Systems Engineering Commons^™

Reducing Kidney Discard With Artificial Intelligence Decision Support: The Need For A Transdisciplinary Systems Approach, Richard Threlkeld, Lirim Ashiku, Casey I. Canfield, Daniel Burton Shank, Mark A. Schnitzler, Krista L. Lentine, David A. Axelrod, Anil Choudary Reddy Battineni, Henry Randall, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Purpose of Review: A transdisciplinary systems approach to the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) decision support system can more effectively address the limitations of AI systems. By incorporating stakeholder input early in the process, the final product is more likely to improve decision-making and effectively reduce kidney discard.

Recent Findings: Kidney discard is a complex problem that will require increased coordination between transplant stakeholders. An AI decision support system has significant potential, but there are challenges associated with overfitting, poor explainability, and inadequate trust. A transdisciplinary approach provides a holistic perspective that incorporates expertise from engineering, social science, and …

Systems Statistical Engineering – Hierarchical Fuzzy Constraint Propagation, Hengameh Fakhravar, Hesamoddin Tahami

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Driven by a growing requirement during the 21st century for the integration of rigorous statistical analyses in engineering research, there has been a movement within the statistics and quality communities to evolve a unified statistical engineering body of knowledge (Hoerl & Snee, 2010). Systems Statistical Engineering research seeks to integrate causal Bayesian hierarchical modeling (Pearl, 2009) and cybernetic control theory within Beer's Viable System Model (S Beer, 1972; Stafford Beer, 1979, 1985) and the Complex Systems Governance framework (Keating, 2014; Keating & Katina, 2015, 2016) to produce multivariate systemic models for robust dynamic systems mission performance. (Cotter & Quigley, 2018) …

Third Party Risk Management And Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management, Jerald Garner

Operations Management Presentations

Today’s business environment continues to be a challenge. Businesses whether small, or large leverage third-party vendors to provide critical services like data handling (security, transmitting, and storage), cloud storage/applications, and systems security monitoring.

Each business must ask themselves a few simple questions about one of their most valuable assets “Data”. If or when it leaves your secure working environment:

• How secure is your customer data in transit and storage?
• Do your third-party vendors handle your “critical information”?
  • Provide a secure environment for processing?
  • Comply with a proven Cyber Security Framework?
  • Perform a “Due Diligence” on-boarding step for the Nth vendors …

A Methodology For Reliability-Based Selection Of System Of Systems, Justin Brown

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Currently, Department of Defense (DoD) systems underperform and have inadequate reliability compared to acquisition expectations. Additionally, System of Systems (SoS) complexity and non-quantifiable approaches to selecting systems to perform a mission cause challenges for the decision-maker. Beyond DoD, mission-critical scenarios exist where responses are not data-driven, such as hurricane response, wildfire response, and littoral search and research missions. Optimization of these missions within a short amount of time can not only increase the probability of success and reduce the cost of performing the mission but allow systems to be used for additional missions.

This dissertation presents solution methodologies to address …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Why Sustainment Is So Critical To The Circular Supply Chains For Technical Products, Dave Peterson

Operations Management Presentations

• Technical products are typically complex, long-lived and high-cost equipment—such as: aircraft, vehicles, ships, capital equipment/machinery and utilities infrastructure. While many technical products are manufactured via traditional linear supply chains, their useful lives often rely upon sustainment systems incorporating significant aspects of circular supply chains. This webinar takes a closer look at technical products and the critical role of systems sustainment to achieve and fulfill circular supply chains. The key takeaways from this webinar are:
  • The Earth is running out of resources which will have a direct impact upon maintaining/improving our quality of life.
  • The circular economy philosophy has definite relevance …

Applying Model-Based Systems Engineering And Fidelity Quantification To Support Fair Fight In A Distributed Simulation System, Nathaniel Erbe, David Lemmer

Theses and Dissertations

Current 5th and 6th generation fighter aircraft capabilities, and the DoD's push towards digital engineering have created an environment in which simulated testing using live, virtual, and constructive assets has increasing utility. These simulations need to be credible in the eyes of the stakeholders, which for distributed simulation systems includes establishing fair fight between simulation services. Fair fight is when multiple simulations interoperate without generating one-sided systematic advantages. Issues that impede fair fight can be categorized into interoperability issues at the simulations implementation level and incompatible representations of reality between underlying models. This research used model-based systems engineering to generate …

