Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

An Investigation Into Applications Of Canonical Polyadic Decomposition & Ensemble Learning In Forecasting Thermal Data Streams In Direct Laser Deposition Processes, Jonathan Storey

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process of creating objects from 3D model data by adding layers of material. AM technologies present several advantages compared to traditional manufacturing technologies, such as producing less material waste and being capable of producing parts with greater geometric complexity. However, deficiencies in the printing process due to high process uncertainty can affect the microstructural properties of a fabricated part leading to defects. In metal AM, previous studies have linked defects in parts with melt pool temperature fluctuations, with the size of the melt pool and the scan pattern being key factors associated with part defects. …

Assessing And Predicting The Students’ Systems Thinking Preference: Multi-Criteria Decision Making And Machine Learning, Siham Tazzit

Theses and Dissertations

The 21st century is marked by a technological revolution that features digital implementation and high interconnectivity between systems across different domains, such as transportation, agriculture, education, and health. Although these technological changes resulted in modern systems capable of easing individuals’ lives, these systems are increasingly complex, and that increased complexity is only expected to continue. The increased system complexity is due to the rapid exchange of information between subsystems, which creates high interconnectivity and interdependence between the subsystems and their elements. Workforce skill sets, as a result, must be modified appropriately to ensure the systems’ success. Systems Thinking is an …

Ai-Enabled Modeling And Monitoring Of Data-Rich Advanced Manufacturing Systems, Abdullah Al Mamun

Theses and Dissertations

The infrastructure of cyber-physical systems (CPS) is based on a meta-concept of cybermanufacturing systems (CMS) that synchronizes the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoTs), Cloud Computing, Industrial Control Systems (ICSs), and Big Data analytics in manufacturing operations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be incorporated to make intelligent decisions in the day-to-day operations of CMS. Cyberattack spaces in AI-based cybermanufacturing operations pose significant challenges, including unauthorized modification of systems, loss of historical data, destructive malware, software malfunctioning, etc. However, a cybersecurity framework can be implemented to prevent unauthorized access, theft, damage, or other harmful attacks on electronic equipment, networks, and sensitive data. The …

Distributionally Robust Unsupervised Domain Adaptation And Its Applications In 2d And 3d Image Analysis, Yibin Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Obtaining ground-truth label information from real-world data along with uncertainty quantification can be challenging or even infeasible. In the absence of labeled data for a certain task, unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) techniques have shown great accomplishment by learning transferable knowledge from labeled source domain data and adapting it to unlabeled target domain data, yet uncertainties are still a big concern under domain shifts. Distributionally robust learning (DRL) is emerging as a high-potential technique for building reliable learning systems that are robust to distribution shifts. In this research, a distributionally robust unsupervised domain adaptation (DRUDA) method is proposed to enhance the …

A Generalizable Method And Case Application For Development And Use Of The Aviation Systems – Trust Survey (As-Ts)., Jamison Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Automated systems are integral in the development of modern aircraft, especially for complex military aircraft. Pilot Trust in Automation (TIA) in these systems is vital for optimizing the pilot-vehicle interface and ensuring pilots use the systems appropriately to complete required tasks.

The objective of this research was to develop and validate a TIA scale and survey methodology to identify and mitigate trust deficiencies with automated systems for use in Army Aviation testing. There is currently no standard TIA assessment methodology for U.S. Army aviation pilots that identifies trust deficiencies and potential mitigations.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify …

Passive Vs. Active Wearable Technology Monitoring Trunk Flexion In Elementary Teachers, Bailey Jose

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to assess the biomechanical and subjective measures of elementary school teachers while wearing active and/or passive wearable devices during the average workday. Five elementary school teachers wore a harness that held an Upright GO 2 posture tracking device and a Vicon Blue Trident sensor on the participant's upper back for two school days. Haptic feedback was on for one day and off for the other. Data from the Vicon wearable was analyzed to determine participants’ trunk flexion severity, frequency, and duration. Surveys were used to determine perceived exertion and perception of wearable technology. This …

Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm – Performance Evaluation Under Parallel Schemes & Applications, Sandip Kumar

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) is a fairly recent yet popular single-solution heuristic for solving discrete optimization problems. Even though the heuristic has been a popular choice for researchers in recent times, the parallelization of this algorithm is not widely studied in the literature compared to the other classical metaheuristics. To extend the existing literature, this study proposes several different parallel schemes to parallelize the basic/sequential ALNS algorithm. More specifically, seven different parallel schemes are employed to target different characteristics of the ALNS algorithm and the capability of the local computers. The schemes of this study are implemented in a …

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 …

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 …

Bayesian Network Development For Depots Location Selection With Biomass Supply System Excellence, Alaa Ashraf Abulhamail

