Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Like You Search, Gipson Bachman

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

As consumers continue to make their purchases solely online without visiting brick-and-mortar stores, they increasingly look for ways to “touch, feel and try on” products without actually doing so. We believe social media influencers provide a way to do this, with the influencers themselves acting as “stand-ins” for consumers in their place. Finding influencers that look like you in 2022 sounds like it would be easy, but it isn’t. Until now.

LIKE YOU aims to answer this gap in the market by creating a proprietary search engine that, through answering a few questions, recommends a list of influencers that ...

Time Dependent Orienteering Problem With Time Windows And Service Time Dependent Profits, M. Khodadadian, A. Divsalar, C. Verbeeck, Aldy Gunawan, P. Vansteenwegen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper addresses the time dependent orienteering problem with time windows and service time dependent profits (TDOPTW-STP). In the TDOPTW-STP, each vertex is assigned a minimum and a maximum service time and the profit collected at each vertex increases linearly with the service time. The goal is to maximize the total collected profit by determining a subset of vertices to be visited and assigning appropriate service time to each vertex, considering a given time budget and time windows. Moreover, travel times are dependent of the departure times. To solve this problem, a mixed integer linear model is formulated and a ...

Educational Data Mining For Predicting University Students' Performance, To Enhance University Admission Criteria, Youssef Amr Naga

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to propose and evaluate possible predictors of success for incoming university students to the American University in Cairo (AUC) who wish to enroll in its engineering programs, by considering their overall grade point average (GPA) at graduation as the measure of their success (output variable). This study is composed of two phases. First, available university admission variables; i.e., gender, high school diploma, high school score, and proficiency level in the English language (the language of instruction at AUC) at the time of application are evaluated as a predictor of students’ performance using five different data mining ...

Automated Robotic Light Bulb Testing Platform, Agha I. Akram, Muhammad Ali Ummy

Publications and Research

The main purpose of this project is to create a functional prototype of a multilayered system that incorporates aspects of electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering technology. The main objective of the system is to be able to determine whether a light bulb is working or not. The building blocks of this system are a robotic arm that is able to slide along a rail (for added mobility), a conveyor belt, and an electromechanical device that holds and tests light bulbs. Initially, the robot arm picks up a light bulb and places it into the holder which then tests it. A ...

Comparing Actively Managed Mutual Fund Categories To Index Funds Using Linear Regression Forecasting And Portfolio Optimization, Luke Weiner

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The global investment industry offers a wide variety of investment products especially for individual investors. One such product, index funds, which are younger than actively managed mutual funds, have typically outperformed managed funds. Despite this phenomenon, investors have displayed a tendency to continue investing in actively managed funds. Although only a small percentage of actively managed funds outperform index funds, the costs of actively managed funds are significantly higher. Also, managed fund performances are most often determined by their fund category such as growth or real estate. I wanted to answer the following question for individual investors: can we forecast ...

Analyzing Vulnerabilities In The Northwest Arkansas Highway Network Using Mathematical Optimization, Brandon Jerome

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The highway and bridge network is a critical infrastructure that allows for the free transportation of citizens and enables truck-borne freight transportation. Disruption of this system could be caused by a terrorist attack, natural disaster, growth of population, required repairs and upgrades, or collapse caused by old age or malfunction. In the event of a disruption cities and regions can experience increased traffic and supply chain shortages, thus causing cascading effects throughout surrounding areas. With this motivation, we develop a network interdiction optimization model to identify a limited subset of roads that, if disrupted, causes the greatest increase in the ...

Implementing The Cms+ Sports Rankings Algorithm In A Javafx Environment, Luke Welch

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Every year, sports teams and athletes get cut from championship opportunities because of their rank. While this reality is easier to swallow if a team or athlete is distant from the cut, it is much harder when they are right on the edge. Many times, it leaves fans and athletes wondering, “Why wasn’t I ranked higher? What factors when into the ranking? Are the rankings based on opinion alone?” These are fair questions that deserve an answer. Many times, sports rankings are derived from opinion polls. Other times, they are derived from a combination of opinion polls and measured ...

