Engineering Commons^™

Level Of Agreement In The Mental Models Of Human Factors Practitioners And Systems Engineers Working In Collaborative Teams, Jerry A. Gordon

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Emerging research in complexity science recognizes traditional techniques for engineering systems do not always work for complex systems. Designing complex systems requires individuals to have knowledge of engineering as well as human performance. To this end, design efforts rely often on multi-disciplinary teams. While any two members of a design team may view the system design problem in vastly different manners, this study sought to identify a possible systemic effect on approach by the differing education and experience obtained by social practitioners, represented by human factors, and technical practitioners, represented by systems engineers. It further examined the impact of the …

Leveraging Carbon Financing To Enable Accountable Water Treatment Programs, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article outlines the technical premise and policy considerations surrounding the first program to generate carbon finance for drinking water treatment.

Minimization Of Collateral Damage In Airdrops And Airstrikes, Steven P. Dillenburger

Theses and Dissertations

Collateral damage presents a significant risk during air drops and airstrikes, risking citizens' lives and property, straining the relationship between the United States Air Force and host nations. This dissertation presents a methodology to determine the optimal location for making supply airdrops in order to minimize collateral damage while maintaining a high likelihood of successful recovery. A series of non-linear optimization algorithms is presented along with their relative success in finding the optimal location in the airdrop problem. Additionally, we present a quick algorithm for accurately creating the Pareto frontier in the multi-objective airstrike problem. We demonstrate the effect of …

Effective Measurement Of Reliability Of Repairable Usaf Systems, Louis J. Hogge

Theses and Dissertations

The USAF generally does not know the reliability of its fielded repairable systems. The reported metric, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), is too lagging to be actionable in the best case, and is not representative of actual system reliability in the worst case. This thesis investigates the statistical techniques for measurement and analysis of the reliability of fielded repairable systems, which are very different than nonrepairables. To frame the investigation, a comparison is made between the generally accepted definitions and metrics and those used across the US Air Force (USAF). Reliability can be analyzed in four context areas: reliability prediction …

The Multiobjective Average Network Flow Problem: Formulations, Algorithms, Heuristics, And Complexity, Jeremy D. Jordan

Theses and Dissertations

Integrating value focused thinking with the shortest path problem results in a unique formulation called the multiobjective average shortest path problem. We prove this is NP-complete for general graphs. For directed acyclic graphs, an efficient algorithm and even faster heuristic are proposed. While the worst case error of the heuristic is proven unbounded, its average performance on random graphs is within 3% of the optimal solution. Additionally, a special case of the more general biobjective average shortest path problem is given, allowing tradeoffs between decreases in arc set cardinality and increases in multiobjective value; the algorithm to solve the average …

Acuta Enews September 2012 Vol. 41, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

In this issue....

NY City, the New WTC, and ACUTA

Overheard via eMail: Legacy Systems

UC Cloud Security: Avoiding an Identity Crisis

Board Report

Annual Dues Reminders Mailed July 3

Sense- Making: Why People Won't Be Replaced by Computers Anytime Soon

Young Professionals-- What's in It for You?

Webinar FREE to Members

Info Links

PCI Compliance of Increasing Importance to Higher Ed

ACUTA Member Benefit: Post and Access RFPs Welcome New Members

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Systems Engineering Applications For Small Business Innovative Research (Sbir) Projects, Phillip J. O'Connell

Theses and Dissertations

This research defined Systems Engineering applications for Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) projects and answered five research questions addressing the essential elements and application of SE processes within the SBIR community. The research identified that current DoD and Air Force SE Policy do not specifically address SBIR projects. This research identified the need to tailor a SE approach for SBIR projects as overarching policy is not applicable in all cases. The culmination of this effort defined the current SE tasks applicable for the SBIR community.

The In-Transit Vigilant Covering Tour Problem Of Routing Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Huang Teng Tan

Theses and Dissertations

The routing of unmanned ground vehicles for the surveillance and protection of key installations is modeled as a new variant of the Covering Tour Problem (CTP). The CTP structure provides both the routing and target sensing components of the installation protection problem. Our variant is called the in-transit Vigilant Covering Tour Problem (VCTP) and considers not only the vertex cover but also the additional edge coverage capability of the unmanned ground vehicle while sensing in-transit between vertices. The VCTP is formulated as a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with a dual set covering structure involving vertices and edges. An empirical study …

Container-Handling Operation Optimization At Koja Container Terminal, Moh Taufik Hidayat

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Study On Optimal Dwell Time At Jakarta International Container Terminal, Siti Nurrochmah Badrudin

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Freight Forecasting Of Dry Bulk Market Based On The Bp Neural Network, Qianran Huang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of Erp Software In Material Supply Chain Management For Siix Corp., Xing'er Chen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Extendsim-Based Research On Transport Process Optimization Of Emergency Cold-Chain Logistics, Ran Zhang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Rationality Study On Capacity Allocation For Cscl’S Asia-Europe Route, Yan Zhou

