Engineering Commons^™

Connection-Saving Gate Assignment: A Computational Approach, Rob Mailley

Computer Science Senior Theses

The growth of the commercial aviation industry has yielded many interesting problems in the field of Operations Research, many of which are now able to be solved as both technology and mathematical optimization improve. A particularly interesting problem in airport operations re- search is the Aircraft Gate Assignment Problem (AGAP), which seeks to create a feasible match- ing between planes and flights at an airport. This problem is well-suited to modeling with Integer Programming, and has attracted research since the 1970s. Researchers of the AGAP have considered many different objectives, ranging from airline-focused objectives to more passenger-focused objective functions. In …

Essays On Integer Programming Approaches To Analyze Equilibrium Solutions In Games, Lucky Cho

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, we present three applications of integer programming to analyze non-cooperative games. In a non-cooperative game, players of the game act selfishly and choose the best response given every other player's decision. The game reaches a Nash equilibrium when no player can benefit by changing its decisions. Our goal is to create an integer program that can identify these Nash equilibriums by modeling the best response of the game's players in the constraints. We prove a one-to-one correspondence between the game's Nash equilibrium and the feasible solution of a corresponding integer program. The one-to-one correspondence allows us to …

Learning–Assisted Constraint Filtering To Enhance Power System Optimization Performance, Fouad Hasan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Machine learning (ML) is a powerful tool that provides meaningful insights for operators to make fast and efficient decisions by analyzing data from power systems. ML techniques have great potential to assist in solving optimization problems within a shorter time frame and with less computational burden. AC optimal power flow (ACOPF), dynamic economic dispatch (D-ED), and security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) are the three energy management optimization functions studied in this dissertation. ACOPF is solved every 5~15 minutes. Because of the nonconvex and complex nature of ACOPF, solving this problem for large systems is computationally expensive and time-consuming. Classification and regression …

The Cyber Wargame Commodity Course Of Action Automated Analysis Method, Alex Hoffendahl

Theses and Dissertations

In the modern operational landscape, strategic decisions are made and executed, under uncertain conditions, with many potential constraints and limited information. The end goal of these decisions is to minimize and mitigate the effect of adversarial threats, which may or may not act in line with previous assumptions. Wargaming is a powerful tool that allows for the practical implementation of theoretical knowledge into real-world scenarios, enhancing decision-makers critical thinking and problem solving skills. Furthermore, including cyber-effects in a wargame leads to a broader decision scope for an entire operation. This research aims to enhance the analytical capabilities and overall usability …

Sequencing Multiple-Spreader Crane Operations: Mathematical Formulations And Heuristic Algorithms, Shabnam Lashkari

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

SEQUENCING MULTIPLE-SPREADER CRANE OPERATIONS:

MATHEMATICAL FORMULATIONS AND HEURISTIC ALGORITHMS

by

Shabnam Lashkari

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2020

Under the Supervision of Professor Matthew E.H. Petering

Maritime container shipping is one the oldest industries and plays a key role in transporting freight all around the world. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) reports that more than 90% of international trade across the world is carried by sea. This method of transportation is by far the most cost-efficient among rail, road, air, and water transportation.

Today most overseas shipping of finished consumer goods is done via 20-, 40-, or 45-foot long steel …

A Mathematical Programming Model For The Green Mixed Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem With Realistic Energy Consumption And Partial Recharges, Vincent F. Yu, Panca Jodiwan, Aldy Gunawan, Audrey Tedja Widjaja

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A green mixed fleet vehicle routing with realistic energy consumption and partial recharges problem (GMFVRP-REC-PR) is addressed in this paper. This problem involves a fixed number of electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles to serve a set of customers. The realistic energy consumption which depends on several variables is utilized to calculate the electricity consumption of an electric vehicle and fuel consumption of an internal combustion vehicle. Partial recharging policy is included into the problem to represent the real life scenario. The objective of this problem is to minimize the total travelled distance and the total emission produced by internal …

Two Essays On Distribution, Fulfillment And Pricing Decisions For Retailers With E-Commerce Channel, Khosro Pichka

Theses and Dissertations

E-commerce has grown rapidly in the past decade. In 2015, e-commerce was accounted for 7.2 percent of all retail sales in the U.S., which is massively higher than 0.2 percent in 1998 (U.S. Department of Commerce 2017). Worldwide e-commerce sales also show the same trend and reached $2.356 trillion in 2018 and are expected to grow steadily (Statista 2017). This trend has impacted major areas of operations management including supply chain management and revenue management. Today, e-commerce companies cannot satisfy their customers’ demand using traditional distribution systems. Therefore, retailers with e-commerce channels (e-tailers), cooperate with third party logistic service providers …

Comparison Of Novel Heuristic And Integer Programming Schedulers For The Usaf Space Surveillance Network, Kanit Dararutana

