Systems Science Commons^™

Stop Blaming My Users: Illumination Of The Technocentric Mythos Bias, Ervin H. Frenzel, Richard Lightcap

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

 Abstract -This conceptual essay addresses the need for systemic and systematic transdisciplinary analytical techniques within cybersecurity and technical security. This conceptual essay is contingent upon recognition that cybersecurity is not simply technical in nature, it does not need an adversary, and more importantly it is based upon systems engineering and systems thinking.  The essay contributes a socio-technical attribution chain and field-specific ontology/taxonomy which distinguish user-triggered events from root causes, latent conditions, technical debt, validation failures, governance failures, and attribution bias before assigning responsibility to end users. It systematically defines an ontology inclusive of developer technical debt, organizational debt arising from …

Can Generative Ai Make Farming Decisions? Current Status And Future Pathways: A Case Study In Row Crop Production With Chatgpt, Nipuna Chamara, Yufeng Ge, Joe Luck, Yu Pan, Saleh Taghvaeian, Cory Walters, Christopher Proctor, Daran Rudnick, Daren Redfearn

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The agricultural decision-making process is experience-based, knowledge-dependent, time-sensitive, complex, and driven by historical data. Planting, fertilization, irrigation, and chemigation are key categories in farm decision-making, and currently there is no one-shot decision-support tool that covers all these activities. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are more advanced than traditional machine learning and deep learning models. These models have been trained on vast amounts of data from the internet, allowing them to accept unstructured data in various forms and generate human-like text, solutions to problems, and scenario predictions. Given this capability, we became interested in exploring the potential of generative AI in …

Assessing Passenger Electric Vehicle Growth Strategies And Their Impacts On Electricity Demand Load And Co2 Emissions In Aceh Province To Achieve Net Zero Emission Target By 2060, Taufik Hidayat, Widodo Wahyu Purwanto

Journal of Materials Exploration and Findings

The electrification of the transport sector is a crucial pathway for achieving Indonesia’s Net Zero Emissions (NZE) target by 2060. This study assesses the potential impact of passenger electric vehicle (EV) penetration on electricity demand and CO2 emissions in Aceh Province through a scenario-based modelling approach. Two policy-aligned scenarios are assessed: a low-penetration (LP) scenario and a high-penetration (HP) scenario. Using the Gompertz model and the ASIF framework, total CO2 emissions were projected from 2020 to 2060. Results show that although higher EV penetration reduces direct emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, total CO2 emissions increase more significantly under …

Ai-Scm Cmm: A Capability Maturity Model For Artificial Intelligence Integration In Supply Chain Management, Lordt Becklines, Omar F. El-Gayar, Patti Brooks, Insu Park

Annual Research Symposium

Artificial intelligence is increasingly deployed in supply chain management, yet many organizations struggle to align adoption efforts with process readiness, data quality, governance, and workforce capabilities, and they still lack validated supply chain specific roadmap for assessing readiness, sequencing investments, and reducing implementation risk. This study develops and evaluates a Capability Maturity Model for Artificial Intelligence Integration in Supply Chain Management to address that gap. Using a design science research approach, the study synthesizes prior literature and practitioner knowledge to define maturity dimensions, capability indicators, and staged progression levels for AI integration in supply chain contexts. The artifact and assessment …

A Capability Maturity Model For Artificial Intelligence Integration In Supply Chain Management, Lordt Becklines

Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming Supply Chain Management (SCM), yet many organizations struggle to assess their readiness for AI adoption and to understand how AI capabilities develop across maturity stages. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for AI integration in SCM, grounded in Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT), the Resource-Based View, and related capability frameworks. The model provides a structured approach for evaluating an organization's information-processing requirements, resource configurations, and alignment needed for effective AI-enabled supply chain operations.

