Systems Engineering Commons^™

Generic Design Methodology For Smart Manufacturing Systems From A Practical Perspective. Part Ii—Systematic Designs Of Smart Manufacturing Systems, Zhuming Bi, Wen-Jun Zhang, Chong Wu, Chaomin Luo, Lida Xu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

In a traditional system paradigm, an enterprise reference model provides the guide for practitioners to select manufacturing elements, configure elements into a manufacturing system, and model system options for evaluation and comparison of system solutions against given performance metrics. However, a smart manufacturing system aims to reconfigure different systems in achieving high-level smartness in its system lifecycle; moreover, each smart system is customized in terms of the constraints of manufacturing resources and the prioritized performance metrics to achieve system smartness. Few works were found on the development of systematic methodologies for the design of smart manufacturing systems. The novel contributions …

Emotional Intelligence And Safety Citizenship Among Army Aviators, Zachary T. Dugger, Bernadette Mccrory

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and safety citizenship among United States Army aviators. The study includes analysis of survey responses from 29 individual aviators. Regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between safety citizenship, emotional intelligence, and 15 emotional intelligence facets. Results indicate a significant association (F(1,28) = 15.45; p = 0.001) between safety citizenship and emotional intelligence, and between safety citizenship and 3 emotional intelligence facets: Adaptability (F(1,25) = 23.91; p < 0.001), Self Esteem (F(1,25) = 10.75; p = 0.003), and Optimism (F(1,25) = 8.71; p = …

Identification Of Moving Bottlenecks In Production Systems, Funmilayo Mofoluwasola Adeyinka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Manufacturing sector have been plagued by bottlenecks from time immemorial, leading to loss of productivity and profitability, various research effort has been expended towards identifying and mitigating the effects of bottlenecks on production lines. However, traditional approaches often fail in identifying moving bottlenecks. The current data boom and giant strides made in the machine learning field proffers an alternative means of using the large volume of data generated by machines in identifying bottlenecks. In this study, a hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm is used in identifying potential groups of bottlenecks within a serial production line.

A serial production line with five …

Evaluation Of Lidar Systems For Rock Mass Discontinuity Identification In Underground Stone Mines From 3d Point Cloud Data, Mario Alejandro Bendezu De La Cruz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The goal of this thesis is to compare the accuracy and precision of the discontinuity identification results obtained by three active remote sensing technologies along with a point cloud processing program, and the results obtained by conventional methods. For this research, the active remote sensing devices were terrestrial LIDAR, mobile LiDAR with Simultaneous localization, and mapping (SLAM), and LIDAR/Camera on an autonomous UAV. The open-source point cloud data processing programs Discontinuity Set Extractor (DSE) and the Cloud Compare were used to process point cloud data.

The results of this research found that it is possible to identify certain geological structures …

Nebulizer-Based Systems To Improve Pharmaceutical Aerosol Delivery To The Lungs, Benjamin M. Spence

Theses and Dissertations

Combining vibrating mesh nebulizers with additional new technologies leads to substantial improvements in pharmaceutical aerosol delivery to the lungs across therapeutic administration methods. In this dissertation, streamlined components, aerosol administration synchronization, and/or Excipient Enhanced Growth (EEG) technologies were utilized to develop and test several novel devices and aerosol delivery systems. The first focus of this work was to improve the poor delivery efficiency, e.g., 3.6% of nominal dose (Dugernier et al. 2017), of aerosolized medication administration to adult human subjects concurrent with high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy, a form of continuous-flow non-invasive ventilation (NIV). The developed Low-Volume Mixer-Heater (LVMH) …

Redeployment Of Athletic Trainers During A Pandemic, James Caiola

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Before COVID-19 was recognized as a global pandemic involving the United States of America in March of 2020, MedStar Health employed 40 Athletic Trainers (ATs) in multiple settings. While ATs worked in the traditional setting at 17 high schools, 2 universities, and with 2 professional teams in the Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC area, they also have been used in nontraditional ways. They are used in the physician practice setting to manage clinic flow, evaluate patients and present to the physician, provide pre- and post-surgical patient education, and being an overall patient point of contact in a busy clinic. They …

Computational Decision Support For The Covid-19 Healthcare Coalition, Andreas Tolk, Christopher Glazner, Joseph Ungerleider

