Engineering Commons^™

Integrated Machine Learning And Optimization Approaches, Dogacan Yilmaz

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the integration of machine learning and optimization. Specifically, novel machine learning-based frameworks are proposed to help solve a broad range of well-known operations research problems to reduce the solution times. The first study presents a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory framework to learn optimal solutions to sequential decision-making problems. Computational results show that the framework significantly reduces the solution time of benchmark capacitated lot-sizing problems without much loss in feasibility and optimality. Also, models trained using shorter planning horizons can successfully predict the optimal solution of the instances with longer planning horizons. For the hardest data set, …

An Investigation Of The Role Of System Effectiveness In The Acquisition And Sustainment Of U.S. Defense Systems: 1958 To 2022, John Green

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of the system effectiveness methodology in acquiring and sustaining U.S. military weapons systems from 1958 to 2021. The period of interest has seen numerous changes in both the acquisition process and the application of system effectiveness to acquisition and sustainment. Several of the changes were disruptive, including shifting acquisition and sustainment to a commercial paradigm and completely overhauling the approach to acquiring new systems. The method of inquiry integrated three qualitative methods–structured literature review, grounded theory analysis, and historiography–into an innovative approach for investigating the changes to system effectiveness. The database for the investigation was …

Compact Formulation Of Multicommodity Network Flows With Applications To The Backhaul Profit Maximization Problem And Fixed Charge Network Flow Problem, Yulan Bai

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

The triples formulation is a compact formulation of multicommodity network flow problems that provides a different representation of flow than the traditional and widely used node-arc and arc-path approaches. In the literature, the triples formulation has been applied successfully to the maximum concurrent flow problem and to a network optimization problem with piecewise linear convex costs. This dissertation applies the triples formulation to the backhaul profit maximization problem (BPMP) and the fixed charge network flow problem (FCNF). It is shown that the triples representation of multicommodity flow significantly reduces the number of variables and constraints in the mixed integer programming …

Investigating Applications Of Deep Learning For Diagnosis Of Post Traumatic Elbow Disease, Hugh James

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Traumatic events such as dislocation, breaks, and arthritis of musculoskeletal joints can cause the development of post-traumatic joint contracture (PTJC). Clinically, noninvasive techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans are used to analyze the disease. Such procedures require a patient to sit sedentary for long periods of time and can be expensive as well. Additionally, years of practice and experience are required for clinicians to accurately recognize the diseased anterior capsule region and make an accurate diagnosis. Manual tracing of the anterior capsule is done to help with diagnosis but is subjective and timely. As a result, there is …

Developing An Early Life Cycle Manufacturability Assessment For Conceptual Designs, Tonya Gamblin Mccall

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that 70 – 80% of a product's life cycle costs are committed by the end of the product design phase (Anderson, 2014; National Research Council, 1991; Swift, 1987). This supports the general claim that decision making in the conceptual stage drives the cost throughout the life cycle. The use of concurrent engineering has been viewed as the answer to this problem, offering the Design for Excellence (DFX) as one approach for evaluating product designs across specific disciplines. This research focuses on a subset of DFX referred to as Design for Manufacturability to develop a means to assess …

Towards Structured Planning And Learning At The State Fisheries Agency Scale, Caleb A. Aldridge

Theses and Dissertations

Inland recreational fisheries has grown philosophically and scientifically to consider economic and sociopolitical aspects (non-biological) in addition to the biological. However, integrating biological and non-biological aspects of inland fisheries has been challenging. Thus, an opportunity exists to develop approaches and tools which operationalize planning and decision-making processes which include biological and non-biological aspects of a fishery. This dissertation expands the idea that a core set of goals and objectives is shared among and within inland fisheries agencies; that many routine operations of inland fisheries managers can be regimented or standardized; and the novel concept that current information and operations can …

Practical Requirements Elicitation In Modern Product Development: A Multi-Case Study In Discontinuous Innovation, Michael King

Theses and Dissertations

Practical modern product development, specifically rapid, lean efforts to create new disrupting or specialized products, face constraints that require modified requirements elicitation (RE) techniques. Requirements elicitation conventions have not been updated to address the challenges of these approaches, and industry practitioners lack the tools to select the most efficient techniques. This study examines the RE approaches performed by three resource-limited teams conducting discontinuous new product development through a multi-case study to identify gaps between the literature and practice, with suggestions to fill them. Our findings suggest modern RE practices and challenges closely reflect those found by studies on RE in …

