Using R And Shiny, Ben Stewart, Hoseok Jung, Moses Rawar

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Linear programs such as the R markdown language play an important role in helping to find an optimized solution in various fields of society. This area extends from the optimal distribution channels of coffee shops, which are closely related to our lives, to very important areas such as the deployment of military forces. Through this paper, we will try to find ways to maximize the efficiency and performance of a company by properly allocating project managers suitable for the projects performed by each company according to their capabilities and the requirements of the projects.

Connecting Offshore Floating Wind To The Western Electricity Grid: Transmission Options Decision Modeling, Bill Henry

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The purpose of this project is to obtain stakeholder views on a range of aspects relating to a proactive planning process to build transmission facilities in coordination with development of floating offshore wind (OSW) in southern Oregon and northern California. In the event that a transmission planning process to examine the potential need to assess and build transmission facilities to connect these wind resource areas is launched at a future date, the results of this study will assist planners by obtaining initial stakeholder views on the breadth of choices that should be considered, and more importantly, provide key insights on …

Paints-R-Us Term Project, Tyler Campbell, Skye Gilbreth, Michael Oluwole, Elijah Raffo, Brad Unruh

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

This project will consider a linear product mix optimization problem for a fictional paint company, Paints-R-Us. Paints-R-Us is a wholesale paint manufacturer located in the Pacific Northwest. The Global Production Manager, Steve Brush, has been tasked with maximizing Paints-R-Us’s profit in the upcoming quarter. Steve Brush oversees the global production plan, and in collaboration with the production planners will develop a production plan which optimizes the profits that Paints-R-Us can create in the quarter accounting for the following criteria:

• Demand in the given quarter for each of the 5 paint types that Paints-R-Us produces • The warehousing storage capacity …

Exoskeleton, Vinu Casper, Liliana Fitzpatrick

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

This is a research about the marketing plan for exoskeleton wearable devices. The objective is to provide a meaningful Customer Value Proposition to the prospective customers.The Samsung company SWOT analysis is the basis for a marketing strategy. The exoskeleton features and market definition is included in the analysis. A competitor analysis of homogeneus exoskeletons providers is included to review the current market. An exhaustive customer analysis was performed to identify the customer needs as the input for the marketing plan development. The potential market was identified to learn about the exoskeleton market share opportunity. The exoskeleton global market is analyzed …

Planning For Change In The Electric Power Industry: A Primer For Transactive Energy Scenario Development, Joshua Binus

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The electric power industry and its associated infrastructures (a.k.a. "the grid") are evolving from centrally planned, organized, and operated networks of players, technologies, and resources to systems of systems that are increasingly digitized and distributed in their operation and innovative capacity. Subsequently, strategic planners and technology managers associated with the electric power industry are faced with a range of scenarios to evaluate, including one that considers the emergence of commercialized transactive energy systems in the coming ten-year time horizon. The crafting of a transactive energy scenario can help inform technology innovation and management efforts that benefit consumers, electricity providers, and …

A Hierarchal Decision Model To Determine The Most Promising Tier-2 Space Agency, Smarajit Chakraborty

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

When it comes to space exploration programs NASA, ISRO, SpaceX, CNSA, JAXA and ESA has made remarkable achievements in the past and is keep making more and more success. The study, on completion, seeks to guide the decision problem of “which space agency has the best future in space exploration?”.

This study will seek to find which space agency has the best future prospect in terms of various perspectives. To find a solution to the stated problem, initially available literature was studied and the probable solutions for the decision problem was enlisted. Data Records from the organization websites were studied …

Exploring Technology Forecasting And Its Implications For Strategic Technology Planning, Yonghee Cho

Dissertations and Theses

As the importance of R&D has been growing in economic growth, the accountability and effectiveness of R&D programs are highly emphasized. Especially, in times of economic downturn, the evaluation of performance in a firm is needed to justify R&D investment. In response, various attempts have been made to improve success rates of R&D projects, gain competitive advantage, and achieve a firm's growth in profitability. In particular, in industries where technological innovation is significant, strategic technology planning and R&D capabilities may be the lead ones in defining the dynamic capabilities of a firm. In addition, technology forecasting (TF) in technology planning …

