Business Commons^™

Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Optimal Feedback Control Of Pinpoint Landing Using Deep Neural Networks, Omkar S. Mulekar, Hancheol Cho, Riccardo Bevilacqua

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Machine learning regression techniques have shown success at feedback control to perform near-optimal pinpoint landings for low fidelity formulations (e.g. 3 degree-of-freedom). Trajectories from these low-fidelity landing formulations have been used in imitation learning techniques to train deep neural network policies to replicate these optimal landings in closed loop. This study details the development of a near-optimal, neural network feedback controller for a 6 degree-of-freedom pinpoint landing system. To model disturbances, the problem is cast as either a multi-phase optimal control problem or a triple single-phase optimal control problem to generate examples of optimal control through the presence of disturbances. …

Stability Of Deep Neural Networks For Feedback-Optimal Pinpoint Landings, Omkar S. Mulekar, Hancheol Cho, Riccardo Bevilacqua

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The ability to certify systems driven by neural networks is crucial for future rollouts of machine learning technologies in aerospace applications. In this study, the neural networks are used to represent a fuel-optimal feedback controller for two different 3-degree-of-freedom pinpoint landing problems. It is shown that the standard sum-ofsquares Lyapunov candidate is too restrictive to assess the stability of systems with fuel-optimal control profiles. Instead, a parametric Lyapunov candidate (i.e. a neural network) can be trained to sufficiently evaluate the closed-loop stability of fuel-optimal control profiles. Then, a stability-constrained imitation learning method is applied, which simultaneously trains a neural network …

Predicting Dynamic Fragmentation Characteristics From High-Impact Energy Events Utilizing Terrestrial Static Arena Test Data And Machine Learning, Katharine Larsen, Riccardo Bevilacqua, Omkar S. Mulekar, Elisabetta L. Jerome, Thomas J. Hatch-Aguilar

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To continue space operations with the increasing space debris, accurate characterization of fragment fly-out properties from hypervelocity impacts is essential. However, with limited realistic experimentation and the need for data, available static arena test data, collected utilizing a novel stereoscopic imaging technique, is the primary dataset for this paper. This research leverages machine learning methodologies to predict fragmentation characteristics using combined data from this imaging technique and simulations, produced considering dynamic impact conditions. Gaussian mixture models (GMMs), fit via expectation maximization (EM), are used to model fragment track intersections on a defined surface of intersection. After modeling the fragment distributions, …

Integrated Dynamic Airline Route And Schedule Optimization, Bayan Begaliyeva

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By harnessing real-time and historical data in conjunction with advanced AI technologies, this project revolutionizes route and schedule planning, leading to enhanced efficiency, cost reduction, and an improved passenger experience.

Pre-Check Security Processes In Selected Brazil Airports- Changes And Gains, Camila Miliani, Fabio Sanches, Jonatta Haniere, Rodrigo Cortes, Tais Gargano, Vanessa Reis

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The recommendation of this Research Project is to implement the precheck program at 10 Airports in Brazil with more than 5 million passengers a year. The passengers’ satisfaction, security improvement and OPEX savings would be a reality.

The expectation of OPEX savings at these 10 Airports are R$ 3.360.000,00 per year, (US$ 634.000,00) due to the possibility of using the current infrastructure and yet, reduce one Protection Agent per inspection module, per airport.

The research topic was to understand the feasibility of implementing the precheck security process in Brazil Airports. Using the U.S. benchmark, and the current Brazilian legislation, GYN …

The Bobo Project: Hexa-Eagles, Anjana Mahesh Kumar, Huna Amad, Jean Samirah Venturina, Sakthivel Mithra, Suhasini, Sumaiyathul Faaliha

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The consumer business has undergone a substantial shift in how customers to shop since the introduction of online shopping. When the world was affected by Covid-19 in 2020, one of the most major repercussions was in the Food & Beverage (F&B) and grocery industries. As a result of the pandemic, many cities were put under lockdown, and everyone remained indoors. Consumer purchasing patterns changed dramatically, with malls closing or operating with limited access, and customers avoiding common spaces for fear of getting the virus. As the global epidemic progressed, several firms were forced to close their physical locations due to …

Self-Acquisition Of Liquid Propellant Versatile Arsenal Of Resources Endeavour (S.A.L.V.A.R.E.), Vittorio Baraldi, Nikki Smith-Cielo, Sotirios Zormpas

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Unlocking the mysteries of Mars’s past and future habitability is just within humanity’s grasp. With a multitude of inherent similarities to Earth, Mars is one of the most promising locations to extend humankind’s reach in manned space exploration. As humanity is at the summit of taking the next leap for mankind by preparing the first crewed missions to Mars, a need that must be met is to significantly reduce the mass necessary to deliver to the surface.

