Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Ict Adoption And Use In Tanzania Smes, Cuthbert Msuya

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The purpose of this paper was to establish the status of ICTs adoption and use in Tanzania SMEs. Previously, it was shown that there is a shortage of comprehensive, accurate and up to date data on many aspects of the SMEs sector including the level of ICT adoption and use. This has affected government efforts aimed at development of this important sector in the economic development of the country. Results show that: (i) By year 2014, adoption of ICTs in SMEs had grown from almost non-existence in year 2004 to 80.1% computer technology use, and over 56.6% for use of …

A Low-Dimensional Vector Representation For Words Using An Extreme Learning Machine, Paula Lauren, Guangzhi Qu, Guang Bin Huang, Paul Watta, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Word Embeddings Are a Low-Dimensional Vector Representation of Words that Incorporates Context. Two Popular Methods Are Word2vec and Global Vectors (Glove). Word2vec is a Single-Hidden Layer Feedforward Neural Network (Slfn) that Has an Auto-Encoder Influence for Computing a Word Context Matrix using Backpropagation for Training. Glove Computes the Word Context Matrix First Then Performs Matrix Factorization on the Matrix to Arrive at Word Embeddings. Backpropagation is a Typical Training Method for SLFN's, which is Time Consuming and Requires Iterative Tuning. Extreme Learning Machines (Elm) Have the Universal Approximation Capability of SLFN's, based on a Randomly Generated Hidden Layer Weight Matrix …

Design And Manufacture Of A Waste Compactor Prototype: A Step Towards Implementing A Non-Burn Health Care Waste Disposal In Developing Countries, Tito Mwinuka

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Non-burn technology is the only safe way of handling and disposing infectious healthcare waste. It involves steam treatment of infectious waste at temperatures higher than 121 o C for a minimum of 30 minutes before disposing them just like other municipal waste. Infectious healthcare waste is normally only about 10 25% of all healthcare waste. In this paper, design, manufacturing and testing of a waste compactor for reducing waste volume to facilitate its handling is discussed. Preliminary tests show that the waste volume can be reduced to less than 10% of its original volume using the developed compactor. Waste compactors …

Space-Time Transportation System Modelling: From Traveler’S Characteristics To The Network Design Problem, Mohsen Parsafard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional network design problems only consider the long-term stationary travel patterns (e.g., fixed OD demand) and short-term variations of human mobility are ignored. This study aims to integrate human mobility characteristics and travel patterns into network design problems using a space-time network structure. Emerging technologies such as location-based social network platforms provide a unique opportunity for understanding human mobility patterns that can lead to advanced modeling techniques. To reach our goal, at first multimodal network design problems are investigated by considering safety and flow interactions between different modes of transport. We develop a network reconstruction method to expand a single-modal …

Impact Of Integrated E-Learning Modules In Developing An Entrepreneurial Mindset Based On Deployment At 25 Institutions, Nadiye O. Erdil, Ronald S. Harichandran, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Cheryl Q. Li, Maria-Isabel Carnasciali

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe an innovative curricular model employed at the University of New Haven to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students. The entrepreneurial mindset in this model is characterized by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)’s 3C’s, which are curiosity, connections and creating value. The core of the model is the integration of short, self-paced, e-learning modules into courses spanning all four years of all engineering and computer science programs. A flipped classroom instructional model is used to integrate the modules into courses. We are in the third year of implementation on campus, and following a pilot …

Pedagogical Resources For Industrial Control Systems Security: Design, Implementation, Conveyance, And Evaluation, Guillermo A. Francia Iii, Greg Randall, Jay Snellen

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Industrial Control Systems (ICS), which are pervasive in our nation’s critical infrastructures, are becoming increasingly at risk and vulnerable to internal and external threats. It is imperative that the future workforce be educated and trained on the security of such systems. However, it is equally important that careful and deliberate considerations must be exercised in designing and implementing the educational and training activities that pertain to ICS. To that end, we designed and implemented pedagogical materials and tools to facilitate the teaching and learning processes in the area of ICS security. In this paper, we describe those resources, the professional …

