Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

A Model For Optimizing The Allocation Of Ethanol Production In The U.S., Anali Huggins

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the last five years, fuel prices have fluctuated from 2.86$/gallon to 3.87$/gallon which represents an increase of 35%. This situation has collocated the ethanol manufacturing in an advantageous situation. However, a major problem that is faced by the ethanol producers is the high cost of transportation. The objective of this thesis study is to determine the optimal allocation of ethanol production in the U.S. in 2009 that minimizes the transportation cost. This thesis is based on the application of a linear programing model. The thesis is focused on two questions. The first is the optimal allocation of ethanol between …

Dynamic Stochastic Orienteering Problems For Risk-Aware Applications, Hoong Chuin Lau, William Yeoh, Pradeep Varakantham, Duc Thien Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Orienteering problems (OPs) are a variant of the well-known prize-collecting traveling salesman problem, where the salesman needs to choose a subset of cities to visit within a given deadline. OPs and their extensions with stochastic travel times (SOPs) have been used to model vehicle routing problems and tourist trip design problems. However, they suffer from two limitations travel times between cities are assumed to be time independent and the route provided is independent of the risk preference (with respect to violating the deadline) of the user. To address these issues, we make the following contributions: We introduce (1) a dynamic …

Forecast Of Wireless Communication Technology: A Comparative Study Of Regression And Tfdea Model, Dong-Joon Lim, Timothy R. Anderson, Jisun Kim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presents a formal comparison of TFDEA with regression model to forecast wireless communication technology. In addition to the data set from the former research, up-to-2011 4G network technologies are added and analyzed. The research was designed to set the point of forecasting in 2001 so that technologies between 2001 and 2011 are to be forecasted using data set between 1979 and 2001. The results from both TFDEA and regression model are compared and discussed. This comparative study can provide forecasters with different aspects between 'best-practice measurement' and 'average practice measurement' and, ultimately, help to select the suitable approach …

Modeling The Adoption Of Identification Standards Within The Healthcare Supply Chain, Angelica Burbano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The adoption of identification standards and its associated technology in the healthcare supply chain has been slow over the past twenty five years, despite the evidence of the benefits that can be achieved. The widespread use of identification standards in the form of barcode labeled medical products can contribute to the reduction of point of care errors and can increase the efficiency of healthcare supply chain related processes. This research is focused on the analysis of the adoption of identification standards in the healthcare supply chain with a particular focus on the healthcare provider adoption challenges. The research is divided …

Measuring Sustainability, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The World Health Organization estimates that 884 million people do not have access to safe sources of drinking water. Meanwhile, about half of the world's population continues to use unsustainable, biomassbased energy sources for indoor fuel, leading to extensive deforestation, harmful indoor air emissions, and in many cases upper respiratory disease and high commodity costs for impoverished families. Exacerbating these problems are the international effects of climate change, expected to significantly impact developing countries by changing water and energy quality and availability. International development organizations work tirelessly to address these challenges. However, many efforts struggle with achieving long-term sustainability; many …

Prognostic And Health-Management Oriented Fuel Cell Modeling And On-Line Supervisory System Development, Xian Zhang

All Dissertations

Of the fuel cells being studied, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is viewed as the most promising for transportation. Yet until today, the commercialization of the PEMFC has not been widespread in spite of its large expectation. Poor long term performances or durability, and high production and maintenance costs are the main reasons. For the final commercialization of fuel cells in the transportation field, durability issues must be addressed, while costs should be further brought down. At the same time, health-monitoring and prognosis techniques are of great significance in terms of scheduling condition-based maintenance (CBM) to minimize repair …

Optimization Models And Algorithms For Truckload Relay Network Design, Hector Andres Vergara Arteaga