The Self-Acquisition of Liquid propellant Versatile Arsenal of Resources Endeavour (SALVARE) project details a mission for creating the first Mars water-based In-Situ Resources …

Comprehensive Report On Extraterrestrial Resource Extraction, Robinson Raphael

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The prospect of asteroid mining provides a plethora of riches that include metals and water. As the number of discovered asteroids continues to grow, opportunities arise to commercialize these resources within Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). With urgent applications on Earth and in space, NEAs allow for a surge in sales. Planning forward, Astroider Aerospace Systems follows a mission split into four phases. Phase 1 develops a series of spacecraft using existing technologies, titled as Near-Earth Asteroid Miners and Near-Earth Asteroid Surveyors. Phase 2 first launches the surveyors to candidate NEAs, prospecting them for ores. To identify potential celestial bodies for this …

Collegiate Experience: A Literature And Phenomenological Study On Experiential Learning In University Education, Graydon Russell, Jennifer Hinebaugh

Student Works

Abstract This research project explored the effectiveness of experiential learning programs within college education for producing long term, deeper understandings of the subjects being taught. To analyze the effects of experiential learning on students, a literature review and synthesis of previous experiential learning studies and research was conducted. First, research was done into studies and publications that discuss educational concepts and theories regarding learning through experience, including Experiential Learning Theory itself. Next, studies of experiential learning programs and courses within academic institutions were analyzed to determine how experiential learning has been applied in the past across a variety of disciplines …

How Has Covid-19 Changed Consumer Participation In Value Co-Creation?, Katelynne Hinckley

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This research documents value co-creative interactions between firms and consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic. I offer insights based on theory to explain how and why consumers are changing, especially in relation to service industries. The context of Covid-19 demands that both companies and consumers adapt by shouldering a greater burden of the value creation process in order to create value that is at least comparable to and, at most, exceeding that of pre-pandemic times. The extent to which a consumer or a firm becomes a greater participant than before is highly dependent on the industry and Covid-19 restrictions. While many …

Unforeseen Consequences From The Sea: Impacts On The Space Launch Industry Due To The Lack Of Maritime Policy, Seth Rosenstein

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The rocket launch industry has been growing exponentially in the last two decades with commercial and federal launch contractors working side by side to accomplish incredible feats. With this increased number of successful launches also comes an increased number of scrubbed launches. These scrubs, more than ever before, are no longer solely due to weather. Maritime activity has affected rocket launches before, but never at the rate that we see today. This is a complex issue that relies on FAA policy law, industry experts, professionals in space law, and US code to properly deconstruct and understand. Over the last year, …

Regional Airlines, Benjamin Jones Jr.

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The airline industry plays a major role in the United States. Many passengers use air transportation as a major mode of traveling for business and personal. As the demand for traveling increased, pilot shortage has increased as well. A pilot shortage will devastate the economy and have a lasting effect that will be felt worldwide. However, sources predict that the United States will experience a sizable pilot shortage over the next few years. This paper will identify the reasons for the pilot shortage and discuss the devastating effects that the shortage has on the regional airline industry. In addition, this …

A Qualitative Assessment Of Airline Passenger Satisfaction, Kaetlyn Blocker, Brent D. Bowen, Erin Bowen, Andrea Irish

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Each year, airline passengers respond to the Airline Passenger Survey providing feedback of their experiences with major domestic (U.S.) airlines. The Airline Passenger Survey analyzes responses to a varied set of questions. This specific study is limited to the single open-ended question within the survey. This question is optional, but allows an opportunity to share any issues, concerns, and/or complaints regarding their own air travel experiences. There is no limitation on the number of words submitted. Through the application of a thematic coding scheme, results show what the highest concerns of airline passengers have been the last two years.

The Trouble With Twitter, Josh Kjar

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Freedom of speech and censorship balance on a precarious scale in the US. With the advent of social media, this balance has been troubled due to the migration of public conversation to a private space where freedom of speech is no longer ensured. This paper dives into the complexities of free speech and censorship, their current status in the US today, the way that social media and private ownership challenge their balance, and concludes with an argument for a democratized balance through modest government oversight.

