Systems Engineering Commons^™

Grounding Evaluation Capacity Development In Systems Theory, Sarah D. Klier, Raphael J. Nawrotzki, Nataly Salas-Rodríguez, Sven Harten, Charles B. Keating, Polinpapilinho F. Katina

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

While “systemic thinking” is popular in the context of capacity development and evaluation, there is currently a lack of understanding about the benefits to employing systems theory in evaluation capacity development. Systems theory provides a useful orientation to the work involved in complex systems (e.g. national evaluation systems). This article illustrates how evaluation capacity development practitioners can use systems theory as a conceptual tool to gain a better understanding of the functional aspects and interrelationships present within a given evaluation system. Specifically, the systems theory perspective can help elucidate the reasons for the success or failure of a given evaluation …

A Human Factors Study Of Risk Management Of Complex Agile Scrum Projects In Large Enterprises, Ravi Kalluri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Agile Project Management methods have gained phenomenal success in the IT software world in managing projects of high complexity and uncertainty. However, Agile projects come with their unique set of risks. This paper seeks to explore the risks posed by human factors to complex Agile Scrum projects in large enterprises. Project Risk Management is crucial in determining the future performance of a complex project. Increasing project complexity makes it more and more difficult to anticipate potential events that could affect the project and to make effective decisions to reduce project risk exposure. This is even more true for Agile projects …

Quantitative Methods For Total Lifecycle Risk Likelihood And Impact Assessment In Sustainable Product Design Decision Making, Christian Enyoghasi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Sustainable products promise significant economic, environmental, and societal benefits. Numerous methods are available for use during the new product development process to identify alternate product designs that optimize sustainability performance. Once any such design is selected and the product is launched, many uncertainties are likely to affect its performance over the total lifecycle. Such uncertainties give rise to risks that can influence the overall product sustainability performance. However, comprehensive quantitative methods to evaluate the likelihood or the impact of different risks to enable sustainable product design decision making are lacking.

This research aims to address this gap by developing a …

A Unified Health Information System Framework For Connecting Data, People, Devices, And Systems, Wu He, Justin Zuopeng Zhang, Huanmei Wu, Wenzhuo Li, Sachin Shetty

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the necessity for pervasive data and system interoperability to manage healthcare information and knowledge. There is an urgent need to better understand the role of interoperability in improving the societal responses to the pandemic. This paper explores data and system interoperability, a very specific area that could contribute to fighting COVID-19. Specifically, the authors propose a unified health information system framework to connect data, systems, and devices to increase interoperability and manage healthcare information and knowledge. A blockchain-based solution is also provided as a recommendation for improving the data and system interoperability in healthcare.

A Formal Power Series Approach To Multiplicative Dynamic And Static Output Feedback, Venkatesh Subbarao Guggilam

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the paper is two-fold. The first of which is to derive an explicit formula to compute the generating series of a closed-loop system when a plant, given in a Chen-Fliess series description is in multiplicative output feedback connection with another system given in Chen-Fliess series description. In addition, the multiplicative dynamic output feedback connection has a natural interpretation as a transformation group acting on the plant. The second of the two-part goal of this paper is same as the first part albeit when the Chen-Fliess series in the feedback is replaced by a memoryless map, so called …

Simulation-Based Optimization: Implications Of Complex Adaptive Systems And Deep Uncertainty, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Within the modeling and simulation community, simulation-based optimization has often been successfully used to improve productivity and business processes. However, the increased importance of using simulation to better understand complex adaptive systems and address operations research questions characterized by deep uncertainty, such as the need for policy support within socio-technical systems, leads to the necessity to revisit the way simulation can be applied in this new area. Similar observations can be made for complex adaptive systems that constantly change their behavior, which is reflected in a continually changing solution space. Deep uncertainty describes problems with inadequate or incomplete information about …

Combining Green Metrics And Digital Twins For Sustainability Planning And Governance Of Smart Buildings And Cities, Casey R. Corrado, Suzanne M. Delong, Emily G. Holt, Edward Y. Hua, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Creating a more sustainable world will require a coordinated effort to address the rise of social, economic, and environmental concerns resulting from the continuous growth of cities. Supporting planners with tools to address them is pivotal, and sustainability is one of the main objectives. Modeling and simulation augmenting digital twins can play an important role to implement these tools. Although various green best practices have been utilized over time and there are related attempts at measuring green success, works in the published literature tend to focus on addressing a single problem (e.g., energy efficiency), and a comprehensive approach that takes …