Using a design science research approach, the AI-SCM CMM and its associated assessment instrument were derived …

Comparative Analysis Of Emergent Behaviors Of Three Drone Swarm System Models For Targeting Using Agent-Based Modeling And Simulation, Arsenio T. Gumahad Ii

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a novel computational simulation framework for evaluating the emergent behaviors of three swarm drone models using Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS). The three swarm models are a Leader-Follower swarm model based on Bruckstein's antline theory, a Flocking model based on a simplified Reynolds 'Boids’ model, and a Stigmergic model with pheromone-based coordination. The primary objective of the simulation is to evaluate the performance of these models in delivering a user-defined number of drones of each type to a target area of interest in four separate scenarios, resulting in 50,000 separate simulation trials. Each scenario was structured to …

Understanding The Elements Of Sterile Processing Workflow: Or, Sterilization And Personnel, Sayed Rezwanul Islam

All Dissertations

The Sterile Processing Department (SPD), also known as the Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD), is an essential part of hospitals and healthcare facilities and is responsible for ensuring the cleanliness, sterility, and proper functioning of medical instruments. Sterile processing departments (SPDs) are key drivers of productivity, effectiveness, safety, and infection control in hospitals. A well-designed SPD workflow can enhance patient safety, reduce operating room (OR) delays, and improve productivity. To understand the flow of sterile processing and interactions between the OR and SPD, process maps and task analyses were developed through direct observations of the basic SPD functions: decontamination, assembly, …

Complex System Governance And Cyber Operations, Willie Gernard Mccallister

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the potential integration of Complex System Governance (CSG) within cybersecurity, emphasizing the development of a reference model for Cybersecurity Infrastructures. Traditional strategies for securing digital environments have struggled to address the intricate and dynamic layers inherent in modern cybersecurity systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of CSG as a framework to assess cybersecurity infrastructure using a case study research design. The research addresses two key questions: (1) How can the CSG reference model be adapted to explore cybersecurity infrastructure? (2) What results from CSG based exploration of cybersecurity infrastructure through a case …

A Methodology For Model-Based Certification, Jay Albert Silverman

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A need for a single source of knowledge for design decisions has led to the development of a new field of systems engineering, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) (Delligati, 2014). System certification is defined as affirming that regulatory requirements for a system have been met (Goodwin & Juzaitis, 2006). System certification is a specific application of system validation. System verification can be defined as ensuring that the system of interest (SOI), as designed, is in accordance with the design inputs/requirements. System validation can be defined as ensuring that the SOI, as designed, meets the defined system needs (Wolfgand, Katz, & Wheatcraft, …

Mission Engineering Competencies Workshop Report: Roles, Responsibilities, And Skills, James D. Moreland, Jr. (Editor), Thomas Irwin, Robert-Allen Baker

Center for Mission Engineering (CME) Publications

This report summarizes the findings of a two-day Old Dominion University Mission Engineering Workshop involving the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the University of New South Wales, and Old Dominion University, focused on defining the roles, competencies, and skills essential to Mission Engineering. It presents a structured competency framework and offers recommendations to guide workforce development, training, and cross-agency collaboration in support of complex, mission-driven systems.

An Msbe–Driven Advanced Air Mobility Post–Disaster Response System, Olabode A. Olanipekun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

In this work, an overarching conceptual design model towards the realization of a proposed Advanced Air Mobility Post–Disaster Response System (AAMPDR system) was explored through the focal lenses of systems thinking (ST), socio–technical systems (STS) and model–based systems engineering (MBSE) paradigms. Initially aimed at providing intervention for casualties and aerial support to emergency rescue workers on the ground in the event of a hurricane disaster around the Gulf shore of the Mobile bay area, Mobile city, AL., the scope of this research subsequently expanded to include a global outlook. Thereafter, culminating in the development of a generalized AAMPDR system model …