Requirements Analysis And Architecture For An Operational Study Of Fatigue In Usaf Mobility Aircrew, Jonathan F. Mecham

Theses and Dissertations

Aircrew fatigue in flight operations is a known hazard that has driven the creation of fatigue-reducing regulation and fatigue risk management systems industry wide. In addition, biomathematical models have been created and tested to forecast the effectiveness of aircrew under conditions of time-zone shifts and long duty days. However, limited operational studies exist to validate these models or to help understand how individual factors can affect them. Operational studies have a variety of limitations that make gathering typical data regarding fatigue or sleep difficult. This research takes systems requirement analysis approach to design a study that measures effects of circadian …

Collaborative All-Source Navigation With Integrity, Jonathon S. Gipson

Theses and Dissertations

The novel ARMAS-SOM framework fuses collaborative all-source sensor information in a resilient manner with fault detection, exclusion, and integrity solutions recognizable to a GNSS user. This framework uses a multi-filter residual monitoring approach for fault detection and exclusion and is augmented with an additional "observability" EKF sub-layer for resilience. We monitor the a posteriori state covariances in this sub-layer to provide intrinsic awareness when navigation state observability assumptions required for integrity are in danger. This is used to selectively augment the framework with offboard information to preserve resilience. By maintaining split parallel collaborative and proprioceptive estimation instances and employing a …

Interdependent Infrastructure Recovery Using Multilayered Networks And Optimization, Brigham A. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Interdependent infrastructure recovery modeling and simulation are complicated due to various interdependent connections and complexities. Current efforts have identified both operational and restoration interdependency subtypes and coupling strategies that have not been integrated into one comprehensive model. This research presents a model which simultaneously integrates nine interdependency subtypes and four coupling strategies in a multi-objective format to provide the most tailorable and comprehensive network-based recovery model available. This research also created a defense-centric interdependent infrastructure database by modifying the existing CLARC database. This research then addressed assumptions regarding recovery work management in order to address the impact of work crew …

Critical Chain – Or Why Wedding Planners Get Ulcers, Greg Hutto

Operations Management Presentations

Planning a wedding is one of the most challenging projects in a young life… So much to do! A respected journal in the project management literature -- Southern Bride -- advises well-off young couples to escape stress and employ a professional wedding planner+. In today's webinar we will contrast two project planning methods in examining one such wedding project -- hastily planned and beset with troubles. We will shed light on the science & art of project management and possibly help our wedding planners (both professional and amateur) avoid stress-induced medical complications. In this webinar, we’ll be spending time with …

Algebraic, Computational, And Data-Driven Methods For Control-Theoretic Analysis And Learning Of Ensemble Systems, Wei Miao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, we study a class of problems involving a population of dynamical systems under a common control signal, namely, ensemble systems, through both control-theoretic and data-driven perspectives. These problems are stemmed from the growing need to understand and manipulate large collections of dynamical systems in emerging scientific areas such as quantum control, neuroscience, and magnetic resonance imaging. We examine fundamental control-theoretic properties such as ensemble controllability of ensemble systems and ensemble reachability of ensemble states, and propose ensemble control design approaches to devise control signals that steer ensemble systems to desired profiles. We show that these control-theoretic properties …

Elucidating And Leveraging Dynamics-Function Relationships In Neural Circuits Through Modeling And Optimal Control, Sruti Mallik

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

A fundamental research question in neuroscience pertains to understanding how neural networks through their activity encode and decode information. In this research, we build on methods from theoretical domains such as control theory, dynamical systems analysis and reinforcement learning to investigate such questions. Our objective is two-fold: first, to use methods from engineering to identify specific objectives that neural circuits might be optimizing through their spatiotemporal activity patterns, and second, to draw motivation from neuroscience to formulate new engineering principles such as synthesis of dynamical networks for decentralized control applications. We specifically take a top-down, optimization driven approach in our …

Efficiently Estimating Survival Signature And Two-Terminal Reliability Of Heterogeneous Networks Through Multi-Objective Optimization, Daniel Bruno Lopes Da Silva

