Engineering Commons^™

Time Series Classification Using Covariance Descriptors, Oluwaseun Winsala

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel framework for time series classification that leverages the geometric structure of covariance matrices when labeling signals. Our method maps each signal to a new multivariate localized feature signal (MLFS) representation, from which we compute a covariance descriptor. This robust MLFS covarieance representation handles classification tasks where the sampling rates of the signals vary within a class or classes. We demonstrate that by simply using the k-nearest neighbor classification rule and multiclass kernel support vector machine with the Riemannian metric between the MLFS convariance matrices, which produces state-of-the-art results on a number of standard datasets. Moreover, …

Recognition Of Infrastructure Events Using Principal Component Analysis, Lane David Broadbent

Theses and Dissertations

Information Technology systems generate system log messages to allow for the monitoring of the system. In increasingly large and complex systems the volume of log data can overwhelm the analysts tasked with monitoring these systems. A system was developed that utilizes Principal Component Analysis to assist the analyst in the characterization of system health and events. Once trained, the system was able to accurately identify a state of heavy load on a device with a low false positive rate. The system was also able to accurately identify an error condition when trained on a single event. The method employed is …

A Fuzzy Inference System Approach For Evaluating The Feasibility Of Product Remanufacture, Thomas Aming'a. Omwando

Theses and Dissertations

In the recent past, efforts have been made in enhancing sustainable manufacturing aimed at protecting the environment and saving natural resources. Among the efforts that have been explored include strategies to ensure responsible end-of-life product management so as reduce the impact on the environment and achieve effective use of resources. Towards this end, reduce, reuse and recycle product disposal strategies have found a lot of consideration in manufacturing. Of the product reuse strategies, remanufacturing has been widely applied owing to its unique feature of rendering the remanufactured product as good as new. For remanufacturers, this strategy leads to provision of …

Selecting Cloud Platform Services Based On Application Requirements, Bridger Ronald Larson

Theses and Dissertations

As virtualization platforms or cloud computing have become more of a commodity, many more organizations have been utilizing them. Many organizations and technologies have emerged to fulfill those cloud needs. Cloud vendors provide similar services, but the differences can have significant impact on specific applications. Selecting the right provider is difficult and confusing because of the number of options. It can be difficult to determine which application characteristics will impact the choice of implementation. There has not been a concise process to select which cloud vendor and characteristics are best suited for the application requirements and organization requirements. This thesis …

A Comparison Of Gestures For Virtual Object Rotation, Brandon Michael Garner

Theses and Dissertations

The fields of virtual reality and gesture-based input devices are growing and becoming more popular. In order for the two technologies to be implemented together, an understanding of gestures in relation to virtual objects and users' expectations of those gestures needs to be understood. Specifically, this thesis focuses on arm gestures for the rotation of virtual objects. Participants in the study were first asked to freely perform an arm gesture they felt should execute a task. Next, participants were asked to perform specific rotation tasks with pre- configured arm gestures on four objects. There were two types of objects: those …

Fitplay Games: Increasing Exercise Motivation Through Asynchronous Social Gaming, Dario Carlos Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Many factors contribute to people's physical inactivity, but among the leading factors is a lack of motivation. Fitness trackers have been shown to encourage an increase in exercise, but they are frequently abandoned within a few short months. For this thesis I developed and asynchronous-play social gaming platform, FitPlay Games, to fill the gap in motivation left by current fitness trackers. By providing users with a variety of asynchronous cooperative and competitive gaming styles, this platform enable them to find a motivation technique that works best for their lifestyle and fitness prowess. The platform encourages prolonged use of fitness trackers, …

Evaluation Of The Impact Of An Additive Manufacturing Enhanced Cubesat Architecture On The Cubesat Development Process, Rachel E. Sharples

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a fabrication method ideally suited to low-quantity, highly customized builds, leading to interest in its application to satellite development and manufacturing, where each build is unique. Due to the issues of long development schedules and high development and manufacturing costs, methods are needed in the CubeSat development process to reduce the weight and volume of subsystems and decrease integration time. The work develops an architecture for an AM-augmented CubeSat and examines the AM techniques of embedded electronics, embedded thrusters, and custom radiation-hardened materials can impact the subsystems of a CubeSat. The AM-augmented architecture shows a shift …

Conceptual Architecture To Measure The Effects Of Subauroral Polarization Streams On Radar Operations, Shayla K. Redmond

