Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Analyses Of Alternative Energy Deployments, Mathew Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations

"Energy use around the world is rising drastically. Fossil fuels, including liquid fuels, natural gas, and coal, are expected to supply 80% of the world's energy need in 2035. As a result, the world's energy-related carbon dioxide emission is expected to increase from 30.2 billion metric tons in 2008 to 43.2 billion metric tons in 2035. Significant steps are necessary to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable and alternative energy technologies can assist in reducing the use of fossil fuels and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, most of the renewable energy technologies …

Analyzing Risk And Catastrophic Accidents: Using Lopa And Human Factors To Improve Safety In Generic Projects, Siddharth B. Damle

Doctoral Dissertations

"Risk assessment and identification in the early stages of any project is critical to the success of that project from time, budget and cost prespective [sic]. Identifying unacceptable risks and making provisions to mitigate those, can reduce the uncertainty in the project and ensure its smooth completion and closure. Various techniques have been developed over time to identify and quantify risks. Inspite of all the available research on risk management tools, accidents continue to happen and projects consistently fail.

The objective of this study is to first, determine the generic risks that can be encountered by a project. A list …

Decreasing Time To Market For A Medical Device: New Methods For The Product Development Process, Kelly Marie Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

"Through an example, led at a leading medical device company, this dissertation will demonstrate that by applying certain lean principals and tools to the development of a medical device, shortened development times can be obtained. The two papers presented in the dissertation will fill a gap in current literature. Literature presents lean techniques and applications used in many different industries. But, due to the uniqueness of the medical device industry, these general techniques are not ideal. New methods will be used and validated at a medical device company, Covidien. Instead of trying to implement many general lean principals to their …

System Of Systems Perspective On Risk: Towards A Unified Concept, C. Ariel Pinto, Michael K. Mcshane, Ipek Bozkurt

Finance Faculty Publications

Many systems and projects that concern systems engineers, engineering managers, and business managers today can be defined as system of systems (SoS), which are described as ambiguous, uncertain and dynamic, among others. In addition to the traditional view on risk identification, analysis and management, the concept of risk should be considered with respect to these systems of systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyse both fundamental concepts and recent publications in system of systems, business and engineering management, as well as risk analysis, modelling, and management for the purpose of better describing the concept of risk with respect …

Modeling Collective Dynamics Of Social Systems: Incorporating Various Social Mechanisms Into Agent-Based Models, Dene L. Farrell

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

I present three original papers demonstrating complex behavior arising from collective dynamics in agent-based models (ABM) focusing on evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms. The first report demonstrates the coupled emergence of cooperation and selfish punishment behavior in groups of individuals playing an iterated public goods game. The second report demonstrates the effects of mental modeling within groups of decision makers. The third report demonstrates a synthesis of evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms.

Multi-Party Multi-Period Supply Chain Coordination, Thin Yin Leong, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We apply combinatorial auction as a coordination mechanism to smooth demands placed on suppliers' limited production capacities, allowing several manufacturers to share common suppliers effectively. Products are bidders bidding for parts from suppliers, consuming their capacities in different time periods. The fourth party logistic (4PL) provider acts as the auctioneer to coordinate bids and perform price iterations. We leverage on the strong links between the Lagrangian relaxation method and combinatorial auction, where the Lagrange multipliers serve as the supply capacity reserve prices, to balance the demand and supply of capacities. To prevent cyclic behaviour and to increase convergence speed, we …

A Sentiment Analysis Of Singapore Presidential Election 2011 Using Twitter Data With Census Correction, Murphy Junyu Choy, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong, Nang Laik Ma, Ping Shung Koo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sentiment analysis is a new area in text analytics where it focuses on the analysis and understanding of the human emotions from the text patterns. This new form of analysis has been widely adopted in customer relationship management especially in the context of complaint management. However, sentiment analysis using Twitter data has remained extremely difficult to manage due to sampling biasness. In this paper, we will discuss about the application of reweighting techniques in conjunction with online sentiment divisions to predict the vote percentage that individual presidential candidate in Singapore will receive in the Presidential Election 2011. There will be …