Influencing Student Motivation Through Scaffolded Assignments In A Quality Analysis Course And Its Impact On Learning, Nadiye O. Erdil

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the impact of various class assignments and activities that build upon each other with the aim of increasing student motivation and student learning in a Quality Analysis course. Scaffolding is an instructional strategy that aims to reduce the amount of cognitive effort that students have to make to learn the materials by breaking down the material into more manageable components. In this study, critical thinking scaffolding is applied in the quality analysis course by structuring several elements to lead students to an assignment that is more complex. At the end of the semester, the impact assessment of …

Establishment Of Innovative Shared Departments To Advance Interdisciplinary Education, Ronald S. Harichandran, Brian Kench, Summer Mcgee, Michael A. Collura, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Charles David Skipton

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

More and more universities are pursuing interdisciplinary academic activities that span across department and college boundaries. Administrative structures to facilitate such programs are difficult to establish within traditional university frameworks consisting of disciplinary departments and colleges. Often interdisciplinary programs are housed in a traditional disciplinary department or college, or in a standalone center reporting to a college dean or the provost. The difficulty of these structures is obtaining broad buy-in from faculty across departments and having disciplinary degree programs include interdisciplinary coursework.

To overcome the difficulties described above, an innovative shared department structure that fosters collaborations to advance interdisciplinary education …

Analysis Of A Potential A(H7n9) Influenza Pandemic Outbreak In The U.S., Walter A. Silva Sotillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a collection of manuscripts that describe development of models and model implementation to analyze impact of potential A(H7N9) pandemic influenza outbreak in the U.S. Though this virus is still only animal-to-human transmittable, it has potential to become human-to-human transmittable and trigger a pandemic. This work is motivated by the negative impact on human lives that this virus has already caused in China, and is intended to support public health officials in preparing to protect U.S. population from a potential outbreak of pandemic scale.

An agent-based (AB) simulation model is used to replicate the social dynamics of the …

Brute-Force Missing Data Extreme Learning Machine For Predicting Huntington's Disease, Anton Akusok, Emil Eirola, Kaj Mikael Björk, Yoan Miche, Hans Johnson, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Presents a Novel Procedure to Train Extreme Learning Machine Models on Datasets with Missing Values. in Effect, a Separate Model is Learned to Classify Every Sample in the Test Set, However, this is Accomplished in an Efficient Manner Which Does Not Require Accessing the Training Data Repeatedly. Instead, a Sparse Structure is Imposed on the Input Layer Weights, Which Enables Calculating the Necessary Statistics in the Training Phase. an application to Predicting the Progression of Huntington's Disease from Brain Scans is Presented. Experimental Comparisons Show Promising Results Equivalent to the State of the Art in Machine Learning with …

Data Analysis And Processing Techniques For Remaining Useful Life Estimations, John Scott Bucknam

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of engineering, it is important to understand different engineering systems and components, not only in how they currently perform, but also how their performance degrades over time. This extends to the field of prognostics, which attempts to predict the future of a system or component based on its past and present states. A common problem in this field is the estimation of remaining useful life, or how long a system or component functionality will last. The well-known datasets for this problem are the PHM and C-MAPSS datasets. These datasets contain simulated sensor data for different turbofan engines …

Acetone Production, Ali Ibrahim Neamah

The Hilltop Review

Iraq struggles with a lack of acetone production. This overall deficiency impacts the economy of countries like Iraq. Inasmuch, acetone is a vital chemical component for many items imported into this country such as nail polish remover. Therefore, a process of acetone production is proposed in this study.