Assessing The Influence Of Health Policy And Population Mobility On Covid-19 Spread In Arkansas, Tayden Barretto

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a major crisis across the world since its start in 2019, and its influence on every realm of society is undeniable. Globally, more than 500 million cases have been recorded since March 2020, with almost 6 million deaths. In the wake of this crisis, many governments and health organizations have taken steps and precautions to mitigate its spread. These steps involve public mandates of information, reducing frequency of personal contact, and use of masks to minimize the risk of transmission. Current access to mobility data released from Google detailing population movements has provided a ...

A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Food Pantry Accessibility In Washington County, Arkansas, Coleman Warren

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Food pantries are an essential resource for impoverished and food insecure communities. Washington County, Arkansas has a food insecurity rate of 14.3% as compared to the national average of 10.9% (Feeding America, 2019). The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank has a robust pantry network in Washington County to support families and individuals who struggle with food insecurity.

We conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of food pantry accessibility in Washington County, Arkansas to evaluate the effectiveness of the food pantry network in Washington County at supporting communities with the most need. This analysis was conducted using the Two-Step Floating Catchment Area ...

A Novel Boundary Integral Formulation For Quantum Energy Eigenvalue Analysis And Its Application In A Model-Based Systems Engineering Framework For Quantum Systems Development, Mina Karimaghaei

Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, the development and utilization of high-end technologies have increased noticeably. This progress has become possible by finding a complete understanding of physical rules in microscopic scales, such as quantum mechanics. Quantum technologies can be applied to various fields, including optics, superconduction, computing and simulation, precision measurement, and biomedical imaging to enhance the performance of relevant devices and systems. However, the complexity which emerges in the procedure of developing such devices can prevent one from taking advantage of potential quantum technologies to effectively develop these devices. In the current research, an attempt has been made to find a ...

Hierarchical Value Decomposition For Effective On-Demand Ride Pooling, Hao Jiang, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

On-demand ride-pooling (e.g., UberPool, GrabShare) services focus on serving multiple different customer requests using each vehicle, i.e., an empty or partially filled vehicle can be assigned requests from different passengers with different origins and destinations. On the other hand, in Taxi on Demand (ToD) services (e.g., UberX), one vehicle is assigned to only one request at a time. On-demand ride pooling is not only beneficial to customers (lower cost), drivers (higher revenue per trip) and aggregation companies (higher revenue), but is also of crucial importance to the environment as it reduces the number of vehicles required on ...

Toward A Bio-Inspired System Architecting Framework: Simulation Of The Integration Of Autonomous Bus Fleets & Alternative Fuel Infrastructures In Closed Sociotechnical Environments, Ifezue Obiako

Theses and Dissertations

Cities are set to become highly interconnected and coordinated environments composed of emerging technologies meant to alleviate or resolve some of the daunting issues of the 21st century such as rapid urbanization, resource scarcity, and excessive population demand in urban centers. These cybernetically-enabled built environments are expected to solve these complex problems through the use of technologies that incorporate sensors and other data collection means to fuse and understand large sums of data/information generated from other technologies and its human population. Many of these technologies will be pivotal assets in supporting and managing capabilities in various city sectors ranging ...

Design, Development, And Calibration Of An Electric Field Probe For Use On Sounding Rockets, Anthony Oreo, Anthony Oreo

PhD Dissertations and Master's Theses

Earth’s ionosphere is a dynamic environment that has yet to be fully understood. Interactions of high-energy particles from space with atmospheric plasma and the Earth’s natural magnetic field create many interesting interactions, many of which have direct impacts on the planet and human life. Understanding the dynamics of the upper atmosphere is a compelling endeavor, with much of the research being conducted through high-altitude sounding rockets. These rockets allow for in-situ measurements of the physical parameters of the upper atmosphere which in turn helps in the answering of important questions in space science. In order to quantify the ...