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides the initial conceptual development of taking into account subauroral polarization streams when preparing for a radar operation. The DoDAF views created to portray the architecture consisted of operational, capabilities, data and information, and finally system views to ensure consistency and realistic outcomes. OV-2 was the significant view because it set the baseline for required actions necessary for the proposed results the Flow Integration of Ionospheric Activity and Radar Evaluation (FIIARE) system would produce. FIIARE is a computer based system concept that performs consolidations and produce predictions using algorithms from the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). The data portrayed …

An Examination Of Commercial Motor Vehicle Hours Of Service Safety Regulation, Jason R. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) stipulates Hours of Service (HOS) regulations in order to minimize or eliminate fatigued truck driving, a major cause of truck-related accidents. This research examines the efficacy of HOS with three unique research approaches: 1) a typology classification model to indicate differences in HOS regulation from other safety regulations, 2) an exhaustive enumeration method utilizing the theoretical foundation of perishable inventory theory, and 3) a statistical analysis on accidents caused by or involving truck drivers. This research provides insight into similar Air Force Instructions regarding flight-time restrictions for pilots, which attempt to prevent flying …

Application Of Executable Architecture In Early Concept Evaluation Using The Dod Architecture Framework, Zhongwang Chua

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing complexity in the development of today's modern warfighting systems demands a systematic evaluation approach in the assessment of the envisaged capability and estimating the cost effectiveness, especially in the early stages of Concept Development. This research focused on the development of early Concept evaluation methodology through the use of Executable Architecture (EA) through the System Architecting process. Particularly, the methodology was applied in the assessment of a proposed Multi-tiered Unmanned Aircraft System System-of-System that is designed provide target acquisition and conduct dynamic strike on Theater Ballistic Missile launchers. Through the implementation of the evaluation methodology using dynamic modeling …

Air Force Project Risk Management – The Impact Of Inconsistent Processes, Eric J. Perez

Theses and Dissertations

On the surface, the majority of Air Force units appear to be executing some form of project risk management (PRM). Deeper investigation exposes many of the PRM practices currently in place to often be ad hoc, and as such, have the potential to poorly inform decisions when risk data is escalated to the enterprise levels of the Air Force. Resultantly, there is inconsistency between the PRM processes practiced by Air Force units. This inconsistency is an indication of risk mishandling at the project level and erroneous risk data provided at the enterprise levels of the Air Force. It may be …

A Systems Engineering Approach For Plant Layout Management & Optimization, Abdulelah Saeed Algarni

Theses and Dissertations

The basis of this paper was to investigate the system engineering applications on petro-chemical facilities layout designs. This work aims to facilitate and introduce the application of Facility Layout Problems to industrial case studies based on system engineering methodologies and performance measurements. Additionally, an effort was made to present a state-of-the-art literature review of industrial layout problems that exhibits scarcity of system engineering role in the design and implementations of industrial Facility Layout Problems. Facility Layout is one of the demanding large-scale optimization problems. Upon the completion of this report, we found a great sense of vitality of system engineering …

Value Based Methodology To Evaluate Sensors For Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Systems, Jefferson Santos De Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have become important tools in the transportation industry to help monitor the behavior and health of civil structures. Today, there is a real concern about the health of bridges because these structures are aging, and various failure events have contributed to increase that concern. Consequently, the topic of improving the effectiveness and appropriate use of SHM systems have become the focus of various government agencies and researchers, both in industry and academia. In this context, this thesis work was developed to understand the general components of bridge SHM systems, and present a methodology to help …

Assessing The Remanufacturability Of Office Furiniture: A Multi-Criteria Decision Making Approach, Po-Hsun Chen

Theses and Dissertations

While the average life cycle of consumer goods is continuously decreasing, the amount of used product at their end-of-life (EOL) is accumulating fast at and at the same pace. Most EOL products end up in landfills, and many of which are not biodegradable. These two challenges have necessitated renewed global interest in product EOL management strategies by manufacturers, third party companies, consumers and governments. Remanufacturing is one of the EOL strategies which is highly environmental-friendly. Additionally, remanufacturing is seen as one of the highly profitable re-use business strategies. The selling price of remanufactured products is usually about 50—80% of a …

Manufacturing Site Selection In The Global Context, Mahsa Mardikoraem Mardikoraem

Theses and Dissertations

The decision making regarding global site selection has been always a challenging and strategic problem. Recently, due to the globalization of the problem many new factors such as political, social, regulatory, government, environmental consideration, etc. gained importance in the decision making process. One of the goals in this thesis is to identify the relevant factors in manufacturing site selection and incorporate them into the data analysis. The collection of a wide range of factors that impact the manufacturing site selection problem at a country level, the quantification of these factors, and incorporation of them into the decision making process needs …