Theses and Dissertations

The renewable energy of the wood pellet market has taken great attention over the last few periods. However, the returns from the pellet business depend largely on how well the quality of biomass. The objective is to economically harvest pellets matching pellet standards set forward by the U.S. markets. The single-mindedness of this study is to develop a Bayesian network model to ensure a high-quality flow through the supply chain of the pallet industry in the top ten counties in Mississippi state. Multiple critical decisions (harvesting, storage, transportation, and quality control) of a biomass-to-pellet supply system could potentially affect the …

Developing Novel Optimization And Machine Learning Frameworks To Improve And Assess The Safety Of Workplaces, Amin Aghalari

Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes several decision-making tools utilizing optimization and machine learning frameworks to assess and improve the safety of the workplaces. The first chapter of this study presents a novel mathematical model to optimally locate a set of detectors to minimize the expected number of casualties in a given threat area. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear binary integer programming model and then solved as a linearized branch-and-bound algorithm. Several sensitivity analyses illustrate the model's robustness and draw key managerial insights. One of the prevailing threats in the last decades, Active Shooting (AS) violence, poses a serious threat to …

A Biomechanical Approach To Prevent Falls In Ergonomic Settings, Sachini Kodithuwakku Arachchige

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Fall-related injuries are exceptionally prevalent in occupational settings. While endangering the workers’ health, falls cause poor productivity and increased economic burden in the workplace. Hence, identifying these threats and training workers to achieve proper postural control is crucial. Purpose: Study 1: To investigate the ankle joint kinematics in unexpected and expected trip responses during single-tasking (ST), dual-tasking (DT), and triple-tasking (TT), before and after a physically fatiguing exercise. Study 2: To investigate the impact of virtual heights, DT, and training on static postural stability and cognitive processing. Methods: Study 1: Twenty collegiate volunteers (10 males and females, one left …

Assessing Readiness For Implementation Of Prognostics And Health Management In Small And Medium Enterprises, Sara C. Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) refers to using robust sensing, monitoring, and control to detect, assess, and track system health degradation and failure modes, allowing for enhanced management and operational decisions. The need for PHM within a manufacturing facility has increased due to a variety of reasons, such as the increasing complexity of manufacturing equipment.

A lack of readiness for digital implementations is linked to failure. The literature highlights certain barriers and enablers that can signal whether a technology implementation will be successful, such as management and maintenance employees’ desire to change the existing process, an understanding and willingness to …

Bayesian Network Development And Validation For Siting Selection, Abdullah Hassan Battawi

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, increasing electricity demand requires considerable attention to increasing the diversity of power generation. Alternative energy can produce heating and power systems and thermal storage. Our objective and every organization’s objectives are to minimize its energy consumption cost under electricity demand uncertainty. In rural areas, heat and power availability and stability are also crucial. Combined heat and power have proven their effectiveness as a subsequent to Electricity. This paper identified four criteria and eleven sub-criteria to determine the most appropriate structure location for combined heat and power in the rural community. The Bayesian Network technology has been applied …

Modeling Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Problems With Applications In Last Mile Delivery And School Safety Assessment, Ayat Alrahahleh

Theses and Dissertations

The last-mile delivery option has become a focal point of academic research and industrial development in recent years. Multiple factors such as increased demands on delivery flexibility, customer requirements, delivery urgency, and many others are enforcing to adopt this option. For fulfilling this paradigm shift in delivery and providing additional flexibility, drones can be considered as a viable option to use for last-mile delivery cases. Numerous drones are available in the market with varying capacities and functionalities, posing a significant challenge for decision-makers to select the most appropriate drone type for a specific application. For this purpose, this study proposes …

An Optimization Modeling Framework To Evaluate Civilians Response Under Active Shooter Violence Situations, Joseph G. Kerlin

Theses and Dissertations

Workplace safety is under serious threat due to the increasing trend of active shooter violence in recent years. Therefore, it becomes essential that the safety of a workplace is rigorously and, most importantly, methodologically assessed against active shooter violence. To serve this purpose, this study proposes a machine learning-optimization framework to assess the safety of a building against possible active shooter violence. First, several state-of-the-art machine learning models are employed to predict an agent’s movement decisions (with directions) under different violence scenarios. The predictions are then utilized in a mixed-integer linear programming model to maximize the agent’s utility under a …

Leveraging Choice Modeling Technique For Enhancing The Cyber Resilience Of The Smart Grid, Kesava Karishma Devi Dadi

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the cyber-attack of the smart grid and its retrieval to a normal state by estimating the smart grid's resilience. This study developed a theoretical model to estimate the resilience of the smart grid using choice modeling. A utility function is formulated based on various factors and sub-factors of resilience to estimate the resilience of the smart grid. Choice modeling is applied to estimate the model parameters in various fields such as marketing, energy, transportation, and health and to predict the outcome.