Network Analysis Of Sociotechnical Systems, Siva Kadiresan

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Sociotechnical networks have become integral frameworks in the accomplishment of organizational objectives by increasingly diverse, cross-functional, and technology-enabled modern teams. In cross-disciplinary teamwork, multiple mediating and moderating factors appear to lend context to the effects of team diversity faultlines on team outcomes. In the several decades of research into teamwork from a network perspective, there has been a paucity of empirical studies that examine how team transition processes and cross-disciplinary connections influence the impact of faultlines on team performance. This study investigates the association among perceived teamwork effectiveness, transition processes, cross-functional team connections, and faultlines in the context of sociotechnical …

A Theoretical Framework For Examination Of Context In Complex System Governance, Meggan M. Schoenberg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

“A complex system’s identity and viability are directly related and affected by its context. It is important to identify, monitor, and manage (or mitigate risk) system contextual elements” (Keating C. B. et al., 2022, p. 209). Despite this importance, there is very limited research and literature on complex systems context. This research seeks to expand our understanding of complex system context and improve our ability to govern complex technology development programs effectively. The ability to analyze complex systems and their problems is necessary for this improvement.

A “clear understanding of the specific complex system context is fundamental to the process …

A Sysml V2 Implementation Of A Traceability And Verification Metamodel For “-Ilities”, Pacifique Munezero

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Multidisciplinary knowledge and exchange of information are two of the most important aspects of complex system design within the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) domain. The next generation of systems modeling language, SysML v2, is being developed to improve the precision, expressiveness, interoperability, consistency, integration of the language concepts relative to SysML v1, and the implementation and maturation of MBSE approaches. This research focuses on using SysML v2 to model structured notations for -ilities, referred to as non-functional requirements (NFRs), to address how they can be treated with the same rigor as functional requirements and mapped directly and explicitly from the …

The Effect Of Need For Cognition & Need For Affect On Human Reliance And Artificial Intelligence Interactions, Aliyah Mcgowan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Abstract

With the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) automations in fields like medical diagnoses and mental health queries, there are concerns regarding an individual’s trust and reliance on the technology. Reliance on AI output may lead an individual to accept inaccurate or incorrect information without further analysis. Trust may influence reliance and trust formation may be a product of affective processing. This study investigated the relationship between Need for Affect (NFA), Need for Cognition (NFC), and trust and reliance on AI interactions. Participants were assessed on the NFA scale for willingness to approach or avoid emotional stimuli, the NFC …

Thermal Management For Optimal Performance Of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cells, Mythy Tran, Ayodeji Demuren

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Hydrogen is an excellent carrier for energy storage and can be produced from various green and renewable sources. However, the cost of producing hydrogen and converting it to useful energy is much higher than fossil fuel and traditional energy generation and storage systems. Unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFC) maximize utilization of high-cost cells and their components, thus, lowering system capital cost. Improving the URFC efficiency is an effective way to lower its operating cost. This study evaluates utilization of waste heat during operation and recovery strategy to improve system efficiency of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) URFC. A COMSOL Multiphysics 3-D …

Leveraging Physiological Signal Activity And Self-Report Data To Assess Students’ Trust In “My Friendly Mind” App And Its Impact On Their Mental Health Knowledge: A Mixed-Method Phase 1 Clinical Trial Focusing On Depression And Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder From Human Factors Standpoint., Yeganeh Shahsavar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mental health issues have become a significant global public health concern, especially among younger generations. The growing number of mental health challenges, combined with limited access to quality care, makes the problem even worse. Studies reveal that over 70% of individuals worldwide in need of mental health services do not receive appropriate care. Digital health technologies have the potential to enhance mental health services by making them more accessible and affordable. Despite the increasing popularity of mental health mobile applications (mHealth), there remains a lack of robust evidence of their effectiveness and the level of user trust, particularly in areas …

Application Of Systems Engineering Principles In A Reliability Assessment Of Air- Cooled Heat Exchangers, Dheerajkumar R Narang

Harrisburg University Experiential Learning Projects

A significant systems engineering challenge exists due to the lack of a comprehensive methodology that holistically addresses both the static and dynamic components of air-cooled heat exchangers. Traditional methodologies often overlook the dynamic components—such as fin blades, electrical motors, gearboxes and propellers (fans)—that are integral to the overall performance and reliability of the air-cooled heat exchangers. The absence of an integrated framework that considers the interdependencies and interactions between mechanical and dynamic components complicates the task of accurately assessing the remaining life and ensuring the reliability of the entire system.