VMASC Publications

In the early months of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus took the world by surprise, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused significant loss of lives and challenged the sustainability of our health care systems. In mid-March, it became obvious that government and communities had to react immediately. Under the lead of the Mayo Clinic and The MITRE Corporation, the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition (C19HCC) was established as a coordinated public-interest, private-sector response. The coalition brought healthcare organizations, technology firms, nonprofits, academia, and startups to support supply chains, inform coordinated social policies, and provide data-driven insights to protect people and preserve …

Telehealth Optimization – Role Of Clinical Athletic Trainers In Orthopedic/Sports Medicine Practice, Katie Harbacheck, Laura Grambo, Shaun Keefer, Eric Klein, Christine Boyd, Carolyn Ford-Hemann, Cameron D’Alpe, Steve Frick, Kevin Shea

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Background: Prior to COVID-19, telehealth (TH) implementation in most health systems was minimal. The transition to high rates of TH was dramatic in response to COVID-19, and many health systems struggled to develop optimal, efficient TH workflows. Hypothesis/Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of clinically integrated athletic trainers (ATs) into the TH transition of a major orthopedic academic center through growth of TH visits as well as physician satisfaction. Methods: Workflows and tip sheets were designed to include considerations of TH visit increases, adoption of appropriate technology platforms and optimal staff models. The rapid …

Continuity Of Chen-Fliess Series For Applications In System Identification And Machine Learning, Rafael Dahmen, W. Steven Gray, Alexander Schmeding

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Model continuity plays an important role in applications like system identification, adaptive control, and machine learning. This paper provides sufficient conditions under which input-output systems represented by locally convergent Chen-Fliess series are jointly continuous with respect to their generating series and as operators mapping a ball in an Lp-space to a ball in an Lq-space, where p and q are conjugate exponents. The starting point is to introduce a class of topological vector spaces known as Silva spaces to frame the problem and then to employ the concept of a direct limit to describe convergence. The proof of the main …

The Implementation Of Energy Sharing Using A System Of Systems Approach, Julia Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations

"There is an increasing demand for renewable energy and consumers need more procurement options to meet their needs. Energy sharing provides a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace where prosumer electricity is redistributed to fellow energy-sharing community participants. This redistribution of prosumer electricity provides consumers with additional electricity suppliers, while also decreasing the load on the utility company. Though significant progress has been made regarding research and implementation of energy sharing, there is still room for growth when evaluating energy-sharing communities and defining appropriate community coordination based on end-user needs. The first contribution in this work identified nine characteristics of energy-sharing communities as …

A Fuzzy Clustering Methodology To Analyze Interfaces And Assess Integration Risks In Large-Scale Systems, Josh Henry Goldschmid

Doctoral Dissertations

“Interface analysis and integration risk assessment for a large-scale, complex system is a difficult systems engineering task, but critical to the success of engineering systems with extraordinary capabilities. When dealing with large-scale systems there is little time for data gathering and often the analysis can be overwhelmed by unknowns and sometimes important factors are not measurable because of the complexities of the interconnections within the system. This research examines the significance of interface analysis and management, identifies weaknesses in literature on risk assessment for a complex system, and exploits the benefits of soft computing approaches in the interface analysis in …

Analytical Assessment Of Project Complexity: A Guide To Managing Projects Through Reduction Of Complexity, Christopher Vanarsdale

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research discusses the characteristics that make projects difficult to manage. Project inefficiencies and failures can be attributed to the structure of a system. Developing a measurement for complexity based on the number and nature of interactions in the system can allow project complexity to be reduced while still meeting project objectives. Previous research has identified characteristics or markers of complex systems but does not address how to measure or how to reduce a system’s complexity.

The objective of this dissertation is to develop a metric for complexity that assists project and emergency managers in reducing project complexity either by …

Complex System Governance As A Framework For Asset Management, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, James C. Pyne, Charles B. Keating, Dragan Komljenovic

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Complex system governance (CSG) is an emerging field encompassing a framework for system performance improvement through the purposeful design, execution, and evolution of essential metasystem functions. The goal of this study was to understand how the domain of asset management (AsM) can leverage the capabilities of CSG. AsM emerged from engineering as a structured approach to organizing complex organizations to realize the value of assets while balancing performance, risks, costs, and other opportunities. However, there remains a scarcity of literature discussing the potential relationship between AsM and CSG. To initiate the closure of this gap, this research reviews the basics …