Deep Multi-Modal U-Net Fusion Methodology Of Infrared And Ultrasonic Images For Porosity Detection In Additive Manufacturing, Christian E. Zamiela

Theses and Dissertations

We developed a deep fusion methodology of non-destructive (NDT) in-situ infrared and ex- situ ultrasonic images for localization of porosity detection without compromising the integrity of printed components that aims to improve the Laser-based additive manufacturing (LBAM) process. A core challenge with LBAM is that lack of fusion between successive layers of printed metal can lead to porosity and abnormalities in the printed component. We developed a sensor fusion U-Net methodology that fills the gap in fusing in-situ thermal images with ex-situ ultrasonic images by employing a U-Net Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for feature extraction and two-dimensional object localization. We …

A Dual Perspective Towards Building Resilience In Manufacturing Organizations, Steven A. Fazio

Theses and Dissertations

Modern manufacturing organizations exist in the most complex and competitive environment the world has ever known. This environment consists of demanding customers, enabling, but resource intensive Industry 4.0 technology, dynamic regulations, geopolitical perturbations, and innovative, ever-expanding global competition. Successful manufacturing organizations must excel in this environment while facing emergent disruptions generated as biproducts of complex man-made and natural systems. The research presented in this thesis provides a novel two-sided approach to the creation of resilience in the modern manufacturing organization. First, the systems engineering method is demonstrated as the qualitative framework for building literature-derived organizational resilience factors into organizational structures …

Testing Of Methods For Reducing Motivational Bias In Multi - Criteria Decision Analysis Problems, Chadwick Samuel Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

The idea of multi-criteria decision making has been around for quite a while. All judgement tasks are potential points of bias introduction. Each judgement task was assessed to identify common biases introduced through an extensive literature review for each task and bias. In several other studies, the distinction is made between cognitive and motivational biases. Cognitive biases are widely studied and well known with mitigations that have been validated. Motivational biases are judgements influenced by the decision maker’s desire for a specific outcome, also referred to as intentional bias, that are hard to correct and received very little testing and …

Effects Of The Inclusion Of Rice Hull Derived Bio-Oil On Wood Pellet Production, Tyler E. Lowe

Theses and Dissertations

Wood pellet production has become an advancing industry for the sake of reducing greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere especially, in European Union countries. Researchers and industry executives seek new methods and materials to improve the pelletization process. Rice hulls or husks has the potential to aid in wood pelletization as they possess high calorific values. This study focuses on using rice hull derived bio-oil from pyrolysis, which will also decrease ash content, as an additive to aid in the wood pelletization process. Using two groups of rice hull derived bio-oil as an additive in wood pelletization: Group 1 uses heavy …

Using A Systemic Skills Model To Build An Effective 21st Century Workforce: Factors That Impact The Ability To Navigate Complex Systems, Morteza Nagahi

Theses and Dissertations

The growth of technology and the proliferation of information made modern complex systems more fragile and vulnerable. As a result, competitive advantage is no longer achieved exclusively through strategic planning but by developing an influential cadre of technical people who can efficiently manage and navigate modern complex systems. The dissertation aims to provide educators, practitioners, and organizations with a model that helps to measure individuals’ systems thinking skills, complex problem solving, personality traits, and the impacting demographic factors such as managerial and work experience, current occupation type, organizational ownership structure, and education level. The intent is to study how these …

The Development Of Authentic Virtual Reality Scenarios To Measure Individuals’ Level Of Systems Thinking Skills And Learning Abilities, Vidanelage L. Dayarathna

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops virtual reality modules to capture individuals’ learning abilities and systems thinking skills in dynamic environments. In the first chapter, an immersive queuing theory teaching module is developed using virtual reality technology. The objective of the study is to present systems engineering concepts in a more sophisticated environment and measure students learning abilities. Furthermore, the study explores the performance gaps between male and female students in manufacturing systems concepts. To investigate the gender biases toward the performance of developed VR module, three efficacy measures (simulation sickness questionnaire, systems usability scale, and presence questionnaire) and two effectiveness measures (NASA …

Kidney-Related Operations Research: A Review, Mahdi Fathi, Marzieh Khakifirooz

Bagley College of Engineering Publications and Scholarship

Operations research and optimization in healthcare and disease modeling have received significant attention in the last three decades. This article surveys several perspectives of operations research techniques in kidney disease, such as graph theory, queueing theory, Markov chain, and phase-type distribution (PTD). The kidney-related problems include kidney exchange problem, the modeling of kidney disease progression, kidney transplantation, and the complex relationship between chronic kidney disease (gradual loss of kidney function over time) and acute kidney injury (sudden episode of kidney failure in a few hours or a few days). Each section is summarized by some discussion regarding the limitation of …