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two-terminal reliability problem is a classical reliability problem with applications in wired and wireless communication networks, electronic circuit design, computer networks, and electrical power distribution, among other systems. However, the two-terminal reliability problem is among the hardest combinatorial problems and is intractable for large, complex networks. Several exact methods to solve the two-terminal reliability problem have been proposed since the 1960s, but they have exponential time complexity in general. Hence, practical studies involving large network-type systems resort to approximation methods to estimate the system's reliability. One attractive approach for quantifying the reliability of complex systems is to use signatures, …

Quantitative Set-Based Design For Complex System Development, Nicholas J. Shallcross

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprises a body of research facilitating decision-making and complex system development with quantitative set-based design (SBD). SBD is concurrent product development methodology, which develops and analyzes many design alternatives for longer time periods enabling design maturation and uncertainty reduction. SBD improves design space exploration, facilitating the identification of resilient and affordable systems. The literature contains numerous qualitative descriptions and quantitative methodologies describing limited aspects of the SBD process. However, there exist no methodologies enabling the quantitative management of SBD programs throughout the entire product development cycle. This research addresses this knowledge gap by developing the process framework and …

Application Of A Blockchain Enabled Model In Disaster Aids Supply Network Resilience, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The disaster area is a dynamic environment. The bottleneck in distributing the supplies may be from the damaged infrastructure or the unavailability of accurate information about the required amounts. The success of the disaster response network is based on collaboration, coordination, sovereignty, and equality in relief distribution. Therefore, a reliable dynamic communication system is required to facilitate the interactions, enhance the knowledge for the relief operation, prioritize, and coordinate the goods distribution. One of the promising innovative technologies is blockchain technology which enables transparent, secure, and real-time information exchange and automation through smart contracts. This study analyzes the application of …

Risks To Student Achievement In Higher Education, Angela Atwell, Bettina Mrusek, James Solti, Keith Wilson

Publications

A university system sets out to deliver educational experiences that meet set goals such as the achievement of learning outcomes for individual courses and program outcomes for degree programs. There are many factors that impact the successful achievement of student learning outcomes and there-fore successful program design and implementation. If courses are not effec-tively designed with assessments properly aligned to learning outcomes, student achievement is challenging to measure. If faculty do not consistently adhere to college and/or university policies regarding submission of assignments, student behavior and perceptions of expectations in future courses may be skewed. In addition, students may, for …

Fasten: An Iot Platform For Supply Chain Management In A Covid-19 Pandemic Scenario, Fernando Lemos, Thays Do Nascimento, Gustavo Dalmarco

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This paper points out the major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It proposes an automated Internet-of-Things (IoT) based manufacturing and supply chain system, termed FASTEN, that can deal with such severe disruptions.

Agile And Lean Six Sigma Integration: A Leadership Framework, Alessandro Laureani

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

Submitting final version of the paper attached.

Agile and Lean Six Sigma integration: a Leadership framework

Author: Alessandro Laureani, Independent Lean Six Sigma Scholar, Ireland

E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +353 87 914 4532

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Agile methodologies and Lean Six Sigma can coexist and propose a Leadership framework to successfully merge Agile methodologies with Lean Six Sigma practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper builds on the author’s doctoral thesis on Leadership for Lean Six Sigma, and integrate Agile practices based on the author’s experience in the software development industry.

Findings

Agile methodologies, that came to …

Lss Implementation In Micro Enterprises: Adoption Of Tools To Support Competitiveness, Seamus O'Reilly, Dermot Freeman, Lawrence Dooley

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

LSS Implementation in Micro Enterprises:

Adoption of tools to support competitiveness

Seamus O’Reilly^a ([email protected]), Dermot Freeman^b ([email protected])

and Lawrence Dooley^a ([email protected])

^aCork University Business School, Ireland. ^bDermot Freeman & Associates, Ireland

Purpose

This study seeks to contribute to an emerging literature addressing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in the micro enterprise context. Specifically, it explores what LSS tools address business opportunities and challenges identified by micro enterprises.

Methodology

This study adopts a purposive sampling approach. Thirty micro enterprise who had availed of a lean start programme launched by a …

The Application Of Measures Of Lean Production For Services, Willem Salentijn, Jiju Antony, Chad Laux

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

This paper gives insights on how to measure the degree of lean for services and explores existing instruments, proposing adaptions on an existing instrument, developed for production.