Theses and Dissertations

Space is a highly congested and contested domain begetting the importance of prioritizing the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) mission. With increased dependence on space assets, scheduling and tasking of the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) is vitally important to maintaining space dominance. According to the 2004 USSTRATCOM Strategic Directive 505-1 (SD 505-1) the SSN uses centralized tasking, with decentralized scheduling. Enhancing SSA within available resources is paramount, and the development of a centralized SSN scheduler to maximize performance is crucial. This research develops and compares novel scheduling models to a model reflecting the 2004 SD 505-1. Novel schedulers were developed to …

Scheduling Tool For The Nevada Test And Training Range, Miguel J. Macias

Theses and Dissertations

Presently, the 57th Wing Scheduler at Nellis AFB schedules daily mission requests to the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) airspace manually. The process is time consuming and may lead to suboptimal range resource allocations. The goal of this study is to provide the scheduler with an automated scheduling approach that will improve range scheduling efficiency. The tool developed uses range request data from units at Nellis AFB to produce daily mission schedules for a month long scheduling horizon with Microsoft VBA code and a commercial Integer Program (IP) solver. Under our current understanding of scheduler priorities, we formulate the …

Integrated Intermodal Network Design With Nonlinear Inter-Hub Movement Costs, Mohammad Ghane-Ezabadi, Hector A. Vergara

15th IMHRC Proceedings (Savannah, Georgia. USA – 2018)

In this research, transportation mode and load route selection problems are integrated with the hub location problem in a single mathematical formulation to find the optimal design of intermodal transportation networks. Economies of scale are modeled utilizing a stepwise function that relates the per container transportation cost to the amount of flow between two nodes. A heuristic method combining a genetic algorithm and the shortest path algorithm was developed to solve this integrated planning problem. Computational experiments were completed to evaluate the performance of the proposed heuristic for different problem instances. At the end, conclusions are presented and future research …

Influence Maximization In Social Networks: An Integer Programming Approach, Muhammed Emre Keski̇n, Mehmet Güray Güler

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The use of social networks has been spreading rapidly in recent years. There is a growing interest in influence maximization in social networks, especially after observing that the effects of social events of the Arab Spring, Gezi events of Turkey, uprising in Ukraine, etc. have been built by the help of social networks. Consequently, many institutions like political parties or commercial firms are willing to spread their messages throughout social networks. There are many studies that concentrate on finding the most influential initial nodes, called seeds, which maximize the spread of an intended message over the social network. However, most …

Loading Time Flexibility In Cross-Docking Systems, Dincer Konur, Mihalis M. Golias

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, we investigate truck-to-door assignment problem for loading outgoing trucks in a cross-docking system with flexible handling times. Specifically, a truck's loading time depends on the number of workers assigned to the outbound door, where the truck is being loaded. An optimization problem is formulated to jointly determine the number of workers and the trucks to be loaded at each door. The resulting problem is a nonlinear integer programming model. Due to the complexity of this model, two evolutionary heuristic methods are proposed for solution. First heuristic method is based on truck assignments while the second heuristic is …

Multiobjective System Of Systems Architecting With Performance Improvement Funds, Hadi Farhangi, Dincer Konur, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A System of Systems architecting problem aims to determine a selection of systems, which are capable of providing a set of desired capabilities. A SoS architect usually has multiple objectives in generating efficient architectures such as minimization of the total cost and maximization the overall performance of the SoS. This study formulates a biobjective SoS architecting problem with these two objectives. Here, we consider that, by allocating funds to the systems, the SoS architect can improve the performance of the capabilities the systems can provide. The resulting architecting problem is a biobjective mixed-integer linear programming model. Specifically, the system selection …

A Novel Strategy For Stowage Planning Of 40 Feet Containers In Container Terminals, Ning Zhao, Yifan Shen, Mengjue Xia, Jian Jin

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

Owing that the container terminals increasingly secure a crucial position in today’s container transportation, the stowage planning, which is one of the important process during container-loading operations, gradually attracts the attention of terminal operators. In this paper, we discuss the vessel stowage planning problem for 40 feet outbound containers, in which a strategy named ‘ROIR’ is analyzed. By carefully studying the operational flow of vessel stowage, a multiobjective mixed integer programming model is put forward with regard to general principles. Then a specified genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the IP model. An integer encoding technique is employed in the …

Shortest Path Based Decision Making Using Probabilistic Inference, Akshat Kumar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present a new perspective on the classical shortest path routing (SPR) problem in graphs. We show that the SPR problem can be recast to that of probabilistic inference in a mixture of simple Bayesian networks. Maximizing the likelihood in this mixture becomes equivalent to solving the SPR problem. We develop the well known Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for the SPR problem that maximizes the likelihood, and show that it does not get stuck in a locally optimal solution. Using the same probabilistic framework, we then address an NP-Hard network design problem where the goal is to repair a network of …

