For additional information, contact Dr. Jill Hardin at jrhardin@vcu.edu
“Screening Passengers for Aviation Security”
Statistical Sciences and Operations Research
Virginia Commonwealth University
Monday, October 16, 4:00 p.m.
Student Commons, Virginia Room B
Designing effective aviation security systems has become a problem of national concern. Passenger screening is an important component of aviation security. Developing real-time passenger screening strategies can be quite challenging. This presentation identifies a methodology that can be used in real-time to optimally assign passengers to aviation security resources using optimization and Markov decision process models. A prescreening system determines the passengers' perceived risk levels, which becomes known upon check-in. The objective is to use the passengers' perceived risk levels to determine the optimal policy for screening passengers. The model is illustrated with an example that incorporates data extracted from the Official Airline Guide. Extensions to this model using control systems theory provide insight into real-time operations of passenger screening systems.
Laura A. McLay has a BS and MS (both in General Engineering) and a PhD (in Industrial Engineering), all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include operations research, discrete optimization, and approximation algorithms with application to homeland security, criminal justice, and health care. Her research has been published in a wide spectrum of journals, including INFORMS Journal on Computing, Naval Research Logistics, and IIE Transactions. She is a member of INFORMS, IIE, SIAM, SWE, Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Pi Mu.
“Routing for Relief Efforts”
Management Sciences, Tippie College of Business
University of Iowa
Friday, April 14, 11:00 a.m.
Student Commons, Forum Room
In this talk, I will discuss some of the logistics problems involved in organizing a relief effort after a major disaster. These relief efforts are concerned with delivering critical supplies, such as food and medical supplies, to those in need as soon as possible. I will focus specifically on the routing of vehicles carrying such supplies. Since it is critical that the deliveries are both fast and fair to those being served, it is not clear that the classic cost-minimizing routing problems properly reflect the priorities relevant in disaster relief. We take the first steps in developing new methodologies for these problems by suggesting alternate objectives. We examine the significant impact these objectives can have on solutions and solution methods. I will present bounds as well as computational experiments based on new solution methods.
Ann Melissa Campbell is an assistant professor in the Department of Management Sciences in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. She has been on the faculty at Iowa since her graduation from Georgia Tech in 2000. Her research focuses primarily on vehicle routing and network problems inspired by industrial applications, including inventory routing for Praxair, home delivery planning for online grocers, and package delivery network design for UPS.
“Making Computer Games for CEOs”
VCU Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research
Thursday, April 6, 11:00 a.m.
Student Commons, Forum Room
In this talk we will discuss the problems people have in making decisions that involve risk and uncertainty. We will do some exercises to test your critical thinking and judgment around risk. We will then discuss a couple of projects involving major decisions in the maritime industry: (1) After the grounding of the Exxon Valdez and its subsequent oil spill, all parties with interests in Prince William Sound were eager to prevent another major pollution event. (2) After the movie Titanic was released, local media had a field day when they found that vessels in the Washington State Ferries (WSF) system—the largest ferry system in the United States—lacked enough lifeboats for all passengers.
We created detailed models of each system that were capable of assessing the current risk of accidents and of evaluating measures aimed at reducing this risk. In all, various stakeholders made multimillion dollar investments to reduce the risk of further accidents based on the results of the risk assessment.
Jason Merrick teaches courses in decision analysis, risk analysis and simulation in the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research and for VCU's new program in Homeland Security. His research is primarily in the area of decision analysis and Bayesian statistics. He has worked on projects ranging from assessing maritime oil transportation and ferry system safety to the environmental health of watersheds and optimal replacement policies for rail tracks and machine tools. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the United States Coast Guard, the American Bureau of Shipping, and Booz Allen Hamilton, amongst others. He has performed training for Infineon Technologies and Capital One Services and currently serves as associate editor for the ACM journal Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation in the area of Bayesian and Decision Methods for Simulation.
“Optimization on the Computational Grid”
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Lehigh University
Wednesday, March 8
4:00 p.m.
Student Commons, Forum Room
The CPU power offered by collections of loosely coupled, heterogeneous, non-dedicated computing resources opens new doors for users of optimization technology. In this talk, we introduce the Computational Grid, describe software tools for using the Grid, and highlight successful applications of the Grid in solving numerical optimization problems. Specific applications mentioned in the talk include optimization under uncertainty and discrete optimization.
Jeff Linderoth has research interests in the computational and theoretical aspects of large-scale mathematical optimization. He received a B.S. in General Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1998-2000, Dr. Linderoth was employed with the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to joining Lehigh, he was a Senior Consultant with the optimization-based financial products firm of Axioma Inc. In 1999, Dr. Linderoth was named the Enrico Fermi Scholar at Argonne National Lab; in 2002, he was awarded the SIAM/Activity Group on Optimization Prize; and in 2005 he was the recipient of an Early Career award from the US Department of Energy.
“Optimization & Oncology”
Department of Mathematics
Trinity University
Tuesday, February 14
11:00 a.m.
Student Commons, Richmond Salon III
The interaction between the mathematical field of optimization and the medical field of oncology has provided some fertile and fascinating research over the last decade. The fundamental question is how do we best treat patients. Such questions address how to take advantage of current technology and how to best focus research efforts to develop innovative new techniques. We will discuss problems highlighting both.