Technology Planning For Aligning Emerging Business Models And Regulatory Structures: The Case Of Electric Vehicle Charging And The Smart Grid, Kelly R. Cowan

Dissertations and Theses

Smart grid has been described as the Energy Internet: Where Energy Technology meets Information Technology. The incorporation of such technology into vast existing utility infrastructures offers many advantages, including possibilities for new smart appliances, energy management systems, better integration of renewable energy, value added services, and new business models, both for supply- and demand-side management. Smart grid also replaces aging utility technologies that are becoming increasingly unreliable, as the average ages for many critical components in utility systems now exceed their original design lives. However, while smart grid offers the promise of revolutionizing utility delivery systems, many questions remain about …

Optimizing Distributed Energy Resources On A Distribution Feeder, Bill Henry, Stephen Macdonald, Nicole Wehner, Gabe Mcbride, Tyler Groth

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The purpose of this study is to optimize a set of distributed energy resources (DERs) on an electric utility distribution level feeder. A DER is a decentralized resource, usually located at end-use electric utility customer sites, that stores or generates electricity – such as batteries and rooftop photovoltaic solar, or in the case of demand response, in which the utility has the ability to manage electricity consumption to the benefit of distribution grid operation. The aggregation and optimization of a set of DERs of disparate operating characteristics, over a period of three years is performed and the methods employed explained. …

Optimizing Student Workforce Scheduling At Psu Office Of Information Technology (Oit), Agam Ebramsyah, Aishwarya Joy, Cody Miller, Jake Stevens, Priyanka Patil

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

A significant challenge for businesses of any size, is generating a work schedule that ensures adequate personnel coverage to ensure all aspects of the business are properly staffed, while preventing waste produced from having an excess number of employees working at a given time. The decision to manually create spreadsheets and work schedules that take into account availability, staffing requirements, and cost efficiency can become overwhelming and labor intensive. For Portland State University's Office of Information Technology (OIT), there is a significant challenge in scheduling student workers, while ensuring staffing requirements are met, student work hour restrictions are observed, and …

Organics To You - Optimization Of Produce Bins, Rassaniya Lerdphayakkarat, Chuan Chieh Lu, Jon Roschke, Juliana Suzuki, Jessie Truong

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Organics to You (www.organicstoyou.org ) is a produce delivery company that focuses on bringing organic local food from local farms straight to the homes, schools, and businesses of its clients. Each week a "Small Bin" is created using different varieties of local produce from various farms. Customers receive a bin that contains 12-14 varieties of produce with 2-6 "servings" of each variety (e.g., 1 melon, 4 apples, 1 head of lettuce, 2 lbs potatoes, etc).

Our objective is to optimize the contents of the “Small Bin”. The decision we want to make is how much of each variety do …

Development Of A Technology Transfer Score For Evaluating Research Proposals: Case Study Of Demand Response Technologies In The Pacific Northwest, Judith Estep

Dissertations and Theses

Investment in Research and Development (R&D) is necessary for innovation, allowing an organization to maintain a competitive edge. The U.S. Federal Government invests billions of dollars, primarily in basic research technologies to help fill the pipeline for other organizations to take the technology into commercialization. However, it is not about just investing in innovation, it is about converting that research into application. A cursory review of the research proposal evaluation criteria suggests that there is little to no emphasis placed on the transfer of research results. This effort is motivated by a need to move research into application.

