Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Operational And Cost Analysis Of A Leo Radar-Based Satellite Constellation, Kyle O. Norbert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a methodology to assess the ability of a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to successfully accomplish the GMTI mission in a cost-effective fashion. A simulation model was developed to test the coverage performance of 512 unique constellation designs. Significant factors were revealed by developing regression models that revealed the most critical constellation trade-offs on measures of performance. A Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) approach was applied to assign weights to a broad range of measures of performance from which the Pareto distribution on a cost-capability plot revealed cost-effectiveness. A novel measure of performance was developed and analyzed that accounted …

Optimal Scheduling Of Aircraft Test And Evaluation Fleets To Balance Availability For Testing And Training, Sarah E. Hoops

Theses and Dissertations

The 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base manually schedules a fleet of approximately 26 aircraft to conduct a range of missions over a one-to-two year planning period. This study automates the scheduling process, does so in a manner that optimizes multiple planning goals related to aircraft availability for training, and provides the 96th Test Wing with a software tool for the implementation that can be used by operational analysts within the command. We formulate the scheduling problem as a multiobjective, nonlinear, binary integer math program that seeks to maximize both the lowest percent of time any aircraft is …

Cooperative Wide Area Search Algorithm Analysis Using Sub-Region Techniques, Shawn Whitney

Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in small Unmmaned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology reinvigorates the need for additional research into Wide Area Search (WAS) algorithms for civilian and military applications. But due to the extremely large variability in UAV environments and design, Digital Engineering (DE) is utilized to reduce the time, cost, and energy required to advance this technology. DE also allows rapid design and evaluation of autonomous systems which utilize and support WAS algorithms. Modern WAS algorithms can be broadly classified into decision-based algorithms, statistical algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. This research continues on the work by Hatzinger and Gertsman …

Project Selection In Facility And Infrastructure Maintenance Organizations, Bayram M. Kurbanov

Theses and Dissertations

The current Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) built infrastructure Facility Sustainment Restoration and Modernization (FSRM) portfolio management methodology results in an unbalanced project portfolio. The consequence of this unbalance is that majority of the funding goes towards buildings on the flightline and Facility Support Services activities do not get adequate funding which leads to further deterioration of those facilities. This research investigates whether decision support framework based on Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) process yields better project selection outcomes for facility and infrastructure maintenance organizations. To accomplish that, the investigation focuses on understanding current AFCEC decision support methodology, building an alternative …

Evaluation Of Metaverse Integration Of Freight Fluidity Measurement Alternatives Using Fuzzy Dombi Edas Model, Muhammet Deveci, Ilgin Gokasar, Oscar Castillo, Tugrul Daim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Developments in transportation systems, changes in consumerism trends, and conditions such as COVID-19 have increased both the demand and the load on freight transportation. Since various companies are transporting goods all over the world to evaluate the sustainability, speed, and resiliency of freight transportation systems, data and freight fluidity measurement systems are needed. In this study, an integrated decision-making model is proposed to advantage prioritize the freight fluidity measurement alternatives. The proposed model is composed of two main stages. In the first stage, the Dombi norms based Logarithmic Methodology of Additive Weights (LMAW) is used to find the weights of …

Cyber Resilience Analytics For Cyber-Physical Systems, Md Ariful Haque

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are complex systems that evolve from the integrations of components dealing with physical processes and real-time computations, along with networking. CPSs often incorporate approaches merging from different scientific fields such as embedded systems, control systems, operational technology, information technology systems (ITS), and cybernetics. Today critical infrastructures (CIs) (e.g., energy systems, electric grids, etc.) and other CPSs (e.g., manufacturing industries, autonomous transportation systems, etc.) are experiencing challenges in dealing with cyberattacks. Major cybersecurity concerns are rising around CPSs because of their ever-growing use of information technology based automation. Often the security concerns are limited to probability-based possible attack …

Hard-Real-Time Computing Performance In A Cloud Environment, Alvin Cornelius Murphy

