A Gamification Approach for Experiential Education of Inventory Control

In this educational research project, game-based in-class and after-class learning activities are developed to teach selected inventory control strategies to undergraduate and graduate students. Students from Supply Chain Management and System Simulation courses are targeted, who are taught by different instructors. The activities include teaching the inventory control policies to students in a regular class setting, then providing an overview on a game developed on MS Excel. In the game, the lead time and customer demand variables are defined uncertain, and not given to students, which make the assignment an ill-structured problem. A 12-month planning and execution period is given to students with qualitative and quantitative information about 3 products. The students are given a 1-week period to play the game. The game simulates selected inventory control strategies with reorder point and order quantity parameters for 12 months. The learning outcomes of the course related to inventory control, and students’ experience with the game are surveyed. Survey results are statistically and visually analyzed. Overall results indicated that the proposed gamification approach is found to have positive impact in learning effectiveness in the majority of evaluation categories. In addition, the contribution of the proposed gamification approach was found to be effectively supporting the learning outcomes of the course

Evaluating Process Improvement Courses of Action Through Modeling and Simulation

Quantifying an expected improvement when considering moderate-complexity changes to a process is time consuming and has potential to overlook stochastic effects. By modeling a process as a Numerical Design Structure Matrix (NDSM), simulating the proposed changes, and evaluating performance, quantification can be rapidly accomplished to understand stochastic effects. This thesis explores a method to evaluate complex process changes within Six Sigma DMAIC process improvement to identify the most desirable outcome amongst several improvement options. A tool to perform the modeling and evaluation is developed. This process evaluation tool is verified for functionality, then is demonstrated against generic processes, a case study, and a real world Continuous Process Improvement event. The application of modeling and simulation to improve and control a process is found to be a positive return on investment under moderate complexity or continuous improvement events. The process evaluation tool is demonstrated to be accurate in prediction, scalable in complexity and fidelity, and capable of simulating a wide variety or evaluation types. Experimentation identifies the importance of understanding the evaluation criteria prior to “Measurement” in DMAIC, which increases the consistency of process improvement efforts

The Effects of Reference Frames on 3D Menus in Virtual Environments

The emergence of affordable Head Mounted Displays (HMD) means Virtual Reality (VR) systems are now available to wider audiences. Other than the key target audience, gamers, groups as diverse as oil and gas industries, medical, military, entertainment and education have created demand for effective Virtual Environments (VE). To be effective certain VEs need to properly convey textual information. This is done using 3D menus. It is very important these menus are displayed in an ergonomic manner and do not obstruct important content. The study collected measures of user experience, comfort and memory recall. The study found that reference frames for 3D menus presenting textual information do not influence user experience or memory recall. However, there was a significant difference in user behavior between the reference frames, which has implications for repeated stress injury

Managing Complexity with the Department of Defense Architecture Framework: Development of a Dynamic System Architecture Model

Architecture frameworks are tools for managing system complexity by structuring data in a common language and format. By characterizing the form, function, and rules governing systems, architecture frameworks serve as a communication tool to stakeholder communities with different views of the system and facilitate comparative evaluation across architectures. The goal of this research is to explore the applicability of architecture frameworks to the study of emergent properties of satellites. The U.S. Department of Defense Architecture Framework was selected to achieve this goal given its orientation towards technical systems in contrast to the majority of architecture frameworks focused on business enterprises. Although developed by military planners in the 1990’s to support the acquisition of interoperable information systems, the Department of Defense Architecture Framework can be used to connect operational concepts and capabilities to the technical architecture of any system. While the views of the Department of Defense Architecture Framework are well-defined, little guidance is provided on how the views are to be constructed. Vitech Corporation’s software program CORE,® a systems engineering modeling tool with the ability rapidly to produce architecture views from a common data repository, was employed to complete Department of Defense Architecture Frameworks for the Hubble Space Telescope. Upon characterizing Hubble within this common structure, the value of the Department of Defense Architecture Framework for conducting dynamic quantitative analyses of system architectures was explored. A methodology is proposed and tested for evaluating human and robotic architectures for on-orbit servicing—the extension of the useful life of spacecraft through refueling, upgrading, repair, relocation, et al. In particular, a multi-year servicing campaign is modeled for Hubble including behavioral threads that characterize the Orbiting Observatory, servicing architecture, and science customers. Preliminary results indicate that, when coupled with an executable model, the Department of Defense Architecture Framework can be utilized for dynamic quantitative evaluation of space system architectures. The paper concludes with lessons learned from using the Department of Defense Architecture Framework and proposes improvements for the application of its static views to model-based systems engineering