The Technology Transfer Network Dynamic In The Information Technology Industry Of Yucatan, Mexico, Francisco Cima, Pilar Pazos, Ana Maria Canto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The present paper explores the technology transfer linkages among universities, research centers, and private companies in Yucatan, Mexico's information technology industry. Social network analysis (SNA) was used as a method to identify the structural characteristics of the technology transfer collaborations, and the changes in the patterns of interactions among institutions over the years. Data were obtained from the National Council for Science and Technology repository (CONACYT). Associations formed to enhance technology advancement and innovation practices between 2010 and 2018 were analyzed in this study. Network transitivity, the patterns of triadic configurations, and heterophily were compared to uncover the evolution of …

Interactive Agent-Based Simulation For Experimentation: A Case Study With Cooperatve Game Theory, Andrew J. Collins, Sheida Etemadidavan

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Incorporating human behavior is a current challenge for agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS). Human behavior includes many different aspects depending on the scenario considered. The scenario context of this paper is strategic coalition formation, which is traditionally modeled using cooperative game theory, but we use ABMS instead; as such, it needs to be validated. One approach to validation is to compare the recorded behavior of humans to what was observed in our simulation. We suggest that using an interactive simulation is a good approach to collecting the necessary human behavior data because the humans would be playing in precisely the …

Modeling, Optimization And Uncertainty Quantification Of Solids-Based Co2 Capture Technologies, Anca Ostace

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Solids-based carbon dioxide (CO₂)adsorption, where CO₂ is adsorbed under high pressure/low temperature and desorbed at low pressure/high temperature, is a low energy consumption capture technology with high carbon uptake efficiency. Chemical looping combustion (CLC), where a solid oxygen carrier (OC) transports oxygen between two high-temperature reactors – a fuel and an air reactor –, is a low energy penalty, fuel-flexible technology with inherent CO₂ capture for power/heat and syngas production.

In this work, state-of-the-art equation-oriented (EO) mathematical models of a fixed-bed (FxB) contactor for CO₂ adsorption and moving-bed (MB) reactors for gas-, and solid-fueled CLC …

Size And Cost Reduction Of The Antenna 3000, Mario Mignott, Austin Deaver, Josh Madaris

Senior Design Project For Engineers

For our senior design project, we have partnered with Compass Technology Group to improve its Antenna 3000 manufacturing process. The Antenna we are working on is not actually called this, but due to NDA regulations, we will disguise it as the Antenna 3000. This will include finding a way to minimize material costs and labor hours involved to assemble this product together. Our minimum success criteria will be to reduce both the manufacturing time and materials' cost by 20%. Our primary approach to solving this problem will be to implement Lean Six Sigma practices such as the DMAIC principle.

Using …

Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery Pipeline For Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (Af Dcgs), Carolyn W. Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

AF DCGS has a recognized need to improve speed of delivery for modification and sustainment of the weapon system. Given that the program office implemented a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) process for the sole purpose of delivering capability to the field faster, there is a need to measure and report the pipeline throughput. This research conducts an independent evaluation of the newly implemented pipeline within AF DCGS’s existing integration and test laboratories. Actual project data from the agile development work environments is studied and hypothesis tests are conducted to substantiate that the CI/CD pipeline improved the speed of delivery. The …

A Parametric Evaluation Of Iot Applications To Freight Transportation Using Model-Based Systems Engineering, Paul George Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT consists of computing and communication at the operational edge of a value chain. Applications span manufacturing, energy, and transportation, among others. In the transportation context, IIoT translates to connected vehicle architecture and ITS applications. Current trends in communication allow more applications and devices to contribute to functions traditionally allocated to transportation ITS infrastructure. This poses challenges to design engineers to prototype emerging technologies in the existing transportation context and reduce integration, validation, and time to market. Model-based systems engineering is crucial step for IIoT deployment since it allows for a feature-rich digital representation of …

Development Of A Deformation-Based Structural Health System With Contactless Sensors And Machine Learning For Health Characterization And Failure Prediction, Juan Camilo Avendano Arbelaez

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the design and development of a structural health monitoring (SHM) system specifically tailored for transportation infrastructure components, such as bridges. The proposed system collects data by using contactless sensors and performs health characterization and failure prediction. It is capable of simulating multiple load conditions on structures, identifying possible failure points, and detecting and predicting failure scenarios. Both hardware and software implementations of a model of a bridge were performed as a pilot project in order to validate the proposed system. Computer simulation in ANSYS and the application of gradient boosting neural networks were performed to produce a …