A Variable Node Optimization Model For Byzantine Fault Tolerant Systems, Ian Robert Fulton

Masters Theses

“Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) has been a major subject of study over the last two decades with increasing societal dependance on secure, correct, and reliable computer systems and online services. This research presents a model for high-level optimization of emerging systems that rely on these BFT algorithms and use a variable numbers of decision nodes. The model highlights the relationship between the security of a system and its efficiency. Two experiments were performed to determine system performance by varying the number of compromised nodes, decision nodes, and total nodes. They examine the probability that a transaction will be compromised based …

State Level Trends In Renewable Energy Procurement Via Solar Installation Versus Green Electricity, Eric Michael Hanson

Masters Theses

“In the past 5 years, consumer options for procuring renewable energy have increased, ranging from rooftop solar installation to utility green pricing to Community Choice Aggregation. These options vary in terms of costs and benefits to the consumer as well as grid integration implications. However, little is known regarding how the presence of a wide range of options for utility-scale renewable procurement affects demand for distributed residential solar installations. In theory, there are three possible relationships, (1) positive correlation, where utility-scale and distributed resources complement each other to increase overall production, (2) negative correlation, where utility-scale and distributed resources are …

Printed Circuit Board Defect Detection Using Image Processing, Nandeera Kamalaja De Silva Munaweera Tanthirige

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study was conducted to verify the hypothesis of the possibility to design an Automated Defect Detection system at a budget using image processing software. Focusing mainly on simplicity of integration with the capability to inspect a high variation of PCB with less user input. Reference comparison method was utilized to construct the defect detection algorithm where a defect free reference PCB gets compared with an inspection image to identify defects and anomalies. The paper discusses the range of possible defects for inspection on non-assembled PCBs, suggests methods for image processing and presents a final inspection algorithm, including their testing. …

Performance Degradation Based On Importance Change And Application In Dissimilar Redundancy Actuation System, Yadong Zhang, Chao Zhang, Shaoping Wang, Rentong Chen, Mileta M. Tomovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The importance measure is a crucial method to identify and evaluate the system weak link. It is widely used in the optimization design and maintenance decision of aviation, aerospace, nuclear energy and other systems. The dissimilar redundancy actuation system (DRAS) is a key aircraft control subsystem which performs aircraft attitude and flight trajectory control. Its performance and reliability directly affect the aircraft flight quality and flight safety. This paper considers the influence of the Birnbaum importance measure (BIM) and integrated importance measure (IIM) on the reliability changes of key components in DRAS. The differences of physical fault characteristics of different …

Comparison Of Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering Process (Lhse) For Healthcare Improvement Projects With Earlier Improvement Initiatives, Bohdan W. Oppenheim, Michael H. Kanter, Aleksander Buczacki

Systems Engineering Faculty Works

A new process called Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering (LHSE) recently invented for improving healthcare workflows and designing new care is reviewed and compared to previous quality initiatives: PDSA, TQM, Six Sigma, Lean, Theory of Constraints, and several others. LHSE is applicable to workflow improvement or new care design projects in clinical environments, including hospitals, operating suites, emergency departments, clinics, imaging and clinical laboratories, pharmacies, population health, and telemedicine. LHSE integrates the strengths of Lean Six Sigma and Systems Engineering (SE). Lean’s overarching philosophy of “do what is necessary to deliver the value and reject everything else as waste” governed the …

Top-Down & Bottom-Up Approaches To Robot Design, Dylan Michael Covell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis presents a study of different engineering design methodologies and demonstrates their effectiveness and limitations in actual robot designs. Some of these methods were blended together with focus on providing an easily interpreted project design flow while implementing more bottom-up, or feedback, elements into the design methodology. Typically design methods are learned through experience, and design taught in academia aims to shape and formalize previous experience. Usually, inexperienced engineers are taught approaches resembling the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) 2221 process. This method presented by the Association of German Engineers in 2006 is regarded as the general system design process. …

Deep Multi-Modal U-Net Fusion Methodology Of Infrared And Ultrasonic Images For Porosity Detection In Additive Manufacturing, Christian E. Zamiela