Understanding Cnc Capacity Through Production Time Estimation, Kaitlin Bluhm

Honors Theses

Landscape Forms is a high-end outdoor furniture company. This thesis was completed at the Landscape Forms woodshop located in Kalamazoo, MI. Landscape Forms initially reached out regarding their CNC machines being the bottleneck and it was determined that the current product standards and capacity of the CNC machines at Landscape Forms were not accurate. This causes issues when planning and scheduling their incoming orders. During this thesis, two tools were developed over the course of two semesters. The first tool helped to create accurate product standards for their CNC machines depending on the different product types and second, a CNC …

Student Success And Evaluation Metrics, Ricky L. Singletary Jr, Andrew I. Morgan, Elena S. Van Zanten

Senior Design Project For Engineers

In so many instances, students drift through high school and are unaware of what types of job opportunities are out there for them. It is easy to see that a student can get overwhelmed by the number of career options, or they may not know what they want to do at all. The Blue Barred has generated a solution that allows students to see their options much more clearly through the analysis of six factors and their contribution to success: Engagement, Value Added Learning, Network-ability, Literacy, Numeracy, and Graduation Rates. Through the usage of tools such as literary research, surveys, …

A Novel Approach To Orbital Debris Mitigation, Timothy S. Turk

Doctoral Dissertations

Since mankind launched the first satellite into orbit in 1957, we have been inadvertently, yet deliberately, creating an environment in space that may ultimately lead to the end of our space exploration. Space debris, more specifically, orbital debris is a growing problem that must be dealt with sooner, rather than later. Several ideas have been developed to address the complex problem of orbital debris mitigation.

This research will investigate the possibility of removing orbital debris from the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) regime by using a metaheuristic algorithm to maximize collection of debris resulting from the February 2009 on-orbit collision of …

An Exploration Into The Design Of A Portable Music Player For People With Alzheimer’S And Dementia, Jaxon V. Silva

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

An exploration into the design of a portable music player for people with Alzheimer's and dementia.

Natural Resources Management Framework For Agricultural Irrigation Systems Optimization, Juan Valentin Fernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Water scarcity has increased substantially in the last decades in many parts of the world, and it is expected to worsen due to the significant increase in global water withdrawals, intensive population growth, and climate change. Water is easily one of the most essential and invaluable global resources due to its many uses, such as drinking, industrial processes, and irrigation. The agriculture sector is one of the most significant water users globally, accounting for nearly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Cities and industries compete with the agriculture sector for water sources, producing alarming levels of stress and pollution in the …

Evaluation And Implementation Of Lean Engineering Principles For Improving A University Rocket Team, Alan Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the present day, lean is a tool applied to manufacturing industries trying to reduce wasteand non-value-added work to every process during the supply chain. While implementing lean thinking in the industry has been highly effective, it is less common for academic purposes. However, it can also improve performance if the concept is correctly applied. The purpose of this thesis is to show and analyze the application of Lean Engineering thinking and its six principles to the Sun City Summit Rocket Team from the University of Texas at El Paso which competed in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) Spaceport …

Interoperability In An Electrified Pavement System: A Model-Based Systems Engineering Perspective, Beatriz Irene Soto

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In a 2021 statement provided by The White House, (The White House, 2021), the Biden administration announce the goal for electric vehicles to account for 50% of new vehicle sales in the United States by 2035. In addition, the legislation allocates a budget of $7.5 billion to build out a national network of EV chargers along highway corridors to facilitate long-distance travel and within communities to provide convenient charging where people live, work, and shop. This investment will support the President's goal of building a nationwide network of 500,000 EV chargers to accelerate the adoption of EVs, reduce emissions, improve …

Investigation Into The Economic Viability Of Industry 4.0 Practices In A Small Start-Up Setting: A Case Study, Joseph Lindley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Industry 4.0 has been a hot button topic since the first rumouringâ??s of a fourth industrial revolution taking place in the early 2010s. Since that time many companies have attempted to transform their process, procedures, and systems to become streamlined, efficient, and overall, more profitable. An example of this can be seen in companies such as Microsoft and IBM, Mitsubishi and Siemens who have gained a stronger foothold in their respective markets by their efficient implementation of Industry 4.0. Before we can address how small start-up companies can begin to compete with these behemoths, we must address the question; what …