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Rough-Cut Capacity Planning In Multimodal Freight Transportation Networks, Robert B. Hartlage

Theses and Dissertations

A main challenge in transporting cargo for United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is in mode selection or integration. Demand for cargo is time sensitive and must be fulfilled by an established due date. Since these due dates are often inflexible, commercial carriers are used at an enormous expense, in order to fill the gap in organic transportation asset capacity. This dissertation develops a new methodology for transportation capacity assignment to routes based on the Resource Constrained Shortest Path Problem (RCSP). Routes can be single or multimodal depending on the characteristics of the network, delivery timeline, modal capacities, and costs. The …

The Effect Of Stretch Wrap Pre-Stretch On Unitized Load Containment, Evan A. Cernokus

Master's Theses

There are three main factors affecting the stability of a palletized load that is unitized by a stretch wrapping mechanism. These factors include the type of unitized load, wrapping configuration and shipping method. The wrapping configuration is determined on the basis of the type of unitized load and shipping method. For this study, the aforementioned components were referred to as the package, the product, and the distribution environment. These components come together to make up a stretch wrapping system. The package corresponds to the stretch wrap film that is packaging the unitized load and pallet. The product corresponds to the …

Acuta Enews August 2012 Vol. 41, No. 8

ACUTA Newsletters

In this issue....

ACUTA Strategic Planning Retreat

What's on Your Desk?

Windstream Provides Calling Service to ACUTA

Are We stuck with "Islands" of UC Interoperability?

Operator Services

Novel & Adaptive Thinking: Working without FAQs

Member Benefit of the Month: Discounted Registration Fees

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Mentors Make a Difference

Consider Speaking Opportunities

LEED- Certified Building Stock Swells to 2 Billion Square Feet Worldwide

Welcome New Members

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A Model For Optimizing The Allocation Of Ethanol Production In The U.S., Anali Huggins

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the last five years, fuel prices have fluctuated from 2.86$/gallon to 3.87$/gallon which represents an increase of 35%. This situation has collocated the ethanol manufacturing in an advantageous situation. However, a major problem that is faced by the ethanol producers is the high cost of transportation. The objective of this thesis study is to determine the optimal allocation of ethanol production in the U.S. in 2009 that minimizes the transportation cost. This thesis is based on the application of a linear programing model. The thesis is focused on two questions. The first is the optimal allocation of ethanol between …

Healthcare Quality: Waiting Room Issues, Vineeth R. Yeddula

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In today’s hyper-competitive market, customers are faced with many different options when deciding on a specific healthcare provider. Due to the varying options, quality and service stand out as two essential elements that influence the selection process. If the quality is not met, the healthcare organizations have to face several issues such as customer retention, value, safety, litigation, and reputation. Patient satisfaction has emerged as an increasingly important parameter in the assessment of health care quality. Waiting time is considered to be an important determinant of patient satisfaction. As patients experience a greater squeeze on their time, short waits seem …

Locating And Protecting Facilities Subject To Random Disruptions And Attacks, Hugh Medal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent events such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan have revealed the vulnerability of networks such as supply chains to disruptive events. In particular, it has become apparent that the failure of a few elements of an infrastructure system can cause a system-wide disruption. Thus, it is important to learn more about which elements of infrastructure systems are most critical and how to protect an infrastructure system from the effects of a disruption. This dissertation seeks to enhance the understanding of how to design and protect networked infrastructure systems from disruptions by developing new mathematical models and …

Optimization Models And Algorithms For Truckload Relay Network Design, Hector Andres Vergara Arteaga

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Driver turnover is a significant problem for full truckload (TL) carriers that operate using point-to-point (PtP) dispatching. The low quality of life of drivers due to the long periods of time they spend away from home is usually identified as one of the main reasons for the high turnover. In contrast, driver turnover is not as significant for less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers that use hub-and-spoke transportation networks which allow drivers to return home more frequently. Based on the differences between TL and LTL, the use of a relay network (RN) has been proposed as an alternative dispatching method for TL transportation …

Forecast Of Wireless Communication Technology: A Comparative Study Of Regression And Tfdea Model, Dong-Joon Lim, Timothy R. Anderson, Jisun Kim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presents a formal comparison of TFDEA with regression model to forecast wireless communication technology. In addition to the data set from the former research, up-to-2011 4G network technologies are added and analyzed. The research was designed to set the point of forecasting in 2001 so that technologies between 2001 and 2011 are to be forecasted using data set between 1979 and 2001. The results from both TFDEA and regression model are compared and discussed. This comparative study can provide forecasters with different aspects between 'best-practice measurement' and 'average practice measurement' and, ultimately, help to select the suitable approach …