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is rapidly working with DoD Services to move from multi-year (e.g., 7-10) traditional acquisition programs to a commercial industrybased approach for software development. While commercial technologies and approaches provide an opportunity for rapid fielding of mission capabilities to pace threats, the suitability of commercial technologies to meet hard-real-time requirements within a surface combat system is unclear. This research establishes technical data to validate the effectiveness and suitability of current commercial technologies to meet the hard-real-time demands of a DoD combat management system. (Moreland Jr., 2013) conducted similar research; however, microservices, containers, and container …

Callaway Measurement Device, Andre S. Fisher, Roman Hays, Blake Sousa, Grant Gabrielson

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to illustrate the Callaway Measurement Device senior project from start to finish. The challenge given to the team was to update and improve a gauge used by Callaway employees to measure the loft, lie, and face angle of their full spectrum of golf clubs. Once the team understood how the pre-existing gauge operates, the team conducted background research into other technologies that could improve the gauge. The team decided to digitalize the device amongst other tweaks to reduce error. Because the CAD files were not available for the pre-existing device, the team began reverse …

Novel Hitch Cargo Cart, Cesilio Sanchez Ramirez, Lance Haidet, Richard Lontoc, Tyler Selinka

Mechanical Engineering

This document presents the engineering design process used to develop, manufacture, and test a new and improved iteration of a hitch cart prototype. This process was performed by a team of four mechanical engineering seniors as part of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s senior design pathway. The goal of this project was to develop a sturdy and reliable iteration of our sponsor’s hitch cart prototype, that integrated the functionality of a vehicle hitch cargo platform and that of a height adjustable cargo cart into a single streamlined and easy to use product. This design could be used by …

Forming Coalitions And Sharing Payoffs In N-Person Normal Form Games, Emma Owusu Dwobeng

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

For a given n-person normal form game, we form all possible sets of mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive coalitions of the n players. For each set of coalitions, we define a coalitional semi-cooperative game as one in which these coalitions are taken as the players of this new game, each coalition tries to maximize the sum of its individual players’ payoffs, and the players within a coalition cooperate to do so. For any coalitional semi-cooperative game, the goal of the original n players is to improve their individual payoffs obtained in a Greedy Scalar Equilibrium (GSE) of the original game, …

An Exploration Into The Design Of A Portable Music Player For People With Alzheimer’S And Dementia, Jaxon V. Silva

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

An exploration into the design of a portable music player for people with Alzheimer's and dementia.

Integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering Industry Transformations For Workforce Development, Wilma Analisa Ankobiah

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores whether MBSE industry workforce requirements are being satisfied by the academic curricula of US institutions. Using an industry survey, which is highlighted in Chapter 3, identifies the existing perception of MBSE from various industries and explores the MBSE needs of professionals, such as tools concepts and languages. It examines how industry professionals perceive MBSE, the advantages and challenges of MBSE use and the preferred MBSE tools, languages and knowledge of concepts deemed necessary to ensure project success in the respective industry sectors. Results of phase 1 industry survey will summarize the current MBSE concepts, tools and languages …

Implementation Of The Plan For Every Part (Pfep) Tool And Additional Methodologies For Operational Improvement., Bernardo Luis Borges Pedroso

Masters Theses

The work focused on the inventory management of Dimplex Thermal Solutions, which had a profoundly overstocked warehouse and was suffering from significant operating expenses, due to the absence of a grounded ordering policy and the need to rent external storage space, respectively.