Robust Local Search For Solving Rcpsp/Max With Durational Uncertainty, Na Fu, Hoong Chuin Lau, Pradeep Varakantham, Fei Xiao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Scheduling problems in manufacturing, logistics and project management have frequently been modeled using the framework of Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problems with minimum and maximum time lags (RCPSP/max). Due to the importance of these problems, providing scalable solution schedules for RCPSP/max problems is a topic of extensive research. However, all existing methods for solving RCPSP/max assume that durations of activities are known with certainty, an assumption that does not hold in real world scheduling problems where unexpected external events such as manpower availability, weather changes, etc. lead to delays or advances in completion of activities. Thus, in this paper, our …

Robust Distributed Scheduling Via Time Period Aggregation, Shih-Fen Cheng, John Tajan, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we evaluate whether the robustness of a market mechanism that allocates complementary resources could be improved through the aggregation of time periods in which resources are consumed. In particular, we study a multi-round combinatorial auction that is built on a general equilibrium framework. We adopt the general equilibrium framework and the particular combinatorial auction design from the literature, and we investigate the benefits and the limitation of time-period aggregation when demand-side uncertainties are introduced. By using simulation experiments on a real-life resource allocation problem from a container port, we show that, under stochastic conditions, the performance variation …

Effects Of Visual Interaction Methods On Simulated Unmanned Aircraft Operator Situational Awareness, Brent A. Terwilliger

Publications

The limited field of view of static egocentric visual displays employed in unmanned aircraft controls introduces the soda straw effect on operators, which significantly affects their ability to capture and maintain situational awareness by not depicting peripheral visual data. The problem with insufficient operator situational awareness is the resulting increased potential for error and oversight during operation of unmanned aircraft, leading to accidents and mishaps costing United States taxpayers between $4 million to $54 million per year. The purpose of this quantitative experimental completely randomized design study was to examine and compare use of dynamic eyepoint to static visual interaction …

A Proposal To Use Real Time Pricing To Manage The Electrical Grid As A Step Toward Distributed Control, David Haynes, Steven Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An alternative method of managing the electrical grid is presented. Rather than using a centralized control paradigm to balance generation against the load, a distributed approach is proposed. It is believed that this design improves the robustness of the grid by using an architecture that allows for the automatic formation of local micro grids. the self-organization of these micro-grids makes it possible to identify participants in an ad hoc fashion after a storm for purposes of disaster recovery. the micro-grid can automatically grow to encompass all participants and join with other grids to encompass the entire region. © 2012 Published …

Preface To Part Ii Computational Intelligence And Machine Learning, Rosemary D. Paradis, David Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Fuzzy Assessor Using Type 1 And Type 2 Fuzzy Sets, Paulette Acheson, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper provides a fuzzy assessor that can be used to evaluate system architectures. the fuzzy assessor includes a method of assigning system architecture attribute values to the lower-level subsystems using type 1 fuzzy sets and type 2 fuzzy sets. Each architecture attribute is evaluated at the lowest subsystem level and then mathematically rolled-up to provide the system level value for each architecture attribute. Then the value for each architecture attribute is combined into an overall system architecture performance value. This provides a mathematical method of qualitatively assessing a system architecture based on key architecture attributes. the fuzzy assessor uses …

A Fuzzy Inference Model For Predicting Irregular Human Behaviour During Stressful Missions, Sina Khanmohammadi, Cihan Hayreddin Dagli, Farnaz Zamani Esfahlani

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper a hybrid fuzzy inference and transfer function modeling is used to predict the irregular human behavior during hard and stressful tasks such as dangerous military missions. a set of affecting factors such as missioner's experience, fatigue, sunshine intensity, hungriness, thirstiness, psychological characteristics, affright, etc. may be taken to account. in this regard a dynamic system model is used to predict the convolution of the timed effects of different factors on irregular behavior of personnel during the mission. This approach of predicting irregular behavior or erroneous decision making of staff have serious usages in aerospace, military, social and …

