Engineering Commons^™

Optimization Of Human Interactions In The College Campus Model Via Simio Integration, Benjamin E. Chaback

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

College campuses are a significant part of life in some cities. Many students each year attend university, pursuing additional knowledge from faculty members. Both staff and faculty members rely on these students to have successful jobs and to ensure the university functions. Yet recently, more and more students are attending, leading to overcrowding, lower admission rates, and difficulty getting into good programs. Previous work exists on qualitative student affairs and quantitative retention data, yet little on using simulations to model this problem. This work aimed to (a) Determine the ability to successfully model human interactions/people flow on a college campus, …

Interdependent Infrastructure Recovery Using Multilayered Networks And Optimization, Brigham A. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Interdependent infrastructure recovery modeling and simulation are complicated due to various interdependent connections and complexities. Current efforts have identified both operational and restoration interdependency subtypes and coupling strategies that have not been integrated into one comprehensive model. This research presents a model which simultaneously integrates nine interdependency subtypes and four coupling strategies in a multi-objective format to provide the most tailorable and comprehensive network-based recovery model available. This research also created a defense-centric interdependent infrastructure database by modifying the existing CLARC database. This research then addressed assumptions regarding recovery work management in order to address the impact of work crew …

Optimizing Cost And Performance Of Infrastrucure Alternatives At Contingency Bases In A Hub-And-Spoke Network, Kyle J. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Military contingency bases require substantial resources and funding sustain and are often not connected to an infrastructure grid. Infrastructure assets produce the required outputs for sustainment, but are often expensive and inefficient, producing a significant logistical burden. With the increasing near-peer threats of opposing military forces, there is a need for more self-sufficient contingency bases with alternatives that reduce resources usage and the cost of sustainment. Accordingly, the goal of this research is to develop an optimization model capable of selecting infrastructure alternative combinations that minimize the overall resource usage and cost of sustainment at the contingency base level.

Curriculum Optimization Via Activity-On-Node Network Modeling, Caroline Rhomberg

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

University degree plans must be carefully planned so that they allow students the best chance of succeeding. Although for the better, with the advancement of technology and its incorporation into the classroom, it can be argued that the complexity and difficulty of some long-established engineering core classes has changed. With this trend certain combinations of engineering courses have become unfavorable in terms of course withdrawal and fail rates stemming from the interaction of course challenges. A wealth of data has been collected on this topic and will be utilized in this project. As one can imagine, the probability of success …

Golng Off The Grid: Optimizing Solar Renewable Energy Systems At Remote Locations To Minimize Logistics Requirements, Increase Sustainability, And Strengthen Energy Assurance, Nathanael J. Thomsen

Theses and Dissertations

Grid-based electrical infrastructure is unavailable at many remote locations including developing nation communities, isolated construction sites, and military contingency bases. Powering these locations with diesel generators requires regular fuel resupply, resulting in increased costs, environmental impacts, and burdensome logistics—making generators an obstacle for energy resiliency and sustainability. This research examines using solar renewable energy systems to replace generators at remote locations and presents a multi-objective optimization model that minimizes logistics variables. Replacing a single deployed generator would save over 500,000 gal of fuel annually, eliminating the need for 100 fuel tanker deliveries.

Computational Model For Neural Architecture Search, Ram Deepak Gottapu

Doctoral Dissertations

"A long-standing goal in Deep Learning (DL) research is to design efficient architectures for a given dataset that are both accurate and computationally inexpensive. At present, designing deep learning architectures for a real-world application requires both human expertise and considerable effort as they are either handcrafted by careful experimentation or modified from a handful of existing models. This method is inefficient as the process of architecture design is highly time-consuming and computationally expensive.

The research presents an approach to automate the process of deep learning architecture design through a modeling procedure. In particular, it first introduces a framework that treats …

Mazak Laser Optimization, Maylon Ellington, Terrilian E. Agbor Oji, William N. Palm

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Starflex Fabrication is a manufacturing company that thrives to provide custom, precision fabricated parts, and assemblies to their customers.The Mazak laser is Starflex Fabrication’s primary cutting machine and is critical to the overall process for each order. Team Flex will look to optimize the laser’s process and improve overall shop throughput.

Supply Chain Network Analysis For Outboard Motors At Motor Boaters Usa, Seyedalireza (Ali) Ghiasi, Chase Griffith, Djanene Manuel, Yesenia Pérez, Alvand Rafiee

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Motor Boaters USA found themselves possibly spending too much on their current network distribution of small and large outboard motors and requested new distribution alternatives for the U.S. Through past network distribution data analysis, the team devised 3 scenarios it believed would provide one or more cost effective distribution networks applicable to the request. Through what-if analysis, the teams' calculations produced solid results, which were then presented to Motor Boaters USA for reflection and possible implementation.

Sequence-Based Simulation-Optimization Framework With Application To Port Operations At Multimodal Container Terminals, Mariam Aladdin Kotachi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

It is evident in previous works that operations research and mathematical algorithms can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions, whereas simulation models can aid in predicting and studying the behavior of systems over time and monitor performance under stochastic and uncertain circumstances. Given the intensive computational effort that simulation optimization methods impose, especially for large and complex systems like container terminals, a favorable approach is to reduce the search space to decrease the amount of computation.