Analyzing The Supply Chain Operation Of A Fast-Food Restaurant Using Simulation Modeling And Developing A Cost Estimation Optimization Model In The Disruption Period, Amit Kumar Saha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Supply chain operation performance is a much-discussed topic over the last decade which will lead to optimizing the resources required to provide the necessary level of customer service to a specific segment and improve customer service through increased product availability and reduced order cycle time. During disruption in supply chain, performance parameter changes, and the overall supply chain cost at each stage increases. External factors such as labor shortages, delayed and costly supplies, and decreased demand also contribute to this cost. This thesis work presents a research-focused analysis of a small pizza shop, under circumstances that include the loss of …

A Two-Phase Multicommodity Flow Approach For Classroom Assignment, Hannah Smith

Masters Theses

A common problem faced by universities is the assignment of courses to campus-hosted spaces. An optimal solution is difficult to reach, given the number of constraints present. Increasing student enrollment across campus leads to a need for a model that optimally assigns courses to spaces that maximizes the total number of courses taught in person. This paper poses a solution to this problem by generating a two-phase model to allocate courses to campus-hosted spaces. The two-phase approach to classroom assignment consists of a minimum-weighted bipartite matching for priority assignment and a multicommodity flow model to assign remaining courses. The optimal …

A Multi-Criteria Ranking System For Prioritizing Maintenance Of Levee Systems In Arkansas, Nguyen Danh Phan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are 208,009 properties in Arkansas that have more than a 26% chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years, which represents 13% of all properties in the state. A levee system is designed to reduce the flooding risk for urban and rural communities; however, most of the state's levees have been significantly outdated or built with engineering standards less rigorous than current best practices. The Levee Safety Action Classification (LSAC), as recorded in the National Levee Database (NLD), communicates the risk associated with living behind a particular levee and assists local, state, and federal stakeholders …

Implementation Of The Plan For Every Part (Pfep) Tool And Additional Methodologies For Operational Improvement., Bernardo Luis Borges Pedroso

Masters Theses

The work focused on the inventory management of Dimplex Thermal Solutions, which had a profoundly overstocked warehouse and was suffering from significant operating expenses, due to the absence of a grounded ordering policy and the need to rent external storage space, respectively.

The main objective of the thesis was to solve the primarily mentioned problems, by constructing a Plan For Every Part (PFEP) tool, followed by the application of an inventory policy and the proposal of a redesigned warehouse layout, to compute ideal stock values and calculate the footprint requirements for Dimplex’s updated inventory levels, respectively. The execution step concerned …

Using Reinforcement Learning To Improve Network Reliability Through Optimal Resource Allocation, Henley Wells

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Networks provide a variety of critical services to society (e.g. power grid, telecommunication, water, transportation) but are prone to disruption. With this motivation, we study a sequential decision problem in which an initial network is improved over time (e.g., by adding or increasing the reliability of edges) and rewards are gained over time as a function of the network’s all-terminal reliability. The actions during each time period are limited due to availability of resources such as time, money, or labor. To solve this problem, we utilized a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach implemented within OpenAI-Gym using Stable Baselines. A Proximal …

Simulating Emergency Evacuation Response In An Auditorium Space, Anna Lee

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The successful execution of emergency evacuations is very important for the protection of the public. Some emergency events, such as fires, can occur with very little warning and turn into a dangerous situation in less than a minute. With high population densities, universities have increased risk involved with evacuations. One specific area that presents high risk is auditorium spaces such as lecture halls with high densities combined with added barriers such as tables and chairs. The ability to assess a building’s emergency preparedness is necessary for keeping the public safe. Simulation is a way to conduct a theoretical event and …

Essays On Perioperative Services Problems In Healthcare, Amogh S. Bhosekar

All Dissertations

One of the critical challenges in healthcare operations management is to efficiently utilize the expensive resources needed while maintaining the quality of care provided. Simulation and optimization methods can be effectively used to provide better healthcare services. This can be achieved by developing models to minimize patient waiting times, minimize healthcare supply chain and logistics costs, and maximize access. In this proposal, we study some of the important problems in healthcare operations management. More specifically, we focus on perioperative services and study scheduling of operating rooms (ORs) and management of necessary resources such as staff, equipment, and surgical instruments. We …

On Variants Of Sliding And Frank-Wolfe Type Methods And Their Applications In Video Co-Localization, Seyed Hamid Nazari

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, our main focus is to design and analyze first-order methods for computing approximate solutions to convex, smooth optimization problems over certain feasible sets. Specifically, our goal in this dissertation is to explore some variants of sliding and Frank-Wolfe (FW) type algorithms, analyze their convergence complexity, and examine their performance in numerical experiments. We achieve three accomplishments in our research results throughout this dissertation. First, we incorporate a linesearch technique to a well-known projection-free sliding algorithm, namely the conditional gradient sliding (CGS) method. Our proposed algorithm, called the conditional gradient sliding with linesearch (CGSls), does not require the …