The Current Picture And The Future Vision Of The Ship Recycling Industry : The Contributions Of Japan To Achieving Sustainable, Safe And Environmentally Sound Recycling Of Ships, Yasuhiro Urano

World Maritime University Dissertations

First of all, as a basis of the discussion in this dissertation, the international regulatory instruments which cover ship recycling industry, namely, the Basel Convention, 1989 and the Hong Kong Convention, 2009, are examined focusing on their essential principles and limitations. Second, the present conditions of the ship recycling industry in the Indian subcontinent are investigated in order to make clear the problems to be addressed. The focus of the investigation is set on ships’ potential hazards, environmental risks of the beaching method, hazardous waste flow, workers’ occupational safety and health, and causes of substandard recycling operations. Furthermore, the key …

The Role Of The Ship Breaking Industry In Bangladesh And Its Future With Special Emphasis On Capacity Building Through Education And Training, Kazi A.B.M. Shameem

World Maritime University Dissertations

The ship breaking is considered to be the most sustainable way of disposing end of life ships. Incentives behind the development of the shipbreaking industry are multi-faceted, among which economic benefits and employment opportunities are most prominent. Yet the industry received much attention globally due to many fatal accidents causing loss of life, degradation of environmental due to the prevailing unsafe working practices especially in south Asia. This dissertation is a study to understand the shipbreaking in general with influencing factors for driving and holding its position in south Asia particularly in Bangladesh. The shipping & demolition market dynamics analyzed …

Agent-Based Model Of Aerial Ad-Hoc Network Market Potential, Christopher B. Watkins, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) have seen significant growth as a research topic in recent years. as opposed to a traditional network with a fixed node infrastructure, the nodes in a MANET are free to move and arbitrarily organize themselves while maintaining wireless communication with each other. the major benefit of MANETs is the lack of reliance on a fixed network infrastructure. the challenge is to dynamically route traffic through a set of mobile network nodes. MANETs represent a novel solution for providing internet access in aircraft. Currently, each aircraft maintains its own gateway to the internet using expensive satellite …

A Method For Measuring Programmatic Dependency And Interdependency Between Dod Acquisition Programs, Matthew B. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

There is currently no accepted method for quantitative measurement of acquisition program interdependency. While some methods exist for measuring dependency or interdependency at the component or system level, these methods do not translate well to program interdependency measurement. The objective of this thesis is to provide a model for measuring acquisition program interdependency accurately and quantitatively. The model presented in this thesis uses four Interdependency Factors to identify dependency relationships between programs. Specific Interdependency Levels are then used to measure the strengths of those dependencies. The model also accounts for measurement of dependencies upon programs that are not directly connected, …

Rapid Development: A Content Analysis Comparison Of Literature And Purposive Sampling Of Afrl Rapid Reaction Projects, Andrew R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

In the current environment of military operations requesting faster delivery schedules to counter insurgent tactics, the engineering team often searches for how to quickly deliver the 80% solution, typically in 6-12 months. These are labeled rapid development projects. A content analysis of best practices in commercial product development literature, where time to market is often a driving factor, was accomplished showing varying emphasis of systems engineering technical and technical management processes. Technical Planning, Stakeholders Requirements Development, and Architecture Design were identified as important processes. This analysis confirms preconceived notions of plan upfront and early by emphasizing the SE processes of …

Engineering Of A Knowledge Management System For Relational Medical Diagnosis, Maria Carolina Herrera-Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasingly high costs of health care in the U.S. have led the general public to search for different medical approaches. Since the 1990's, the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has radically increased in the U.S. due to its approach to treat physical, mental, and emotional causes of illness. In 2009, the National Health Statistics reported the impact of CAM in the U.S. health care economy, with population expenditures of $14.8 billion out-of-pocket on natural Medicine and $12.4 billion out-of-pocket on visits to CAM providers as a complement to Western Medicine care.

CAM interconnects human functions to reach …