Longitudinal Analysis Of Perceived And Objective Airline Performance Quality, Kaetlyn Blocker, Javad Gorjidooz

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Commercial air carrier performance is a multivariable function, uniquely and substantially impacted by passenger's perception of negative employee behavior. High industry visibility, coupled with exponential social media growth, has provided the incredible potential to either widen or narrow the perception-performance gap. The present research conducts a rare longitudinal evaluation of objective airline performance quality in contrast with consumer perceptions of perceived airline performance and the dynamic changes occurring therein. Additionally, the implications regarding air carriers facing both objective and perceived performance challenges, as well as implications for the industry as a whole, are discussed. Utilizing nearly 30 years of objective …

Safety Culture Awareness In Aviation Maintenance: Foundations To Present, Tori Kobayashi

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Safety Culture awareness in aviation maintenance organizations is necessary for the performance of effective maintenance and the safe operation of aircraft. Maintenance organizations that promote a strong culture of safety encourage honesty and integrity within the workplace. The environment where maintenance is performed differs from other aviation related operations. The promotion of safety in maintenance operations has been proven over time in publications written by the earliest pioneer in aviation safety, Jerome Lederer. The awareness of safety culture in aviation maintenance has evolved with the industry to the present day.

Quality Analysis Of United States Commercial Air Carriers: Airline Quality Rating 2019, Kaetlyn Blocker, Brent D. Bowen, Erin Bowen, Timothy B. Holt, Dean E. Headley

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Past research regarding major U.S. commercial air carriers and consumer perceptions of airline performance has provided little more than a descriptive “snapshot” of the average air traveler. Using the most recent data and findings, as well as building on the previous 29 continuous years of research with the national Airline Quality Rating (AQR), the present study attempts to move beyond the basic descriptive information by identifying significant changes that have occurred over the previous year. Collectively, changes may influence the way consumers, at varying levels of travel frequency, view the commercial air industry. This research utilizes trend analysis methodology by …

Fight, Flight, And Freeze: Human Responses In A Business Strategy Environment, Michael Nixon

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Fight, flight, and freeze responses are a natural part of how we operate as humans. These responses permeate our lives and affect our decisions in major ways. This thesis first employs a case study to help the reader understand natural reaction processes, then analyzes case studies where businesses applied strategies that closely resembled these reaction processes. I then propose a framework to mimic physiological reaction processes to help companies arrive at the optimal solution.

Quality, Performance, And Consumer Perceptions: A National Study Of Us Airlines, Kaetlyn Blocker, Brent D. Bowen, Timothy B. Holt, Jacqueline R. Luedtke, Tori Kobayashi, Calissa Spooner, Dean Headley

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Prior inquiry into consumer perceptions, attitudes, and overall satisfaction regarding commercial mainline passenger carriers in the United States has provided little more than a "snapshot" of the average air traveler. Building on 28 continuous years of research with the National Airline Quality Rating (AQR), this study attempts to move beyond descriptive information in order to identify relationships and trends in the airline industry’s performance and relate those observations to consumer perceptions. This study will utilize a comparative trend analysis methodology to analyze major United States Airlines' performance and quality over the last 28 years. This methodology provides a means of …

3 Key Aspects To Building A Successful Online Apparel Business, Deana Mugimu

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Discuss three major elements that contribute to building a successful apparel business online. The three factors discussed include search engine optimization, brand/company focus, and content consistency. These elements are applicable to any other industry besides apparel. Both the interconnectedness of all three aspects and the value of doing each one is addressed.

Project Management Online Course – An Instructional Design Project, Fred R Hyatt

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Project management is a subject that is in demand at today’s institutions of higher learning. It is a valuable skill for employees in sectors from instructional design to information technology, and in many other fields. This report summarizes a project to create an online course with content similar to the IS 405 Project Management course in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. A brief literature search is described along with a design model based on the combination of Merrill’s First Principles and Gibbon’s Layer Theory of Instructional Design. The scope of the project was adjusted to be …

Analyzing Cyber Threats Affecting The Financial Industry, Anna Skelton

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As critical infrastructure, financial institutions must execute the highest level of cybersecurity as the threat of a crippling cyberattack continues to develop. Malicious actors, including disenfranchised employees, state sponsored actors, and traditional hackers, all have motivations to target the financial industry, and do so frequently. However, the threat changes slightly between resource rich large institutions and their smaller, community bank counterparts. The complex and multifaceted threat must be fully understood in order to properly address and analyze solution options to preserve the security of these institutions and the economy that they contribute to.