Multiple Heat Exchanger Cooling System For Automotive Applications – Design, Mathematical Modeling, And Experimental Observations, Zaker Syed

All Dissertations

The design of the automotive cooling systems has slowly evolved from engine-driven mechanical to computer-controlled electro-mechanical components. With the addition of computer-controlled variable speed actuators, cooling system architectures have been updated to maximize performance and efficiency. By switching from one large radiator to multiple smaller radiators with individual flow control valves, the heat rejection requirements may be precisely adjusted. The combination of computer regulated thermal management system should reduce power consumption while satisfying temperature control objectives. This research focuses on developing and analyzing a multi-radiator system architecture for implementation in ground transportation applications. The premise is to use a single …

Novel Mixed Integer Programming Approaches To Unit Commitment And Tool Switching Problems, Najmaddin Akhundov

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first two chapters, we discuss mixed integer programming formulations in Unit Commitment Problem. First, we present a new reformulation to capture the uncertainty associated with renewable energy. Then, the symmetrical property of UC is exploited to develop new methods to improve the computational time by reducing redundancy in the search space. In the third chapter, we focus on the Tool Switching and Sequencing Problem. Similar to UC, we analyze its symmetrical nature and present a new reformulation and symmetry-breaking cuts which lead to a significant improvement in the solution time. In chapter one, we use convex hull pricing …

Productivity And Quality Evaluation In Assembly Using Collaborative Robots, Carlos F. Manzanares Vega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Industry 4.0, various technologies have been applied to achieve automation for traditional manufacturing and practices. For this reason, Smart Manufacturing (SM) environments utilize collaborative robots for process optimization by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT). Cobots are equipped with sensors and/or other devices to be able to transmit data in real-time while performing their tasks. Consequently, such SM implementations improves the decision making and business development, such as supply chain and operations, by sharing real-time data from a plant operational level. The collaborative robots are also designed to safely interact and collaborate with humans to perform tasks and optimize …

Models And Algorithms For Trauma Network Design., Sagarkumar Dhirubhai Hirpara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trauma continues to be the leading cause of death and disability in the US for people aged 44 and under, making it a major public health problem. The geographical maldistribution of Trauma Centers (TCs), and the resulting higher access time to the nearest TC, has been shown to impact trauma patient safety and increase disability or mortality. State governments often design a trauma network to provide prompt and definitive care to their citizens. However, this process is mainly manual and experience-based and often leads to a suboptimal network in terms of patient safety and resource utilization. This dissertation fills important …

A Study Of The Link Between Poor Quality And Poor Performance Of Various Health Care Indicators, Lamara L. Glass

Masters Theses

Abstract

Purpose of the Research

The purpose of present research investigation is to explore the correlation between poor performance indicators and poor quality in the Health care industry and to present an idea on improving the quality of the outcome in health care services by altering the KPIs.

The Nature of the Problem

The quality of healthcare may be evaluated using a variety of parameters, including safety, efficacy, and person-centeredness. For example, the former relates to the degree of precision with which procedures may produce desired results. External comparisons between different health care facilities, as well as KPIs specified for …

Callaway Measurement Device, Andre S. Fisher, Roman Hays, Blake Sousa, Grant Gabrielson

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to illustrate the Callaway Measurement Device senior project from start to finish. The challenge given to the team was to update and improve a gauge used by Callaway employees to measure the loft, lie, and face angle of their full spectrum of golf clubs. Once the team understood how the pre-existing gauge operates, the team conducted background research into other technologies that could improve the gauge. The team decided to digitalize the device amongst other tweaks to reduce error. Because the CAD files were not available for the pre-existing device, the team began reverse …

Novel Hitch Cargo Cart, Cesilio Sanchez Ramirez, Lance Haidet, Richard Lontoc, Tyler Selinka

Mechanical Engineering

This document presents the engineering design process used to develop, manufacture, and test a new and improved iteration of a hitch cart prototype. This process was performed by a team of four mechanical engineering seniors as part of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s senior design pathway. The goal of this project was to develop a sturdy and reliable iteration of our sponsor’s hitch cart prototype, that integrated the functionality of a vehicle hitch cargo platform and that of a height adjustable cargo cart into a single streamlined and easy to use product. This design could be used by …