One segment …

Managing Technology In Financial Innovation, Frederick Betz

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The topic of managing technology had traditionally focused upon the manufacturing industries; but the service industries grew to become a major sector of industry and commerce. We examine how to manage technology in the financial commercial sector. What is innovation in the financial sector? How does innovation occur in the financial sector? What are the criteria of technology safety in financial innovations? Why did financial innovation contribute to financial instabilities, such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-08? Why had governmental agencies failed to properly regulate the financial sector for safety? How did U.S. government financial agencies handle that financial …

Developing Strategic Decision Making Process For Product And Service Planning, Yonghee Cho

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is imperative to forecast advanced or emerging technologies to aid in decision making on firm's R&D investments and business plan for commercialization efforts. Even though a company must align R&D planning with overall business planning such as manufacturing, sales and marketing, personnel, and finance, systematic management approaches are limited in it based upon the prediction of technological change and speed. This paper aims to provide a decision support tool to aid in strategic service planning and technology development in a firm. The study is to enhance strategic development of service and product with the consideration of emerging technologies. This …

Technological Forecasting Based On Segmented Rate Of Change, Dong-Joon Lim

Dissertations and Theses

Consider the following questions in the early stage of new product development. What should be the target market for proposed design concepts? Who will be the competitors and how fast are they moving forward in terms of performance improvements? Ultimately, is the current design concept and targeted launch date feasible and competitive?

To answer these questions, there is a need to integrate the product benchmarking with the assessment of performance improvement so that analysts can have a risk measure for their R&D target setting practices. Consequently, this study presents how time series benchmarking analysis can be used to assist scheduling …

Tillamook County Waste Disposal Technology Assessment, Arvind Kumar, Ryan Menze, Joe Smith, Jerrod Thomas

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Tillamook County is a rural county straddling the Northern Oregon Coast Range with the majority of the local economy based around agriculture, timber, tourism, and fishing. As part of Tillamook County’s mission statement, they strive“to enhance the quality of life for its citizens by promoting and preserving public health and safety, maintaining a stable economy, encouraging wise use of resources, and providing services in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.” To that end, Tillamook County, Tillamook County Economic Development Council (TCEDC), Portland State University, Oregon State University, and Tetra Tech have undergone an evaluation and technology assessment process to …

Developing A Strategic Policy Choice Framework For Technological Innovation: Case Of Chinese Pharmaceuticals, Leong Chan

Dissertations and Theses

With the growing trend of globalization and rapid development of high technologies, emerging economies face more challenges in technology development because they are chasing a fast-moving frontier. They need to identify global technology trends and adapt to local needs and capabilities. Strategies for technology development differ among countries at different developmental stages.

In this research, a technology policy choice framework is developed to link prospective high-tech areas, technology development strategies, and various innovative resources. The research approach is to develop a hierarchical decision model (HDM) and apply the analytic hierarchical process (AHP). Experts are invited from diverse sources to provide …

Innovation Measurement: A Decision Framework To Determine Innovativeness Of A Company, Kenny Phan

Dissertations and Theses

Innovation is one of the most important sources of competitive advantage. It helps a company to fuel the growth of new products and services, sustain incumbents, create new markets, transform industries, and promote the global competitiveness of nations. Because of its importance, companies need to manage innovation. It is very important for a company to be able to measure its innovativeness because one cannot effectively manage without measurement. A good measurement model will help a company to understand its current capability and identify areas that need improvement.

In this research a systematic approach was developed for a company to measure …

The Impact Of Social Capital On Innovation Intermediaries, Songphon Munkongsujarit

Dissertations and Theses

In today's open business environments, innovation happens in globally dispersed organizations that exchange technological knowledge across increasingly permeable boundaries. Innovation intermediaries play an important role in these technology transfer processes. They operate as middle-men between solution seekers (companies seeking technological knowledge for solving their problems) and problem solvers (experts with specialized knowledge and solutions) and thus help to connect suppliers and customers of technological knowledge. Currently, clients that select an intermediary organization and managers of intermediary organizations that assign agents to a project have very little guidance as to what type of an intermediary they should select to guarantee that …

Dynamics Capabilities, Caroline Mudavadi, Farshad Madani, Garrett Gilliland, Corey White

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Slides from a presentation based on Teece, D. J. (January 01, 2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal, 28, 13, 1319.

Discusses capabilities that enable business enterprises to create, deploy, and protect the intangible assets that support superior long-run business performance.