Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A System To Determine The Economically Optimal Combination Of Housing For An Air Force Installation, Johnathan E. Hendrix

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Military is faced with the decision of how to house its military members and their families. The three options available to house these families are: 1) utilize existing on-base housing; 2) build new on-base housing; or, 3) compensate a military family monetarily to find housing off-base. This research focused on the development of a tool to all the decision maker in determining what combination of the three options is economically optimal for an individual Air Force Installation. The model developed incorporates the costs associated to the local area and conditions at the specific installation to determine the …

The Effects Of Extraneous Presentation Graphics On Decision Making, Thomas S. Tingley

Theses and Dissertations

Almost every professional presentation includes some form of graphics. Many previous researchers have analyzed the relative effectiveness of graphical decision aids, such as pie charts or bar graphs. Very little research, however, has been conducted to determine the effects of extraneous graphics, such as pictures and logos, on decision making. This study employed an experiment to determine whether extraneous graphics hinder or enhance a decision maker's ability to obtain the pertinent information from a professional presentation. Other factors such as gender and graphics training were also analyzed for any influence on the results obtained. The results of the study indicated …

A Robust Unit Commitment Algorithm For Hydro-Thermal Optimization, Chao-An Li, Chung-Li Tseng, E. Hsu, R. B. Johnson, A. J. Svoboda

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a unit commitment algorithm which combines the Lagrangian relaxation (LR), sequential unit commitment (SUC), and optimal unit decommitment (UD) methods to solve a general hydro-thermal optimization (HTO) problem. The authors argue that this approach retains the advantages of the LR method while addressing the method''s observed weaknesses to improve overall algorithm performance and quality of solution. The proposed approach has been implemented in a version of PG&E''s HTO program, and test results are presented.

Development Of A Method For Determining The Relative Manufacturing Complexity Of Advanced Engineering Materials, Shardul Y. Pandya

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The immediate adaptation of newly developed materials--with unique and highly desirable properties--is hampered by several factors, including: (1) high material cost and limited availability, (2) lack of information on them, including prior experience in their design and manufacture, immature manufacturing processes and general uncertainty in their behavior patterns, (3) unique handling issues, such as excessive manual labor, high process temperatures, toxicity, disposal problems, limited working lives, and low damage tolerance

Therefore, in spite of their significant benefits, potential users tend to shy away from the widespread use of new materials, instead preferring conventional and tested materials forms.

This dissertation is …

A Sociotechnical Systems Analysis Of The Approval Process For A Complex Public Works Proposal, James C. Pyne

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research applied sociotechnical systems theory to explore the process used by two elected bodies to decide upon adoption of a complex technical engineering proposal. The research used a modified sociotechnical systems conceptual framework that was developed by Pava (1983) for application to non-traditional work settings. Pava applied the conceptual framework to what he termed non-routine office work which is characterized by non-linear conversion flow, multiple, concurrent conversion processes and vocational separatism (Pava, 1983).

The research was designed as a multiple case study of two town councils each undertaking a decision process to approve or reject a public works proposal …

Simulating Queue Scheduling Policies For A Spacecraft Simulator, Paul Savory, Gene Saghi

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The mission of the Cassini spacecraft is a unique opportunity to gain insights into major scientific questions about Saturn, the creation of the solar system, and the conditions that led to life on Earth. In preparation for the launch, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a software simulator to emulate the hardware data-control system of the spacecraft. Its primary use is to validate and verify commands that will be transmitted to the spacecraft. To improve the performance of the simulator, we used the SIMAN simulation language to model numerous queue-scheduling policies. Implementation of the simulation results combined with a software-code redesign …

As-Is Evaluation & Process Design Of The 17/18 Foot Refrigerator At General Electric In Decatur, Alabama, Yongke Thio, Nicole Hagood

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Analytical Models For Vehicle/Gap Distribution On Automated Highway Systems, Jacob Tsao, Randolph W. Hall, Indrajit Chatterjee

H.-S. Jacob Tsao

Highway congestion has in recent years become a pervasive problem for urban and suburban areas alike. The concept of Automated Highway Systems is based on the belief that integration of sensing, communication, and control technologies into vehicles and highways can lead to a large improvement in capacity and safety without requiring a significant amount of additional highway right-of-way. A fundamental determinant of Automated Highway Systems capacity is the vehicle-following rule, the rule that governs the behavior of vehicles traveling along a common lane (e.g., the spacing between any two longitudinally adjacent vehicles). Vehicle following affects the longitudinal capacity (achievable flow …

Analytical Models For Vehicle/Gap Distribution On Automated Highway Systems, Jacob Tsao, Randolph W. Hall, Indrajit Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

Highway congestion has in recent years become a pervasive problem for urban and suburban areas alike. The concept of Automated Highway Systems is based on the belief that integration of sensing, communication, and control technologies into vehicles and highways can lead to a large improvement in capacity and safety without requiring a significant amount of additional highway right-of-way. A fundamental determinant of Automated Highway Systems capacity is the vehicle-following rule, the rule that governs the behavior of vehicles traveling along a common lane (e.g., the spacing between any two longitudinally adjacent vehicles). Vehicle following affects the longitudinal capacity (achievable flow …

Short-Term Resource Scheduling With Ramp Constraints [Power Generation Scheduling], Chung-Li Tseng, Chao-An Li, A. J. Svoboda, R. B. Johnson

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes a Lagrangian relaxation-based method to solve the short-term resource scheduling (STRS) problem with ramp constraints. Instead of discretizing the generation levels, the ramp rate constraints are relaxed with the system demand constraints using Lagrange multipliers. Three kinds of ramp constraints, startup, operating and shutdown ramp constraints are considered. The proposed method has been applied to solve the hydro-thermal generation scheduling problem at PG&E. An example alone with numerical results is also presented