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Driver turnover is a significant problem for full truckload (TL) carriers that operate using point-to-point (PtP) dispatching. The low quality of life of drivers due to the long periods of time they spend away from home is usually identified as one of the main reasons for the high turnover. In contrast, driver turnover is not as significant for less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers that use hub-and-spoke transportation networks which allow drivers to return home more frequently. Based on the differences between TL and LTL, the use of a relay network (RN) has been proposed as an alternative dispatching method for TL transportation …

Healthcare Quality: Waiting Room Issues, Vineeth R. Yeddula

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In today’s hyper-competitive market, customers are faced with many different options when deciding on a specific healthcare provider. Due to the varying options, quality and service stand out as two essential elements that influence the selection process. If the quality is not met, the healthcare organizations have to face several issues such as customer retention, value, safety, litigation, and reputation. Patient satisfaction has emerged as an increasingly important parameter in the assessment of health care quality. Waiting time is considered to be an important determinant of patient satisfaction. As patients experience a greater squeeze on their time, short waits seem …

Uncertain Congestion Games With Assorted Human Agent Populations, Asrar Ahmed, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Congestion games model a wide variety of real-world resource congestion problems, such as selfish network routing, traffic route guidance in congested areas, taxi fleet optimization and crowd movement in busy areas. However, existing research in congestion games assumes: (a) deterministic movement of agents between resources; and (b) perfect rationality (i.e. maximizing their own expected value) of all agents. Such assumptions are not reasonable in dynamic domains where decision support has to be provided to humans. For instance, in optimizing the performance of a taxi fleet serving a city, movement of taxis can be involuntary or nondeterministic (decided by the specific …

Bidder Behaviors In Repeated B2b Procurement Auctions, Jong Han Park, Jae Kyu Lee, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

B2B auctions play a key role in a firm's procurement process. Even though it is known that repetition is a key characteristic of procurement auctions, traditional auctioneers typically have not put in place a suitable mechanism that supports repetitive auctions effectively. In this paper, we empirically investigate what has taken place in repeated procurement auctions based on real world data from a major outsourcing company of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) items in Korea. From this empirical study, we discovered the followings. First, we discovered that the repeated bidders contribute majority of all bids, and that the number of new …

Toward Large-Scale Agent Guidance In An Urban Taxi Service, Agussurja Lucas, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Empty taxi cruising represents a wastage of resources in the context of urban taxi services. In this work, we seek to minimize such wastage. An analysis of a large trace of taxi operations reveals that the services’ inefficiency is caused by drivers’ greedy cruising behavior. We model the existing system as a continuous time Markov chain. To address the problem, we propose that each taxi be equipped with an intelligent agent that will guide the driver when cruising for passengers. Then, drawing from AI literature on multiagent planning, we explore two possible ways to compute such guidance. The first formulation …

Simulation Of Tax Revenues From Individuals Receiving Advanced College Degrees, Dejing Kong

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

State governments always want graduates who received higher education in universities and colleges to stimulate the economic growth of the state. Many state universities want to contribute more to the state’s economy as well, and state universities frequently have relevant economic development activities and offices. The state universities normally receive annual budgeted financial support and occasional special funding from the state government while the state expects contributions to the economic growth and an educated citizen in return. In this research, the economic impact of a graduate degree funded by the state government was considered in the state of Nebraska.

Simulation …

Experimental Investigation Of Hard And Brittle Materials Machining Using Micro Rotary Ultrasonic Machining, Amey V. Patwardhan

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The demand for miniaturized device and components is rapidly increasing in fields of aerospace, energy, optics, electronics and communication, automation and medical. Rotary Ultrasonic Machining (RUM) is capable of machining hard and brittle materials such as advanced ceramics, glass and silicon used in many industries. Rotary Ultrasonic Machining (RUM) is a hybrid machining process in which material is removed by conventional grinding and ultrasonic machining. Micro RUM is a downscaled version of a macro RUM and is similar to micro Ultrasonic Machining (micro USM), where the vibration takes place in work piece instead of tool.