Usage Trends And Biomechanical Evaluation Of Tethered Tools, Maria Carroll Wiener

Theses and Dissertations

Struck-by injuries and death caused by dropped objects continue to be a prevalent problem in industries where work is conducted at height. Securing objects from height with tethers, especially hand tools used to conduct work, and an increase in regulatory oversight would reduce these incidences. To date, no research has been conducted to investigate tethered tool usage patterns in industry to include user preference, task performance and the biomechanical impact of using tethered tools in lieu of their untethered counterparts. Due to the lack of information on tethered tool usage, it was necessary to develop and distribute a survey to …

Using Approximate Dynamic Programming To Solve The Stochastic Demand Military Inventory Routing Problem With Direct Delivery, Ethan L. Salgado

Theses and Dissertations

A brigade combat team must resupply forward operating bases (FOBs) within its area of operations from a central location, mainly via ground convoy operations, in a way that closely resembles vendor managed inventory practices. Military logisticians routinely decide when and how much inventory to distribute to each FOB. Technology currently exists that makes utilizing cargo unmanned aerial vehicles (CUAVs) for resupply an attractive alternative due to the dangers of utilizing convoy operations. However, enemy actions, austere conditions, and inclement weather pose a significant risk to a CUAV's ability to safely deliver supplies to a FOB. We develop a Markov decision …

Efficient Employment Of Large Format Sensor Data Transfer Architectures, Jeffrey R. Oltmanns

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing quantity of data collected by Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets and the focus on timely access to the data collected by these systems, operational data transfer network architectures have become a critical component of their employment in the intelligence production process. Efficient utilization of the provided long-haul communications component of the ISR system improves the value of the single asset to the warfighter and enables connectivity of additional assets via the data transfer network architecture. This research effort focused on the creation and implementation of a structured test design methodology based on the …

A Quantitative Approach To The Identification And Prediction Of Supply Chain Agility, David A. Sheffield

Theses and Dissertations

As the product-release cycle in the tech industry speeds up, there is more pressure on manufacturers to bring new products to market faster than ever. This puts a great deal of pressure on the suppliers of capital equipment used to manufacture these tech products. The supply chain agility of these suppliers is increasingly important. The purpose of this study is three-fold (1) to develop a methodology that can be used by any firm for measuring and ranking the agility of suppliers and finding the root causes of supplier agility, (2) to develop the first-ever fully quantitative measure of supply chain …

Strategic Inventories In A Supply Chain With Vertical Control And Downstream Cournot Competition, Vijayendra Viswanathan

Theses and Dissertations

Strategic Inventory (SI) has been an area of increased interest in theoretical supply chain literature recently. Most of the work so far however, has only considered a supply chain without downstream competition between retailers. Competition is ubiquitous in most market situations, hence, interactions between SI and retailer competition merits study as a first step in bringing the conversations and insights from this stream of literature to the real world.

We present here a two-period and a three-period model of one manufacturer supplying an identical product to two retailers who form a Cournot duopoly. We also study a Commitment contract, where …

Computing Research In Academia: Classifications, Keywords, Perceptions, And Connections, Sung Han Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recognizes five computing disciplines: Computer Science (CS), Computer Engineering (CE), Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS), and Software Engineering (SE). Founded in 1947 the ACM is the world's largest society for computing educators, researchers, and professionals. While Computer Science has been a degree program since 1962, the other four are relatively new. This research focuses on understanding the graduate research in four of the five ACM disciplines (CS, CE, IT, and IS) using a large body of thesis and dissertation metadata. SE is not found in the metadata and graduate work in SE is …

Simulation Of Modeling Sortie Generation Process In Turaf, Bahadir Aykiri

Theses and Dissertations

Simulation is a useful technique for engineers and operations researchers. One of the primary advantages of simulation models is that they are able to provide users with practical feedback when analyzing real-world systems. This thesis builds a discrete event simulation of the sortıe generatıon process, to help decision makers in performing analyses regarding quantity of manpower, bottlenecks in supply and maintenance activities; as well as utilization of maintenance manpower, cost and number of sorties produced in a specific time. We only model one aircraft system with four Line Replacement Units (LRU), but any system and its LRUs can be included …