Theses and Dissertations

We developed a deep fusion methodology of non-destructive (NDT) in-situ infrared and ex- situ ultrasonic images for localization of porosity detection without compromising the integrity of printed components that aims to improve the Laser-based additive manufacturing (LBAM) process. A core challenge with LBAM is that lack of fusion between successive layers of printed metal can lead to porosity and abnormalities in the printed component. We developed a sensor fusion U-Net methodology that fills the gap in fusing in-situ thermal images with ex-situ ultrasonic images by employing a U-Net Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for feature extraction and two-dimensional object localization. We …

A Dual Perspective Towards Building Resilience In Manufacturing Organizations, Steven A. Fazio

Theses and Dissertations

Modern manufacturing organizations exist in the most complex and competitive environment the world has ever known. This environment consists of demanding customers, enabling, but resource intensive Industry 4.0 technology, dynamic regulations, geopolitical perturbations, and innovative, ever-expanding global competition. Successful manufacturing organizations must excel in this environment while facing emergent disruptions generated as biproducts of complex man-made and natural systems. The research presented in this thesis provides a novel two-sided approach to the creation of resilience in the modern manufacturing organization. First, the systems engineering method is demonstrated as the qualitative framework for building literature-derived organizational resilience factors into organizational structures …

The Development Of Authentic Virtual Reality Scenarios To Measure Individuals’ Level Of Systems Thinking Skills And Learning Abilities, Vidanelage L. Dayarathna

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops virtual reality modules to capture individuals’ learning abilities and systems thinking skills in dynamic environments. In the first chapter, an immersive queuing theory teaching module is developed using virtual reality technology. The objective of the study is to present systems engineering concepts in a more sophisticated environment and measure students learning abilities. Furthermore, the study explores the performance gaps between male and female students in manufacturing systems concepts. To investigate the gender biases toward the performance of developed VR module, three efficacy measures (simulation sickness questionnaire, systems usability scale, and presence questionnaire) and two effectiveness measures (NASA …

Testing Of Methods For Reducing Motivational Bias In Multi - Criteria Decision Analysis Problems, Chadwick Samuel Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

The idea of multi-criteria decision making has been around for quite a while. All judgement tasks are potential points of bias introduction. Each judgement task was assessed to identify common biases introduced through an extensive literature review for each task and bias. In several other studies, the distinction is made between cognitive and motivational biases. Cognitive biases are widely studied and well known with mitigations that have been validated. Motivational biases are judgements influenced by the decision maker’s desire for a specific outcome, also referred to as intentional bias, that are hard to correct and received very little testing and …

Using A Systemic Skills Model To Build An Effective 21st Century Workforce: Factors That Impact The Ability To Navigate Complex Systems, Morteza Nagahi

Theses and Dissertations

The growth of technology and the proliferation of information made modern complex systems more fragile and vulnerable. As a result, competitive advantage is no longer achieved exclusively through strategic planning but by developing an influential cadre of technical people who can efficiently manage and navigate modern complex systems. The dissertation aims to provide educators, practitioners, and organizations with a model that helps to measure individuals’ systems thinking skills, complex problem solving, personality traits, and the impacting demographic factors such as managerial and work experience, current occupation type, organizational ownership structure, and education level. The intent is to study how these …

Development And Application Of A Digital Twin For Chiller Plant Performance Assessment, Mihir Kale

All Theses

As the complexity of industrial equipment continues to increase, the management of the individual machines and integrated operations becomes difficult without computer tools. The availability of streaming data from manufacturing floors, plant operations, and deployed fleets can be overwhelming to analyze, although it provides opportunities to improve performance. The use of dedicated monitoring systems in the plant and field to troubleshoot machinery can be integrated within a product lifecycle management (PLM) architecture to offer greater features. PLM offers virtual processes and software tools for the design, analysis, monitoring, and support of engineering systems and products. Within this paradigm, a digital …

Airspace Integration Of New Entrants And Safety Risk Management Models, Fadjimata Issoufou Anaroua

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In recent years, the demand for airspace access of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) increased significantly and is continuously increasing for different altitude-types UAS. A similar evolution is expected from Commercial Space Operations (CSO) in the next years. These aviation/aerospace systems will need to be seamlessly integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS), at their operational altitude levels, and accounted for from all perspectives, including proactively addressing their safety hazards. This thesis captures the requirements for the new entrants’ integration, and then identifies and analyzes the safety risks added to the NAS operations by its new entrants, the future omnipresent UAS …