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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Prioritizing Facilities Linked To Corporate Strategic Objectives Using A Fuzzy Model, Devin Depalmer, Steven J. Schuldt, Justin D. Delorit Jun 2021

Prioritizing Facilities Linked To Corporate Strategic Objectives Using A Fuzzy Model, Devin Depalmer, Steven J. Schuldt, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Excerpt: Limited facilities operating and modernization budgets require organizations to carefully identify, prioritize and authorize projects to ensure allocated resources align with strategic objectives. Traditional facility prioritization methods using risk matrices can be improved to increase granularity in categorization and avoid mathematical error or human cognitive biases. These limitations restrict the utility of prioritizations and if erroneously used to select projects for funding, they can lead to wasted resources. This paper aims to propose a novel facility prioritization methodology that corrects these assessment design and implementation issues.


Methods For Using Manpower To Assess Usaf Strategic Risk, Calvin J. Bradshaw Iii Jun 2019

Methods For Using Manpower To Assess Usaf Strategic Risk, Calvin J. Bradshaw Iii

Theses and Dissertations

With limited personnel resource funding availability, senior US Air Force (USAF) decision makers struggle to base enterprise resource allocation from rigorous analytical traceability. There are over 240 career fields in the USAF spanning 12 enterprises. Each enterprise develops annual risk assessments by distinctive core capabilities. A core capability (e.g. Research and Development) is an enabling function necessary for the USAF to perform its mission as part of the Department of Defense (DOD). Assessing risk at the core capability is a good start to assessing risk, but is still not comprehensiveness enough. One of the twelve enterprises has linked its task …


Validation And Improvement Of Reliability Methods For Air Force Building Systems, Patrick A. Deering Mar 2016

Validation And Improvement Of Reliability Methods For Air Force Building Systems, Patrick A. Deering

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force manages its civil infrastructure resource allocation via a two-dimensional risk model consisting of the consequence of failure and reliability. Air Force civil engineers currently use the BUILDER® Sustainment Management System to estimate and predict reliability at multiple levels within its civil infrastructure systems. Alley (2015) developed and validated a probabilistic model to calculate reliability at the system level. The probabilistic model was found to be a significant improvement over the currently employed BUILDER® model for four major building systems (electrical, HVAC, fire protection, and electrical). This research assessed the performance and accuracy of both the …


A Spatial Risk Analysis Of Oil Refineries Within The United States, Zachary L. Schiff Mar 2012

A Spatial Risk Analysis Of Oil Refineries Within The United States, Zachary L. Schiff

Theses and Dissertations

A risk analysis methodology is necessary to manage the potential effects of oil refinery outages to the increasingly connected, interdependent critical infrastructure of the United States. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the lack of a critical infrastructure risk mitigation strategy was identified as an area for improvement. In both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, cascading failures occurred due to the interdependencies among infrastructures and their spatial relationships. Furthermore, the U.S. military is dependent on oil refining capability and a major shortage could potentially have devastating effects on mission accomplishment. As a result, a need has emerged to better …


Application Of Reliability And Linear Regression To Enterprise Architecture In Support Of The Us Air Force's Capability Review And Risk Assessment, Peter C. Mastro, Richard L. Orcutt Mar 2009

Application Of Reliability And Linear Regression To Enterprise Architecture In Support Of The Us Air Force's Capability Review And Risk Assessment, Peter C. Mastro, Richard L. Orcutt

Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the use of modeling and enterprise architecture in the analysis of Air Force Capabilities. The Air Force accomplishes this through the Capability Review and Risk Assessment (CRRA). The CRRA is currently performed by building architectures which contain Process Sequence Models (PSMs). PSMs are scored by Subject Matter Experts to determine the probability of successfully completing the mission they model and ultimately to determine the risk associated to Air Force capabilities. Two findings were identified. The first is that creating additional architectural viewpoints, some of which are currently being proposed for version 2.0 of the DoD Architecture Framework, …


Formal Mitigation Strategies For The Insider Threat: A Security Model And Risk Analysis Framework, Jonathan W. Butts Mar 2006