This article proposes a holistic RLA and reliability engineering framework …

Computational Representation, Analysis And Verification Of Requirements In Engineering Design And Systems Engineering, Chandan Kumar Sahu

All Dissertations

Systems are developed to satisfy a set of requirements derived from stakeholders’ needs, defining the problem space for which the system is created as a feasible solution. The system design process begins with eliciting these requirements and concludes with validating whether the created system meets them. Requirements engineering (RE) encompasses elicitation, representation, analysis, documentation, verification, and validation. However, challenges in RE, such as imprecision in natural language (NL), proprietary restrictions, and a lack of standardized quality metrics, hinder the creation of well-formed and comprehensive requirements. These challenges complicate formalization and analysis of requirements.

This dissertation addresses these challenges by proposing …

An Agent-Based Approach For Designing A Sustainable Supplier Selection In Stochastic Environment: A Simulation Study, Sheida Etemadidavan

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In the 21st century, businesses are constantly striving for competitive advancement and increasing their economic performance in the rapidly changing market. Collaboration with other businesses and partnerships with them are becoming more common. As such, businesses are starting to invest in finding the right partners to stay competitive in an ever-changing business landscape. Suppliers play a crucial role in businesses' decision-making as they provide the materials, goods, and services necessary for a company to operate and succeed. Therefore, their selection, management, and relationship must be carefully considered to ensure optimal performance and profitability. A sustainable framework in a business's relationship …

A Theoretical Framework For Resilience In Complex System Governance (Csg), Susan A. Caskey

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses a critical gap in resilience research within complex systems by developing a theoretical framework for governance resilience—an underexplored area despite governance's crucial role in maintaining system resilience. Using the Complex System Governance (CSG) framework (Keating, Katina, Chesterman, et al., 2022; Keating & Katina, 2019), resilience is conceptualized as a system's ability to absorb disturbances while sustaining performance and enabling adaptive transformation. This involves three main capabilities: persistence, adaptability, and transformation in response to both internal and external pressures.

Through a constructivist grounded theory approach involving iterative coding, memoing, and theory development, this study inductively constructs a governance …

A Systems Theory-Based Framework For Uncertainty In Complex System Governance, Teresa Anne Crater

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Complex systems are all around. A complex system is a system whose collective behavior is more than the behavior exhibited by the individual parts. Such a system is characterized by an exponential increase in information, complexity, ambiguity, emergence, and high levels of uncertainty (Jaradat, 2015). Uncertainty is intrinsic to complex systems. Uncertainty refers to epistemic situations involving imperfect or unknown information. Uncertainty can refer to the chance of certain anticipated outcomes occurring, or it can refer to the unknown events that are not foreseeable as to when or if one might occur. It applies to predictions of future events, to …

Development Of A Conceptual Framework For Complex System Governance (Csg) Performance Measurement, James Hartwell Rutherford

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Within the Complex System Governance (CSG) paradigm, system performance is regulated by nine metasystem governance functions, which provide control, communication, coordination, and integration. However, CSG has lacked a fully developed model or language to richly articulate system performance at a conceptual level. The purpose of this research was to develop a systems theory-based conceptual framework to measure the performance of CSG metasystem governance using an inductive research design.