Optimizing Class Access - Owlgo, Matthew Pendley, Bright Uchehara, Renji Maliakal, Jorge Solorzano

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This is the senior design project for Optimizing Class Access using OwlGo. The researcher examine the Marietta campus of Kennesaw State University, in hopes of improving the assigned class locations for each major.

An Experimental Investigation Of Multi-Cylinder Conventional Ci Engine Using Madhuca Indica Oil As Fuel, Sreenivas S, Balakrishnan N, Kannan T K, Solaimuthu C

International Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

The present work is mainly discussed with a qualitative study of engine’s significant characteristics fuelled with mahua bio-diesel & its different types of mixtures with neat diesel. The significant technical properties of various mixtures are tabulated. A 4-S multi-cylinder (6-Cylinder) DI conventional CI engine is used for the study under different speed modes. All types of characteristics for various mixtures are estimated in running the engine. Pure diesel is indicated by B-0 and pure mahua bio-diesel is represented by B-100. From the test results, it is found that B-25 gives almost the same BTE as B-0 at maximum load, compared ...

Safety Evaluation Of Amusement Rides Using Accumulated Accident Data: Accident Data Framework, Kathryn Woodcock

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

Amusement rides and devices are a popular form of recreation and important component of the tourism industry. Injury-producing accidents are rare, and the viability of the industry relies on perceived safety of the activity. Some existing metrics use accumulated accident reports. Several metrics tabulate the number of injuries, but none collect enough information about the context of accidents to analyse the accumulated data to deduce patterns. This paper describes an Accident Data Framework for a minimal set of variables from reports of amusement device accident, and the structure for a useful narrative to aid reporters and recorders to avoid introducing ...

When The Magic Closes: Examining How Disney Fans Coped With Theme Park And Resort Closures Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cody Havard, Carissa A. Baker, Daniel L. Wann, Rick Grieve

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

This essay discusses a qualitative investigation we conducted with fans of the Disney parks and resorts during the summer of 2020 regarding the company’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, 22 people responded to open-ended questions from an online survey to discuss their views of the closures and planned reopenings of the Disney parks and resorts amid the early days of the pandemic. Using social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978) and the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), we discuss how fans react to and cope with the temporary loss of a favorite activity and how companies in the themed ...

Covid-19 And Immersion: Physical, Virtual, And Home Spaces, Scott Lukas

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

This article considers the dramatic adaptations that have occurred in themed immersive spaces as they have dealt with the challenging dynamics of COVID-19. As COVID-19 has been a respiratory disease, it has impacted the operations of theme parks, casinos, cruise ships, and other immersive spaces, especially as such spaces have relied, traditionally, on physical forms of entertainment and immersion. The writing begins with a consideration of the COVID-19 challenges noted in the theme park and cruise ship industries. OceanMedallionTM and MyMagic+ technologies are considered for their possible positive role in addressing the operational dynamics during the pandemic. Issues of guest ...

Brighter But Not Clearer: Entertainment-Dependent Destinations Dealing With Long Covid, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Frederic Dimanche

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored a range of very different possible outcomes for destinations that rely heavily on their entertainment sector (Dubois & Dimanche, 2021). Several months later, this article seeks to revisit those outcomes, while also highlighting the ongoing recovery efforts and evolving strategies of entertainment-dependent destinations (EDDs). To do so, we reconnected with the panel of respondents from various destinations (i.e., Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans etc.) to take stock of both new challenges and opportunities, as well as emerging factors impacting their respective markets. Our results show that while EDDs are facing a ...

Theme Parks, Staycation Practices, And Covid-19: Opportunities And Uncertainties, Salvador Anton Clavé

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

The effects of COVID-19 on the market transformation of the theme park industry has been significant in the short term because of travel restrictions. Challenges, impacts, responses, and strategies might vary from one region to another and even from one theme park to another. However, it can be assumed that domestic travel will continue to have an effect on the theme park industry during the months to come and likely beyond the pandemic. In this context, the “staycation” is becoming a booming trend in the leisure, entertainment, and tourism industry, creating new, current, and future unexpected economic winners and losers ...