Engineering Commons^™

Optimizing Strategic Planning With Long-Term Sequential Decision Making Under Uncertainty: A Decomposition Approach, Zeyu Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

The operations research literature has seen decision-making methods at both strategic and operational levels, where high-level strategic plans are first devised, followed by long-term policies that guide future day-to-day operations under uncertainties. Current literature studies such problems on a case-by-case basis, without a unified approach. In this study, we investigate the joint optimization of strategic and operational decisions from a methodological perspective, by proposing a generic two-stage long-term strategic stochastic decision-making (LSSD) framework, in which the first stage models strategic decisions with linear programming (LP), and the second stage models operational decisions with Markov decision processes (MDP). The joint optimization …

Park Equity Modeling: A Case Study Of Asheville, North Carolina, Anisa Young

All Theses

Parks and greenspaces are publicly available entities that serve the vital purpose of promoting multiple aspects of human welfare. Unfortunately, the existence of park disparities is commonplace within the park setting. Specifically, marginalized individuals encounter limited park access, insufficient amenity provision, and poor maintenance. To remedy these disparities, we propose a process in which we select candidate park facilities and utilize facility location models to determine the optimal primary parks from both existing and candidate sites.

We note that platforms currently exist to identify the geographical areas where residents lack sufficient access to parks. However, these platforms do not yet …

Optimal Aircraft Maneuvering Models For Cruise Missile Engagement: A Modeling And Computational Study, Izaiah G. Laduke

Theses and Dissertations

Given the increased threat and proliferation of adversary military capabilities, this research seeks to develop reasonably accurate and computationally tractable models to optimally maneuver aircraft to intercept cruise missile attacks. The research leveraged mathematical programming to model the problem, informed by constraints representing a system of (temporal) difference equations. The research began by comparing six models having alternative representations of velocity and acceleration constraints while analyzing situations with stationary targets. The Multiple Aircraft, Multiple Stationary Target Engagement Problem with Box Constraint Bounds (MAMSTEP-BC) Model yielded superior overall performance and was further analyzed through alternative mathematical programming model enhancements to create …

A New Approach To Career Field Matching For Commissioning Air Force Cadets, Daniel Griffen Laird

Theses and Dissertations

The current method of assigning graduating cadets from the United States Air Force Academy and Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) detachments to their career fields uses an integer programming model to maximize \global" Air Force utility, subject to several Air Force-defined constraints. This utility evaluates the positive benefit of assigning a certain cadet to a certain career field. This paper discusses the issues with such a model, as well as presents a new, more refined approach to the problem. Rather than provide a one-size-fits-all formulation of this particular assignment problem, a Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) framework is applied, in conjunction with …

The Cyber Wargame Commodity Course Of Action Automated Analysis Method, Alex Hoffendahl

Theses and Dissertations

In the modern operational landscape, strategic decisions are made and executed, under uncertain conditions, with many potential constraints and limited information. The end goal of these decisions is to minimize and mitigate the effect of adversarial threats, which may or may not act in line with previous assumptions. Wargaming is a powerful tool that allows for the practical implementation of theoretical knowledge into real-world scenarios, enhancing decision-makers critical thinking and problem solving skills. Furthermore, including cyber-effects in a wargame leads to a broader decision scope for an entire operation. This research aims to enhance the analytical capabilities and overall usability …