The ideal process of producing acetone with 90.0% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) decomposition method is proposed within this study. The feed of the process is 100000 ton/ day. This amount of feed is suggested due to the demographic need of acetone for the Iraqi population as well as the surrounding Middle Eastern region. …

Multi-Criteria Flow-Shop Scheduling Optimization, Raviteja Arikati

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

A flow-shop is a type of manufacturing job shop where similar jobs follow a similar, linear sequence through the shop. Every day, flow-shops receive several different orders and it is up to the scheduler to plan the daily schedule. This schedule should be designed to prevent bottlenecks in the shop, to have on-time delivery of products, and satisfy several other requirements. Often, schedulers perform subjective scheduling and utilize simple heuristics or just intuition to schedule the jobs. With computer-based scheduling, schedulers can now create schedules and determine quantitatively what sorts of schedules work best. Currently, much of the computer-based schedules …

Polar Coordinate Farm Bot Final Project Report, John Brown, Kasenia Colombo, Lucas Salem, Ning Jeng, Rory Stothers, Sam Lees

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

FarmBot Inc. is a local startup that is advancing precision agriculture through automation and open source technology. The original FarmBot model, FarmBot Genesis, operates over a rectangular area of 3 x 1.5 meters. It plants, waters, weeds and grows produce autonomously using CNC technology. Our project sponsor and inventor of FarmBot, Rory Aronson, tasked our team with developing and testing a polar coordinate farmbot capable of performing on par with the Cartesian farmbot in growing a circular vegetable garden in a user’s backyard. A successful project was defined by meeting specific customer requirements and engineering specifications predetermined and discussed with …

Design Of An Automated Welding Process For Synergy Mfg., Parsa Bakhtiari

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This senior project involves a partnership with a local off-road parts manufacturer called Synergy Mfg. Synergy is experiencing a rapid increase in demand that is difficult to meet with their current processes. Because of this issue, Synergy is exploring automation in order to decrease their cycle times and increase their production output. More specifically, this report concentrates on automating a manual welding process that has a lengthy cycle time which causes Synergy’s difficulties with meeting demand. Due to time constraints, this project focused on the automation of a welding process for only one part that Synergy produces. This part contains …

Predictive Analytics In Forecasting, Matthew Suarez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Predicting future demand can be of tremendous help to businesses in scheduling and allocating appropriate amounts of material and labor. The more accurate these predictions are, the more the business will save money by matching supply with demand as closely as possible. The approach for an accurate forecast, and the goal of this project, involves using data analytics techniques on past historical sales data. Working with Campus Dining, a year's worth of their daily sales data will be analyzed and ultimately used for the end result of both an accurate forecasting technique and a way to display the results in …

Design Of A Finger Lime Loading System, Joel Jameson Hitchen

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Automation for post harvest processing of finger limes is required to meet demand for the new citrus fruit being introduced to United States of America food and agriculture market. As labor wages rise, and demand climbs for finger lime product a creative solution is needed to eliminate human labor and reduce the manual input needed to process finger limes. Building on an already successful processing tool, a semi-­automated loading system was designed and implemented to overcome the problem.

Strategic Level Proton Therapy Patient Admission Planning: A Markov Decision Process Modeling Approach, Shengfan Zhang, Ridvan Gedik, Chase Rainwater

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

A relatively new consideration in proton therapy planning is the requirement that the mix of patients treated from different categories satisfy desired mix percentages. Deviations from these percentages and their impacts on operational capabilities are of particular interest to healthcare planners. In this study, we investigate intelligent ways of admitting patients to a proton therapy facility that maximize the total expected number of treatment sessions (fractions) delivered to patients in a planning period with stochastic patient arrivals and penalize the deviation from the patient mix restrictions. We propose a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model that provides very useful insights in …

Table Of Contents Jitim Vol 26 Issue 2, 2017

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Table of Contents JITIM vol 26 issue 2, 2017

Design Of Process Improvements To Increase Field Work Efficiency At Webcor Concrete Group, Fiona Blackburn

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study set out to analyze and improve field work efficiency at Webcor Concrete Group, a subcontractor working on a new housing project at the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo campus. Specifically, they would like to access their performance in regards to end-of-break to back-to-work time and the 30-30 rule, which states that everything a field worker needs should be accessible within 30 seconds or 30 feet. The problem statement is that Webcor wishes to utilize their field hours 5% more efficiently through a study of current shortcomings and recommended improvements. A review of the literature generated process improvement ideas …