Although ‘good performance’ may seem like an obvious idea, the current literature on performance measurement across many disciplines and contexts contains vastly inconsistent uses of the word ‘performance.’ Both researchers and practitioners …

Examining The Impact Of Customer Rfp Characteristics On Award Compliance, Laasya Ravipati

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the context of intermodal transportation, understanding the dynamics of award compliance holds significant importance for operational efficiency and strategic decision-making. Award compliance refers to the percentage of awarded freight volume that is realized, indicating the extent to which contractual agreements are fulfilled. This analysis delves into the intricate relationship between customer characteristics and award compliance, aiming to provide valuable insights into the variability and predictability of compliance rates. By analyzing Request for Pricing (RFP) data and primary awarded freight volumes, the study seeks to address the need for more accurate volume estimations, crucial for sales planning, revenue projections, and …

Technical Data Package For Sysmlv2 Vignettes, Allen W. Dukes

Student Publications

This Technical Data Package (TDP) thoroughly compiles instructions, concepts, and solutions for eight SysMLv2 vignettes. Each vignette illustrates methods to solve complex system modeling challenges. The initial concept for each vignette can drive the use and evaluation of a custom SysMLv2 modeling tool as shown in [1]. They can support a baseline set of tasks to compare usability with other SysMLv2 modeling software tools.

The document starts with three pairs of vignettes for modeling a hypothetical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operated with a Virtual Reality (VR) headset derived from AFIT WKSP 696. The final pair of vignettes focus on two …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

The Hazard Prediction Problem, Mary E. Helander, Brendan Smith, Sylvia Charchut, Erika Swiatowy, Calvin Nau, Gregory Cavaretta, Timothy Schuler, Adam Schunk, Héctor Ortiz-Peña

Social Science - All Scholarship

This work formulates the hazard prediction problem while addressing the research question: Can machine learning create a model to automatically recognize patterns that correspond to hazard state conditions during a mission-critical operation? Supervised learning models were trained and tested on data observed from mission simulators, which allowed for safe observation of dynamic system states and undesirable casualty events. The prediction task was formulated as a binary classification problem, producing the probability of being in a hazard state at time t and providing situational awareness of a possible imminent loss. Several modeling architectures were investigated: neural networks, logistic regression, a support …

Mouralherwaqh Coastal Wetland Road Crossing Da'luk, Romel Robinson Ii

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The integration of Indigenous and Western science plays an essential role in Tribally led collaborations for land management. This process of woven sciences is rooted in reciprocal relations and partnerships guided by Tribal Nations. Our cohort was invited by Wiyot Tribal Representatives to investigate a culvert located within the wetlands of Mouralherwaqh— a parcel of land reacquired by the Wiyot Tribe in 2022. This document seeks to share our experience and analysis as part of the Wiyot Tribe’s broader journey in navigating ecocultural restoration projects within Mouralherwaqh. The four community interests we investigated for the wetland crossing included a resized …

Co-Evolving Multi-Agent Transfer Reinforcement Learning Via Scenario Independent Representation, Ayesha Siddiqua

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) addresses complex tasks involving cooperation and competition among agents, training them to develop optimal policies for collective goals. However, facilitating simultaneous learning for multiple agents is challenging because the complexity increases rapidly with the number of agents. Current methods encompass a variety of centralized, decentralized, semi-centralized, and hybrid approaches to balance the trade-offs between computational efficiency, scalability, and coordination in MARL. In this study, I employed a centralized training with semi-centralized execution (CTSCE) framework, utilize both local observations from agents and abstracted global observations to effectively train agents in cooperative environments. Additionally, earning complex, domain-specific tasks …

Towards Agile Academia: An Approach To Scientific Paper Writing Inspired By Software Engineering, Tyler Procko

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The construction of scientific papers is performed in service of the greater scientific community. This iterative process is, in effect, an academic economy, where all members benefit from well-written papers. However, many published scientific papers are poorly written; they often lack sufficient detail to allow replication, there is improper usage of citations or a lack of regard to relevant work, reporting is vague or without linked empirical data to allow verification, figures do not correspond to text or are non-sensical, literary elements, e.g., bulleted lists, are used ineffectively, formatting renders certain sections unreadable, and grammatical errors abound. The issues of …