A maritime port can consist of multiple terminals with specific functionalities and specialized equipment. A container terminal is one of several facilities in a port …

Class A Average Handle Time Standard, Stephanie Lee

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This report provides an analysis and evaluation on the Average Handle Time performed at Class A. The Universal, Shipping, International, Tracking, InfoNotice, Amazon, Field Support Group, and Preferred Customer Associates call types are evaluated in this study. An Average Handle Time Standard is created, while meeting the appropriate sample size, covering multiple site locations, at various times of the day and days of the week, and meeting corporate quality expectations. Methods of cost analysis, Six Sigma, and optimization are utilized in this study. The V-Process Model is used to verify the system. The implementation and results served as the verification …

Optimizing The B.O.B., Valerie N. Washington, Douglas Starzec

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

The Kennesaw State University Department of Transportation manages the Big Owl Bus (B.O.B.). The B.O.B. has 9 routes which provide transportation around and between the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses, as well as to select off-campus apartment complexes and shopping centers. We utilized a number of methodologies to recommend improvements to the efficiency and accessibility of the B.O.B. We first used the vehicle routing problem to develop a binary integer linear programming model. This allowed us to determine a new set of routes that minimize total travel time across the routes. Next, we developed an integer non-linear programming model to assign …

Efficient Employment Of Large Format Sensor Data Transfer Architectures, Jeffrey R. Oltmanns

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing quantity of data collected by Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets and the focus on timely access to the data collected by these systems, operational data transfer network architectures have become a critical component of their employment in the intelligence production process. Efficient utilization of the provided long-haul communications component of the ISR system improves the value of the single asset to the warfighter and enables connectivity of additional assets via the data transfer network architecture. This research effort focused on the creation and implementation of a structured test design methodology based on the …

The Context Of Tool Control In An Aircraft Assembly Environment Related To Productivity, Taylor Jay Sisson

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

The aircraft industry focuses a large portion of its resources on tool control during the assembly of aircraft. Tool control is a strict process that demands time from the assembly process. This time is removed from the value-added time spent actually assembling the aircraft. A study at Lockheed Martin conducted in the Spring of 2016 is discussed that examines the time spent on tool control. Tool control is necessary in aircraft assembly to prevent tools from entering compartments of the aircraft. If such an event occurs, the tool may damage the aircraft. All aircraft assembly processes must be tool controlled, …

Developing An Optimal Model For Infant Home Visitation, Isaac Atuahene

Doctoral Dissertations

The United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Canada and many other countries have accepted home visitation (HV) as a promising strategy for interventions for infants after births and for their mothers. Prior HV studies have focused on theoretical foundations, evaluations of programs, cost/benefit analysis and cost estimation by using hospital/payer/insurance data to prove its effectiveness and high cost. As governments and private organizations continue to fund HVs, it is an opportune time to develop and formulate operations research (OR) models of HV coverage, quality and cost so they might be used in program implementation as done for adult home healthcare (HHC) …

A Framework And System For A Multi-Model Decision Aid For Sustainable Farming Practices, Kasi Bharath Vegesana

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Decision support systems (DSS) for farmers address the need for modeling multiple processes and scenarios that affect farmer decision making. Existing DSS have various drawbacks that stop them from being deployed as decision support tools. This research proposes a multi-model simulation framework that can be used to analyze farm management practices at the crop level, individual farm level and at the community level to show the impact and alternatives for smallholder farming practices. A generic crop growth model is proposed, based on existing equations. We run sensitivity analysis on the model to identify important variables. The outputs from the crop …

A Mechanism Design Approach To Bandwidth Allocation In Tactical Data Networks, Ankur Mour

Open Access Theses

The defense sector is undergoing a phase of rapid technological advancement, in the pursuit of its goal of information superiority. This goal depends on a large network of complex interconnected systems - sensors, weapons, soldiers - linked through a maze of heterogeneous networks. The sheer scale and size of these networks prompt behaviors that go beyond conglomerations of systems or `system-of-systems'. The lack of a central locus and disjointed, competing interests among large clusters of systems makes this characteristic of an Ultra Large Scale (ULS) system. These traits of ULS systems challenge and undermine the fundamental assumptions of today's software …

Process Optimization Of Boatmate Trailers, Llc, Jamie M. Smotherman, Jasmine L. Kelley

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Method To Improve The Sustainment Of Systems Based On Probability And Consequences, Michael Ashton Gaintner

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The FROST Method is presented which improves the efficiency of long-term sustainment of hardware systems. The FROST Method makes sustainment and scheduling decisions based on the minimization of the expected value of current and future costs. This differs from current methods which tend to base decisions not on the expected value of costs, but on the expected inventory demand found through projections using data which is often inaccurate.

Distributions are used to account for randomness and inaccuracy in inputs such as failure rates and vendor-claimed dates for end of production. A Monte Carlo technique is then used to convert these …