Optimizing Macd Parameters Via Genetic Algorithms For Soybean Futures, Phoebe S. Wiles, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To create profits, traders must time the market correctly and enter and exit positions at ideal times. Finding the optimal time to enter the market can be quite daunting. The soybean market can be volatile and complex. Weather, sentiment, supply, and demand can all affect the price of soybeans. Traders typically use either fundamental analysis or technical analysis to predict the market for soybean futures' contracts. Every agricultural future's contract or security contract is different in its nature, volatility, and structure. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to optimize the moving average convergence divergence parameter values from traditionally used …

Short Term Strategies For Solving A Variant Of Period Vehicle Routing Problem, Hsiu-Li Hsu, Ching-Wu Chu, Chao-Sheng Wu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

A company faces a variant of Period Vehicle Routing Problem (PVRP). Because of seasonal fluctuation in demand, the company outsources delivery to avoid maintaining excess vehicles or facing vehicle shortages. Customer orders can be classified into two groups, those that must be satisfied within two days, and those that must be fulfilled within three days. Currently, the company satisfies most orders the next day based on experience rather than any formal system. The objective of the studied company is to satisfy all received orders and minimize monthly transportation costs. This study proposes two short term strategies for the studied company. …

A Decision Modeling For Phasor Measurement Unit Location Selection In Smart Grid Systems, Seung Yup Lee

Wayne State University Theses

As a key technology for enhancing the smart grid system, Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) provides synchronized phasor measurements of voltages and currents of wide-area electric power grid. With various benefits from its application, one of the critical issues in utilizing PMUs is the optimal site selection of units.

The main aim of this research is to develop a decision support system, which can be used in resource allocation task for smart grid system analysis. As an effort to suggest a robust decision model and standardize the decision modeling process, a harmonized modeling framework, which considers operational circumstances of component, is …

Using Social Networking Game To Teach Operations Research And Management Science Fundamental Concepts, Ivan G. Guardiola, Susan L. Murray, Elizabeth A. Cudney

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents our experience using the popular game FarmVille by Zynga® to teach the fundamentals of linear programming and integer programming concepts to undergraduate students in an introductory operations research course. FarmVille is a popular game within the social networking website Facebook®. A month-long contest was introduced amongst the students with the goal to be the best individual farmer by striving to reach high levels of revenue, experience, and aesthetic appeal of their own unique farm. The contest is to demonstrate the concepts of problem formulation, solution methods, multiple and competing objectives, implementation of policy, and reformulation. The students …

Developing Spreadsheet Based Decision Support System To Solve Warehouse Layout Problem, Taravatsadat Nehzati, Napsiah Ismail, Hannaneh Rashidi-Bajgan

Hannaneh Rashidi-Bajgan

A plant layout study is to analyze different physical configurations for an industrial plant. The warehouse layout problem involves allocating several different product types to certain areas of warehouse so that the cost of material handling from docks of the warehouse can be minimized. The layout of a warehouse may need to be change to accommodate new product lines or to add greater flexibility to the warehouse operations. To ensure the success of the project, a detailed planning process should be followed. Regarding to above Decision Support Systems (DSS) are developed to help company’s personnel, modify the configuration of warehouse …

Optimization Models And Algorithms For Spatial Scheduling, Christopher J. Garcia

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Spatial scheduling problems involve scheduling a set of activities or jobs that each require a certain amount of physical space in order to be carried out. In these problems space is a limited resource, and the job locations, orientations, and start times must be simultaneously determined. As a result, spatial scheduling problems are a particularly difficult class of scheduling problems. These problems are commonly encountered in diverse industries including shipbuilding, aircraft assembly, and supply chain management. Despite its importance, there is a relatively scarce amount of research in the area of spatial scheduling.

In this dissertation, spatial scheduling problems are …

Swarm Intelligence And Evolutionary Approaches For Reactive Power And Voltage Control, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, G. Krost, G. A. Bakare, Lisa L. Grant

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a comparison of swarm intelligence and evolutionary techniques based approaches for minimization of system losses and improvement of voltage profiles in a power network. Efficient distribution of reactive power in an electric network can be achieved by adjusting the excitation on generators, the on-load tap changer positions of transformers, and proper switching of discrete portions of inductors or capacitors. This is a mixed integer non-linear optimization problem where metaheuristics techniques have proven suitable for providing optimal solutions. Four algorithms explored in this paper include differential evolution (DE), particle swarm optimization (PSO), a hybrid combination of DE and …

Service Supply Chain Management : A Hierarchical Decision Modeling Approach, Roger Angel Solano-Cayama

