Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Modelling Vessel Traffic Service To Understand Resilience In Everyday Operations, Gesa Praetorius, Erik Hollnagel, Joakim Dahlman

Gesa Praetorius

Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is a service to promote traffic fluency and safety in the entrance to ports. This article׳s purpose has been to explore everyday operations of the VTS system to gain insights in how it contributes to safe and efficient traffic movements. Interviews, focus groups and an observation have been conducted to collect data about everyday operations, as well as to grasp how the VTS system adapts to changing operational conditions. The results show that work within the VTS domain is highly complex and that the two systems modelled realise their services vastly differently, which in turn affects …

Maritime Traffic Management: A Need For Central Coordination?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Traffic management is not formally organised in the maritime domain. Ships are autonomous and find their own way. Traffic is organised through rules, regulations, and “good seamanship”; it is a distributed system. In areas of high traffic-density support is proved by vessel traffic service (VTS) to promote traffic safety and fluency. VTS does not take control. This organisational structure has proven itself in situations with sufficient resources. When resources become insufficient (e.g. not enough sailing space), the traffic needs an organising mechanism. In this article, the authors argue that the most promising way to do this is by organising centralised …

Mle+: A Tool For Integrated Design And Deployment Of Energy Efficient Building Controls, Willy Bernal, Madhur Behl, Truong Nghiem, Rahul Mangharam

Truong X Nghiem

We present MLE+, a tool for energy-efficient building automation design, co-simulation and analysis. The tool leverages the high-fidelity building simulation capabilities of EnergyPlus and the scientific computation and design capabilities of Matlab for controller design. MLE+ facilitates integrated building simulation and controller formulation with integrated support for system identification, control design, optimization, simulation analysis and communication between software applications and building equipment. It provides streamlined workflows, a graphical front-end, and debugging support to help control engineers eliminate design and programming errors and take informed decisions early in the design stage, leading to fewer iterations in the building automation development cycle. …

A Decision Support Model For The Location Of Hand Sanitizer Dispensers In Hospitals, Laila Cure

Laila Cure

Compliance with hand hygiene practices is directly affected by the accessibility and availability of cleaning agents. Nevertheless, the decision of where to locate these dispensers is often not explicitly or fully addressed in the literature. In this paper, we study the problem of selecting the locations to install alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispensers throughout a hospital unit. We investigate the relevant criteria in selecting dispenser locations that promote compliance with hand hygiene practices, propose metrics for the evaluation of various location configurations, and formulate a dispenser location optimization model that incorporates such criteria. A complete methodology to collect data and obtain …

Conversations Around Design Sketches: Use Of Communication Channels For Sharing Mental Models During Concept Generation, Nik Shahman Nik Ahmad Ariff, Petra Badke-Schaub, Ozgur Eris

Ozgur Eris

In this paper, we present an exploratory protocol study on the use of different communication channels during design sketching. We focus on how individual designers share their mental models with other designers in a group, and analyse their use of graphical, textual, and verbal communications during concept generation.

Our findings suggest that verbal communication plays a role in the sharing of individual mental models during sketching, and complements graphical and textual communication channels. However, design teams can still function without verbal communication in that respect, and address design problems. They seem to compensate for the absence of the verbal communication …

An Alternative Characterization Of Robust Stability And Stability Radius For Linear Time Delay Systems, Bahram Shafai, Hanai Sadaka, Rifat Sipahi, Jie Chen

Hanai Sadaka

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of Patient Arrival Patterns In The Performance Of Appointment Scheduling Rules, Alcides Santander-Mercado, Jose Zayas-Castro, Laila Cure, Ali Yalcin

Laila Cure

This paper evaluates the ability of commonly used Appointment Scheduling Rules (ASRs) in smoothing the effect of environmental factors in the performance of an outpatient scheduling system. ASRs have been widely implemented in outpatient clinics to improve performance measures such as staff idle time, patient waiting time, and facility congestion. However, the successful implementation of an ASR depends on its ability in dealing with the environmental factors affecting the system. Factors such as no-shows, variability of consultation times, patient unpunctuality, walk-in patient arrivals and the number of admitted patients per session affect the performance of the clinics in terms of …

Transportation Delays In Supply Networks: Stability Analysis & System Design, Rifat Sipahi, Stefan Lanmer, Silvia-Julian Niculescu, Dirk Helbing

Rifat Sipahi

No abstract provided.

Mac Pgp Encryption, Elizabeth Scheyder

Elizabeth C Scheyder

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Design Learning Using Groupware, Andrew Wodehouse, Ozgur Eris, Hillary Grierson, Ade Mabogunje

Ozgur Eris

Project work is increasingly used to help engineering students integrate, apply and expand on knowledge gained from theoretical classes in their curriculum and expose students to `real world' tasks. To help facilitate this process, the department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde has developed a web-based groupware product called LauLima to help students store, share, structure and apply information when they are working in design teams. This paper describes a distributed design project class in which LauLima has been deployed in accordance with a Design Knowledge Framework that describes how design knowledge is generated and …

Insisting On Truth At The Expense Of Conceptualization: Can Engineering Portfolios Help?, Ozgur Eris

Ozgur Eris

Teaching and promoting conceptual thinking in engineering education is challenging. Two recently introduced design thinking models are compared in order to explore the reasons behind this challenge. The comparison results in key distinctions between divergent and convergent thinking, and between concept and knowledge domains. The differentiating principle is shown to be a common principle of the two models, truth-value, or logical status, of the propositions that engineers make. Building on this insight, divergent thinking by inquiry is identified as a mechanism for promoting conceptual thinking, and a specific implementation of engineering portfolios is proposed as a pedagogical tool.