Modeling The Adoption Of Identification Standards Within The Healthcare Supply Chain, Angelica Burbano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The adoption of identification standards and its associated technology in the healthcare supply chain has been slow over the past twenty five years, despite the evidence of the benefits that can be achieved. The widespread use of identification standards in the form of barcode labeled medical products can contribute to the reduction of point of care errors and can increase the efficiency of healthcare supply chain related processes. This research is focused on the analysis of the adoption of identification standards in the healthcare supply chain with a particular focus on the healthcare provider adoption challenges. The research is divided …

The Patrol Scheduling Problem, Hoong Chuin Lau, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents the problem of scheduling security teams to patrol a mass rapid transit rail network of a large urban city. The main objective of patrol scheduling is to deploy security teams to stations at varying time periods of the network subject to rostering as well as security-related constraints. We present a mathematical programming model for this problem. We then discuss the aspect of injecting randomness by varying the start times, the break times for each team as well as the number of visits required for each station according to their reported vulnerability. Finally, we present results for the …

Uncertain Congestion Games With Assorted Human Agent Populations, Asrar Ahmed, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Congestion games model a wide variety of real-world resource congestion problems, such as selfish network routing, traffic route guidance in congested areas, taxi fleet optimization and crowd movement in busy areas. However, existing research in congestion games assumes: (a) deterministic movement of agents between resources; and (b) perfect rationality (i.e. maximizing their own expected value) of all agents. Such assumptions are not reasonable in dynamic domains where decision support has to be provided to humans. For instance, in optimizing the performance of a taxi fleet serving a city, movement of taxis can be involuntary or nondeterministic (decided by the specific …

Dynamic Stochastic Orienteering Problems For Risk-Aware Applications, Hoong Chuin Lau, William Yeoh, Pradeep Varakantham, Duc Thien Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Orienteering problems (OPs) are a variant of the well-known prize-collecting traveling salesman problem, where the salesman needs to choose a subset of cities to visit within a given deadline. OPs and their extensions with stochastic travel times (SOPs) have been used to model vehicle routing problems and tourist trip design problems. However, they suffer from two limitations travel times between cities are assumed to be time independent and the route provided is independent of the risk preference (with respect to violating the deadline) of the user. To address these issues, we make the following contributions: We introduce (1) a dynamic …

Toward Large-Scale Agent Guidance In An Urban Taxi Service, Agussurja Lucas, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Empty taxi cruising represents a wastage of resources in the context of urban taxi services. In this work, we seek to minimize such wastage. An analysis of a large trace of taxi operations reveals that the services’ inefficiency is caused by drivers’ greedy cruising behavior. We model the existing system as a continuous time Markov chain. To address the problem, we propose that each taxi be equipped with an intelligent agent that will guide the driver when cruising for passengers. Then, drawing from AI literature on multiagent planning, we explore two possible ways to compute such guidance. The first formulation …

Bidder Behaviors In Repeated B2b Procurement Auctions, Jong Han Park, Jae Kyu Lee, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

B2B auctions play a key role in a firm's procurement process. Even though it is known that repetition is a key characteristic of procurement auctions, traditional auctioneers typically have not put in place a suitable mechanism that supports repetitive auctions effectively. In this paper, we empirically investigate what has taken place in repeated procurement auctions based on real world data from a major outsourcing company of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) items in Korea. From this empirical study, we discovered the followings. First, we discovered that the repeated bidders contribute majority of all bids, and that the number of new …

Measuring Sustainability, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The World Health Organization estimates that 884 million people do not have access to safe sources of drinking water. Meanwhile, about half of the world's population continues to use unsustainable, biomassbased energy sources for indoor fuel, leading to extensive deforestation, harmful indoor air emissions, and in many cases upper respiratory disease and high commodity costs for impoverished families. Exacerbating these problems are the international effects of climate change, expected to significantly impact developing countries by changing water and energy quality and availability. International development organizations work tirelessly to address these challenges. However, many efforts struggle with achieving long-term sustainability; many …

Thermo-Mechanical Modeling Of The Electrically-Assisted Manufacturing (Eam) Technique During Open Die Forging, Wesley Salandro

All Dissertations

This thesis contains all of the steps which allow the Electrically-Assisted Manufacturing (EAM) technique to be experimentally explored and analytically modeled for an electrically-assisted forging operation. Chapter 1 includes the problem statement, proposed solution, and literature reviews on EAM. Chapter 2 describes a thorough background on the EAM technique, highlights prior EAM research, and explains the research approach taken for this thesis. The coupled thermo-mechanical modeling strategy, along with the introduction of the Electroplastic Effect Coefficient (EEC) is provided in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 explains the two different approaches to determine the EEC profiles when modeling a particular metal. The …