The main objective of the thesis was to solve the primarily mentioned problems, by constructing a Plan For Every Part (PFEP) tool, followed by the application of an inventory policy and the proposal of a redesigned warehouse layout, to compute ideal stock values and calculate the footprint requirements for Dimplex’s updated inventory levels, respectively. The execution step concerned …

Essays On Perioperative Services Problems In Healthcare, Amogh S. Bhosekar

All Dissertations

One of the critical challenges in healthcare operations management is to efficiently utilize the expensive resources needed while maintaining the quality of care provided. Simulation and optimization methods can be effectively used to provide better healthcare services. This can be achieved by developing models to minimize patient waiting times, minimize healthcare supply chain and logistics costs, and maximize access. In this proposal, we study some of the important problems in healthcare operations management. More specifically, we focus on perioperative services and study scheduling of operating rooms (ORs) and management of necessary resources such as staff, equipment, and surgical instruments. We …

On Variants Of Sliding And Frank-Wolfe Type Methods And Their Applications In Video Co-Localization, Seyed Hamid Nazari

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, our main focus is to design and analyze first-order methods for computing approximate solutions to convex, smooth optimization problems over certain feasible sets. Specifically, our goal in this dissertation is to explore some variants of sliding and Frank-Wolfe (FW) type algorithms, analyze their convergence complexity, and examine their performance in numerical experiments. We achieve three accomplishments in our research results throughout this dissertation. First, we incorporate a linesearch technique to a well-known projection-free sliding algorithm, namely the conditional gradient sliding (CGS) method. Our proposed algorithm, called the conditional gradient sliding with linesearch (CGSls), does not require the …

Natural Resources Management Framework For Agricultural Irrigation Systems Optimization, Juan Valentin Fernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Water scarcity has increased substantially in the last decades in many parts of the world, and it is expected to worsen due to the significant increase in global water withdrawals, intensive population growth, and climate change. Water is easily one of the most essential and invaluable global resources due to its many uses, such as drinking, industrial processes, and irrigation. The agriculture sector is one of the most significant water users globally, accounting for nearly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Cities and industries compete with the agriculture sector for water sources, producing alarming levels of stress and pollution in the …

Investigation Into The Economic Viability Of Industry 4.0 Practices In A Small Start-Up Setting: A Case Study, Joseph Lindley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Industry 4.0 has been a hot button topic since the first rumouringâ??s of a fourth industrial revolution taking place in the early 2010s. Since that time many companies have attempted to transform their process, procedures, and systems to become streamlined, efficient, and overall, more profitable. An example of this can be seen in companies such as Microsoft and IBM, Mitsubishi and Siemens who have gained a stronger foothold in their respective markets by their efficient implementation of Industry 4.0. Before we can address how small start-up companies can begin to compete with these behemoths, we must address the question; what …

Analyzing The Supply Chain Operation Of A Fast-Food Restaurant Using Simulation Modeling And Developing A Cost Estimation Optimization Model In The Disruption Period, Amit Kumar Saha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Supply chain operation performance is a much-discussed topic over the last decade which will lead to optimizing the resources required to provide the necessary level of customer service to a specific segment and improve customer service through increased product availability and reduced order cycle time. During disruption in supply chain, performance parameter changes, and the overall supply chain cost at each stage increases. External factors such as labor shortages, delayed and costly supplies, and decreased demand also contribute to this cost. This thesis work presents a research-focused analysis of a small pizza shop, under circumstances that include the loss of …

Models And Algorithms For Trauma Network Design., Sagarkumar Dhirubhai Hirpara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trauma continues to be the leading cause of death and disability in the US for people aged 44 and under, making it a major public health problem. The geographical maldistribution of Trauma Centers (TCs), and the resulting higher access time to the nearest TC, has been shown to impact trauma patient safety and increase disability or mortality. State governments often design a trauma network to provide prompt and definitive care to their citizens. However, this process is mainly manual and experience-based and often leads to a suboptimal network in terms of patient safety and resource utilization. This dissertation fills important …

Using Reinforcement Learning To Improve Network Reliability Through Optimal Resource Allocation, Henley Wells

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Networks provide a variety of critical services to society (e.g. power grid, telecommunication, water, transportation) but are prone to disruption. With this motivation, we study a sequential decision problem in which an initial network is improved over time (e.g., by adding or increasing the reliability of edges) and rewards are gained over time as a function of the network’s all-terminal reliability. The actions during each time period are limited due to availability of resources such as time, money, or labor. To solve this problem, we utilized a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach implemented within OpenAI-Gym using Stable Baselines. A Proximal …