Fossil Fuel Asset Risk Analysis: Clark University Endowment, Travis A. Dodge, B. Maiwand Akbari

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The environmental and social risks of climate change are well known and perhaps inevitable. The economic and financial risks are less so. The many financial risks associated with climate change embedded in endowment portfolio fossil fuel holdings are leading many institutional stakeholders to enter into dialogue and take action. Divestment is emerging as an effective strategy for limiting portfolio exposure and tackling climate change itself.

Our team’s goals were to assess whether the Clark University endowment portfolio faces any of these risks and evaluate the impacts on asset values. Our findings show that the Clark endowment does face these same …

Asset Assessment For Women: A Case Study Of Imasayi Village In Ogun State, Nigeria & Ngo Development: A Strategic Plan, Olamide Adeyinka

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This paper presents the findings of an asset assessment performed with women in a village southwest of Nigeria, Imasayi Ogun state. This paper not only describes the process and results of a qualitative study, but also presents the implementation plan for an NGO that will work with the women of Imasayi to implement community-wide development projects. The research upon which this paper is based used the framework of seven capital domains, which are then used in turn to structure findings, recommendations and NGO planning and analysis. For the purpose of this paper, the marketplace is identified as significant for Imasayi’s …

Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunity Via Differentiated Bertrand Oligopoly Market Structure, Colton Hicks

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In this paper we develop a method to be able to recognize opportunity for a new entrant in a Bertrand Oligopoly market based upon industrial organization. We infer from the demand curves of competitors if opportunity for a new entrant exists and the necessary characteristics of the entrant that would make it successful in a given market. This provides a significant contribution to the field of entrepreneurship since it has struggled to find a bona fide way to define and identify opportunity. Most research on entrepreneurial opportunity has focused on the characteristics of the product being developed, e.g., what are …

Community Affair: Social Inclusion And Swapping, Jowanza Joseph

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Swapping has become primitive economic behavior with the advent of currency. However, with the increase in concern about the environment swapping has emerged in many forums including swap meets, free cycle and online swapping forums. We perform an exploratory investigation of this behavior through an imperial investigation of Twitter. We test the connectedness, and the popularity of people who are involved in swap meets and farmers markets. Finally, we discuss the implications and future directions for swapping.

Rubberball: Survey Analysis And Recommendations, Jared Bell, Nate Shields, Chris Clegg, Garrett Beeston

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The first question or concern surrounding the Rubberball analysis is the addition of new products. Rubberball has been considering adding products such as stock fonts or video. To assess this, we asked a simple question about how likely a consumer is to buy additional products. We then ran a simple means tests on the answers, and the recommendations became clear. There are two products that Rubberball should continue to look into. First is stock illustrations, followed by stock fonts. The mean of these two products was far above all others. Marketing research team is comprised of Jared Bell, Nate Shields, …

Nu Skin Enterprises: Market Research Project, Jay An, Brian Carroll, Tim Headrick, Abby Sheffield

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Nu Skin's vision is to raise the percentage of customers that order online from 17 percent to 40 percent by the end of 2008. With this ambitious goal in mind, the BYU team tailored its research to help them move forward. The central question is, how can Nu Skin increase its conversion rate of those who visit nuskinusa.com to those who actually make purchases through the site. We hope to answer the following peripheral questions as well: (1.) Why do people order by phone rather than online, and (2.) How can Nu Skin improve its site to increase the percentage …

Report For Academic Vice President, Jorge Mazal, Billy De Groot, Mark Roper, Autume Pease

Student Works

This report details our findings for the Office of the Academic Vice President. Our purpose was to help our client decide whether or not to create a system which combines Student Rating System, Blackboard, Testing Center, iClickers, Grade book on Blackboard and Testing Center, etc. We met with Debra Biser to discover the needs of this department. From the initial interview, we discovered our mission was three fold: (1) to discover what programs should be included, (2) to decide what the name should be, and (3) to determine if the students would resist the change. In order to obtain the …

Goal Marketing Research Group: Byu Bookstore Regarding Office Supply Purchasing Behaviors, Bjorn Boyer, Aubri Jones, Justin Norton, Travis Brashears

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The purpose of this research project is to find the purchasing trends of BYU department secretaries who purchase office supplies in an effort to increase office supply sales for the BYU Bookstore. To achieve this objective, we will answer the following questions: 1. Where do BYU purchasing agents currently shop to fulfill their office supply needs? 2. What aspects of purchasing are most important to the purchasing agents? For example, factors such as price, convenience, selection, etc. 3. How well does the BYU bookstore fulfill the important criteria that the purchasing agents have? 4. What importance is given to online …