Dissertations

A Service Supply Chain (SSC) may be described as a network of service provider facilities (in-house or outsourced), each of which is able to process one or more service tasks on an as needed basis. Two key characteristics of a SSC are (i) the business service is decomposable into several sequential tasks that can be processed by different service providers, and (ii) the primary capacity resource is skilled labor. SSCs are increasingly being developed by companies that experience a high variability of demand for their services (e.g., loan processing, analytical consulting services, emergency repair crews, claims processing, etc.). Typically, the …

An Integer Programming Approach To Support The Us Air Force’S Air Mobility Network, Corbin G. Koepke, Andrew P. Armacost, Cynthia Barnhart, Stephan E. Kolitz

United States Air Force: Publications

The United States Air Force’s air mobility command is responsible for creating a schedule and executing that schedule for a large-scale air mobility network that encompasses aircraft with prioritized missions. Aerial ports (airports) can process or park a maximum number of aircraft, called the maximum on ground (MOG). As the schedule changes due to disruptions, such as equipment failure or weather, the MOG constraint can cause the new schedule to be infeasible. Traditionally, re-planning the channel route schedule to adhere to MOG constraints has been a manual process that usually stops after the first feasible set of changes is found, …

A Decision Support Model For Project Manager Assignments, Peerasit Patanakul, Dragan Milošević, Timothy R. Anderson

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The question, "How to assign projects to project managers?" is considered to be one of the most important questions in project management. Nevertheless, methods to answer this question have not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature. In practice, even though the question is rather common, practitioners still seek an effective project assignment methodology - especially, for the assignments of project managers of multiple concurrent projects, such as a project manager of new product development projects in typical high-technology industries. To respond to this question, we performed an inductive study to develop a theoretical framework for project assignments, including some …

An Approach For Optimizing The On-Orbit Servicing Architecture For The Space-Based Radar Constellation, Michael L. Mcconnell

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite systems, once operational, are essentially a consumable item with no capacity to maintain, repair, or upgrade them while on-orbit. In order to avoid having to replace costly space assets, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) are looking to developing programs to provide an on-orbit servicing capability for future satellite systems under development, such as the Space-Based Radar (SBR) system. DARPA and AFSPC are studying on-orbit servicing using the Orbital Express platform as part of an Analysis of Alternatives for the SBR program. Like their satellite clients, on-orbit servicing assets are expected to …

On The Use Of Surrogate Functions For Mixed Variable Optimization Of Simulated Systems, John E. Dunlap

Theses and Dissertations

This research considers the efficient numerical solution of linearly constrained mixed variable programming (MVP) problems, in which the objective function is a black-box stochastic simulation, function evaluations may be computationally expensive, and derivative information is typically not available. MVP problems are those with a mixture of continuous, integer, and categorical variables, the latter of which may take on values only from a predefined list and may even be non-numeric. Mixed Variable Generalized Pattern Search with Ranking and Selection (MGPS-RS) is the only existing, provably convergent algorithm that can be applied to this class of problems. Present in this algorithm is …

Flexibility – Examining An Underappreciated Motivation For Outsourcing With An Optimization Model In A Small E-Product Manufacturer, Asser Fayed, Timothy R. Anderson, David Fenwick

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Technology outsourcing has recently become a politically sensitive issue with proponents emphasizing longterm economic growth opportunities, and opponents pointing out immediate job losses. The underlying reason for outsourcing is often assumed to be the availability of cheaper labor outside the USA but this overlooks the possibility that companies may simply be seeking greater labor flexibility outside of US state and federal labor laws. This paper quantitatively tests a software company’s motivation to secure a flexible and adaptable labor pool. Although production lines located at multiple sites provide great flexibility for scheduling and costs because each site has its own local …

The Marine Single Assignment Nonstrict Hub Location Problem: Formulations And Experimental Examples, Shang-Hsing Hsieh, Hsien-Lun Wong

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

Marine hub-and-spoke networks have been applied to routing containerships for over two decades, but few papers have devoted their attention to these networks. The marine network problems are known as single assignment nonstrict hub location problems (SNHLPs), which deal with the optimal location of hubs and allocation of spokes to hubs in a network, allowing direct routes between some spokes. In this paper we present a satisfactory approach for solving SHNLPs. The quadratic integer profit programming consists of two-stage computational algorithms: a hub location model and a spoke allocation model. We apply a heuristic scheme based on the shortest distance …

An Integer-Programming Model For Assigning Projects To Project Managers, Peerasit Patanakul, Dragan Milošević, Timothy R. Anderson

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study proposes an integer-programming model as a systematic methodology for assigning projects to project managers (project manager assignments). This model is a valuable extension of the existing methodologies in the literature since it considers the strategic elements of an organization and organizational/personal limitations in project manager assignments in addition to project requirements and competencies of project managers as being considered in the existing methodologies. By using this proposed model, management can assign projects to project managers in a way that contributes to the project and organizational performance.