The goal of this thesis …

An Investigation Of Medical Device Design And Physical Ergonomics In Healthcare, Adam E. De Laveaga

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Human factors and process engineering are becoming a prominent area of research and application for industrial engineering principles as healthcare providers seek to improve patient safety, quality the optimization of resources. Human factors engineering and ergonomics play a crucial role in the pursuit of operational excellence and patient safety in healthcare. These disciplines contain the tools required to develop instrumentation, technology and training that can improve the usability of medical technology and the quality of care that patients receive. Designing tasks, tools and processes for optimal human use can enhance performance, reduce errors and improve safety. This thesis encompasses three …

Introduction Of R-Lcs And Comparative Analysis With Fsc And Mahalanobis-Taguchi Method For Breast Cancer Classification, Benjamin Daniels, Steven M. Corns, Elizabeth A. Cudney

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Classification for medical diagnosis is an important problem in the field of pattern recognition. We introduce a new method for classification based on repeated analysis of information tailored to small data sets - the Rote Learning Classifier System. using the Wisconsin Breast Cancer study, this method was compared to three other methods of classification: Mahalanobis-Taguchi Systems, Finite State Classifiers, and Neural Networks. It was found that for the given data set, the Rote Learning Classifier System outperformed the other methods of classification. This new algorithm correctly classified over 92% of the data set. © 2012 IEEE.

Quantity And Capacity Expansion Decisions For Ethanol In Nebraska And A Medium Sized Plant, Mahsa Khoshnoud

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Corn-based ethanol is the leader of sustainable sources of energy in the United States due to the abundance of corn and the popularity of ethanol-gasoline mixes. Over the past decade, ethanol production has risen from 1.5 million gallons in 1999 to 13 million gallons in 2011. This increase in production requires expansion of ethanol plants. Since Nebraska is the second highest producer of ethanol, we focus our research on the expansion of ethanol plants in Nebraska.

The aim of this study is to develop an optimization model for capital investments in ethanol in Nebraska and a medium sized ethanol plant …

Systems Engineering, Caitlin A. Lambing, Eric D. Smith

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Summer 2012

Systems Engineering is a fast growing field in the engineering braches. It can be applied to anything that one can be described as a system. To show this, two different projects are being directed through the systems engineering department at UTEP. In the Student Busing Project, UTEP was granted funding from the Green Fund in order to pursuit the start of a busing system on campus. Research on other busing systems, as well as the effects and costs of adopting a busing system were researched. Surveys were completed, and additional research was done to see the environmental effects the buses …

Generating Minimal T-Wise Test Suites, Luis C. Gutierrez, Carlos Nieto, Francisco Zapata, Martine Ceberio

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Summer 2012

As the use of computing devices increases every day, users rely on the adequate functioning of software. When software is not tested properly, it can yield erroneous information or a complete failure of the system. The NIST estimates that defective software cost the United States economy close to $60 billion a year. Therefore, there is a need to develop software testing techniques that are time and cost effective. Fully testing software under all possible combinations of parameters values cannot be reduced. However, testing can focus on covering all combinations of subsets of parameters and empirical data shows that doing so …

Acuta Enews July 2012 Vol. 41, No. 7

ACUTA Newsletters

In this issue....

1 What Matters to You

2 Overheard via eMail: Legacy Systems

3 UC Cloud Security: Avoiding an Identity Crisis

4 Board Report

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5 Sense- Making: Why People Won't Be Replaced by Computers Anytime Soon

6 Young Professionals-- What's in It for You?

6 Webinar FREE to members

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Logistics Orchestration Modeling And Evaluation For Humanitarian Relief, Hoong Chuin Lau, Zhengping Li, Xin Du, Heng Jiang, Robert De Souza

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper proposes an orchestration model for post-disaster response that is aimed at automating the coordination of scarce resources that minimizes the loss of human lives. In our setting, different teams are treated as agents and their activities are "orchestrated" to optimize rescue performance. Results from simulation are analysed to evaluate the performance of the optimization model.