Formal Mitigation Strategies For The Insider Threat: A Security Model And Risk Analysis Framework, Jonathan W. Butts

Theses and Dissertations

The advancement of technology and reliance on information systems have fostered an environment of sharing and trust. The rapid growth and dependence on these systems, however, creates an increased risk associated with the insider threat. The insider threat is one of the most challenging problems facing the security of information systems because the insider already has capabilities within the system. Despite research efforts to prevent and detect insiders, organizations remain susceptible to this threat because of inadequate security policies and a willingness of some individuals to betray their organization. To investigate these issues, a formal security model and risk analysis …


Selection And Application Of Distorted Risk Measures, Edwin J. Offutt Mar 2005

Selection And Application Of Distorted Risk Measures, Edwin J. Offutt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops and illustrates a methodology for the selection of probability distributions and distortion functions associated with risk scenarios resulting from military capability shortfalls. Distorted (or transformed) risk measures are analyzed and applied to account for loss scenarios that may occur with low frequency but result in catastrophic outcomes. After reviewing the rudimentary concepts of distortion, four well-known continuous distributions, suitable for modeling risk scenarios, are chosen using defined criteria. Based on subject matter expert inputs, a simple method for assigning exactly one of the four distributions to any risk scenario is proposed. Four parametric distortion functions from the …


Measuring The Risk Of Shortfalls In Air Force Capabilities, William E. Woodward Mar 2004

Measuring The Risk Of Shortfalls In Air Force Capabilities, William E. Woodward

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Air Force seeks to measure and prioritize risk as part of its Capabilities Review and Risk Assessment (CRRA) process. The goal of the CRRA is to identify capability shortfalls, and the risks associated with those shortfalls, to influence future systems acquisition. Many fields, including engineering, medicine and finance, seek to model and measure risks. This research utilizes various risk measurement approaches to propose appropriate risk measures for a military context. Specifically, risk is modeled as a non-negative random variable of severity. Four measures are examined: simple expectation, a risk-value measure, tail conditional expectation, and distorted expectation. Risk measures …


Outsourcing Information Technology And The Insider Threat, Valerie L. Caruso Mar 2003

Outsourcing Information Technology And The Insider Threat, Valerie L. Caruso

Theses and Dissertations

As one of our nation's top critical infrastructures, telecommunications is an essential element of many aspects of our lives upon which we, as a society, are becoming increasingly dependent. Computers, digital telephone switches, and interconnected information technology (IT) systems impact finances, travel, infrastructure management, and missions of national defense. This research examined whether the trend in increased outsourcing of information technology systems is a significant contributing factor to a reportedly increasing amount of insider attacks. In light of changing social, global economic, and technological conditions, the paradigm in which risk analysis, management practices, and operational and personnel security practices are …


Personnel Airdrop Risk Assessment Using Bootstrap Sampling, Wonsik Kim Dec 1996

Personnel Airdrop Risk Assessment Using Bootstrap Sampling, Wonsik Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Previous work on personnel airdrop problems involving jumpers has been (1) event-oriented entanglement rates, (2) number of canopy bumps, (3) landing injuries, and (4) deaths. The thesis expands this area of research by developing cumulative distribution functions of maximum possible chute entanglement risk for the C-17 using bootstrap techniques. By comparing the effects of various C-17 aircraft configurations on the entanglement CDF, this thesis shows that under certain configurations the risk of centerline entanglement for the C-17 is less than for the C-141.


Estimating Risks In Emerging Soil Remediation Technologies, Thomas J. Timmerman Mar 1996

Estimating Risks In Emerging Soil Remediation Technologies, Thomas J. Timmerman

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Energy is focusing a long-term development effort on producing cheaper, safer, and faster state-of-the-art soil remediation technologies. To assist with the management of these innovative technology development projects, ways of quantifiably measuring technical risk were investigated through a detailed literature review. 'Technical risk' was defined in this study as the combination of the consequences of undesired events and their likelihood. Careful design of the inputs into a technology selection decision support system accounted for the uncertainty in forecasting final characteristics of remediation technologies still in the early phases of R&D. Experts made subjective probability estimates of these …