Contingency Workload Demand Forecast Techniques For Cargo And Flying Hours, Calvin J. Bradshaw Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate forecasting of contingency workload demand for USTRANSCOM (USTC) is a herculean effort. Transportation Working Capital Fund (TWCF) managers rely on various subject matters outside and within the combatant command to estimate future workload. Since rates are set annually, when TWCF activities use incorrect or incomplete projections of workload, this leads to erroneous price structures and misaligned customer billing rates. The USTC leadership lacks the ability to accurately forecast workload demand, which is a key driver for service provider rate-setting. As a result, some customers perceive spiked rates and seek service from other competitors, which generates lost revenue, customer dissatisfaction …

Analysis Of Military Entry Control Point Queueing, Justin J. Dwyer

Theses and Dissertations

Military Entry Control Facilities (ECFs) are unique service queues that are constrained by space, receive high peak traffic flow, and have a customer base that must receive service. Due to complexity of the interactions within the system, simulations provide input that would be impractical for quantitative experimentation. Our research examines relationships within the ECF in order to develop insights that could lead to more efficient daily operations. We focus the research on interactions that generate a queue length that would interfere with traffic flow surrounding the base. Examining the interactions between multiple arrival rates and service times as well as …

Modeling And Economy’S Dynamics And External Influences Through A System Of Differential Equations, Thomas M. Dickey

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes a methodology to develop models for the greater understanding of the application of the economic instrument of national power through a selection of factors that define the economic condition of a country. The major components of an economy are identified as GDP per capita, a treasury bond yield, and a major stock market index. The components have interconnected dynamics along with external influences from the United Stated Federal Funds Rate and foreign direct investment. These connections are considered through a metamodel in the form of a system of differential equations which is solved as an inverse problem. …

Epidemiology, Cost, And Aircraft Choice For Aeromedical Evacuation In Africom, Daniel A. Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

A significant shortfall exists in the medical capability provided to US Service members deployed to the African Area of Responsibility because of unknown epidemiology, large distances, limited resources, and high patient movement cost. The first step in closing this gap is to understand the types, demographics, diagnoses, and distribution of the patients requiring aeromedical evacuation. This research examined the DoD’s aeromedical evacuation missions from Africa between 2010 and 2014. Of the 274 patients and 170 missions identified from available data, a gap is evident in aeromedical evacuation capability with over 23% of Priority patients and almost 10% of Urgent patients …

An Examination Of Economic Metrics As Indicators Of Air Force Retention, Helen L. Jantscher

Theses and Dissertations

Fluctuations in the economy can cause military recruitment and retention plans to go awry. By focusing on various economic metrics, it is possible to anticipate changes in retention rates for specific Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs). To address the challenge of maintaining a robust and mission capable Air Force, a correlation analysis is employed to determine the relationship between certain economic indicators and AFSC retention rates. As one might suspect, retention rates follow the trend of decreasing when the economy is strong. Of interest, we found two AFSCs which go against this trend. Namely, the retention rates for officers in …

A "Big Bang" Versus A "Small Bang" Approach: A Case Study Of The Expeditionary Combat Support System (Ecss) And The Maintenance, Repair, And Overhaul Initiative (Mroi), George B. Lafiguera

Theses and Dissertations

In 2003, the United States Air Force embarked on one of the largest and most comprehensive logistical transformation to delineate the logistics community’s strategy for supporting the warfighter. A key aspect of this campaign plan was to leverage information technology through an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution called the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), a “big-bang” approach. In early 2012, the ECSS program was cancelled mainly due to uncontrollable increases in costs and schedule overruns. In late 2012, the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) launched the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul initiative (MROi), a “small-bang” approach, to increase enterprise visibility and …

The Impact Of Reducing Full Time Support Positions In The U.S. Army National Guard And Reserves, Lucas J. Lease

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army is at a point in its history in which it, along with the other branches of the military, are experiencing cuts, constraints and a tightening of resources. The days of seemingly large budgets, abundant financial resources and high amounts of manpower are becoming a thing of the past. As the government reduces the allocations to the military, it is examining ways to reduce costs and improve its financial prospects. One of the positions examined for reduction or outright elimination is the full time support position in the U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) and Reserves (USAR). The …

Overhaul Facility Planning And Control Tool Selection And Implementation Analysis, Santiago L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The Argentine Air Force Materiel General Directorate (AAFMGD) has initiated an effort to assure logistical support and to gradually increase the productivity and efficiency of related processes. Within the efforts of increased productivity and efficiency over the AAF Overhauling Facilities, the Planning and Control Departments (PCD) became targets for improvements. These departments are tasked with providing the best certainty and visibility of all assets within their facilities to feed the logistics pipeline, and better support air operations. This thesis, sponsored by the MGD, is focused on achieving improvements in the PCD processes, through an academically rigorous evaluation of confounding factors …