Fast and Efficient Classification, Tracking, and Simulation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are composed of large numbers of resource-lean sensors that collect low-level inputs from the physical world. The applications present challenges for programmers. On the one hand, lightweight algorithms are required given the limited capacity of the constituent devices. On the other, the algorithms must be scalable to accommodate large networks. In this thesis, we focus on the design and implementation of fast and lean (yet scalable) algorithms for classification, simulation, and target tracking in the context of wireless sensor networks. We briefly consider each of these challenges in turn. The first challenge is to achieve high precision classification of high-level events in-network using limited computational and energy resources. We present in-network implementations of a Bayesian classifier and a condensed kd-tree classifier for identifying events of interest on resource-lean embedded sensors. The first approach uses preprocessed sensor readings to derive a multi-dimensional Bayesian classifier used to classify sensor data in real-time. The second introduces an innovative condensed kd-tree to represent preprocessed sensor data and uses a fast nearest-neighbor search to determine the likelihood of class membership for incoming samples. Both classifiers consume limited resources and provide high precision classification. To evaluate each approach, two case studies are considered, in the contexts of human movement and vehicle navigation, respectively. The classification accuracy is above 85% for both classifiers across the two case studies. The second challenge is to achieve high performance parallel simulation of sensor network hardware. This is achieved by reducing the synchronization overhead among distributed simulation processes. Traditional parallel simulation strategies introduce significant synchronization overhead, reducing the simulation speed. We present an optimistic simulation algorithm with support for backtracking and re-execution. The algorithm reduces the number of synchronization cycles to the number of transmissions in the network under test. Concretely, we implement SnapSim, an extension to the popular Avrora simulator, based on this algorithm. The experimental results show that our prototype system improves the performance of Avrora by 2 to 10 times for typical network-centric sensor network applications, and up to three orders of magnitude for applications that use the radio infrequently. The third challenge is to efficiently track a moving target in a network. The difficulty again lies in the conflict between the limited resource capacity of typical sensors and the significant processing requirements of typical tracking algorithms. We introduce an in-network object tracking framework for tracking mobile objects using resource-lean sensors. The framework is based on a distributed, dynamically scoped tracking algorithm which adaptively scopes the event detection region based on object speed. A leader node records the samples across an event region (without the aid of time synchronization) and estimates the object\u27s location in situ. To minimize the number of radio transmissions, the location snapshotting rate is also adjusted based on the object speed. In this dissertation, focusing on the above challenges, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of classification, simulation, and tracking contributions

Aeronautical Engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 99

This bibliography lists 292 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in July 1978

Scheduling and shop floor control in commercial airplane manufacturing

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).Boeing is the premier manufacturer of commercial jetliners and a leader in defense and space systems. Competition in commercial aircraft production is increasing and in order to retain their competitive position, Boeing must strive to improve their operations by reducing costs. Boeing factories today still schedule and monitor the shop floor much as they have for the past 100 years. This thesis compares and contrasts several different methods for shop floor control and scheduling including Boeing's barcharts, Toyota production system, critical chain, and dynamic scheduling. Each system is will be analyzed with respect to how it handles variability in labor output required and how that affects which products are typically made under each system. In additional to qualitative comparisons, discrete event simulations comparing the various strategies will be presented. Areas for future simulation study are also discussed. The recommended approach for commercial airplane assembly is critical chain. A suggested implementation plan is presented along with methods to ease acceptance.by Vikram Neal Sahney.S.M.M.B.A

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 367)

This bibliography lists 205 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Aug. 1992. Subject coverage includes the following: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance

Tradespace and Affordability – Phase 2

MOTIVATION AND CONTEXT: One of the key elements of the SERC’s research strategy is transforming the practice of systems engineering – “SE Transformation.” The Grand Challenge goal for SE Transformation is to transform the DoD community’s current systems engineering and management methods, processes, and tools (MPTs) and practices away from sequential, single stovepipe system, hardware-first, outside-in, document-driven, point-solution, acquisition-oriented approaches; and toward concurrent, portfolio and enterprise-oriented, hardware-software-human engineered, balanced outside-in and inside-out, model-driven, set-based, full life cycle approaches.This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046).This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046)

Operationalized Intent for Improving Coordination in Human-Agent Teams

With the increasing capabilities of artificial intelligent agents (AIAs) integrated into multi-agent systems, future concepts include human-agent teams (HATs) in which the members perform fluidly as a coordinated team. Research on coordination mechanisms in HATs is largely focused on AIAs providing information to humans to coordinate better (i.e. coordination from the AIA to the human). We focus on the compliment where AIAs can understand the operator to better synchronize with the operator (i.e. from the human to the AIA). This research focuses specifically on AIA estimation of operator intent. We established the Operationalized Intent framework which captures intent in a manner relevant to operators and AIAs. The core of operationalized intent is a quality goal hierarchy and an execution constraint list. Designing a quality goal hierarchy entails understanding the domain, the operators, and the AIAs. By extending established cognitive systems engineering analyses we developed a method to define the quality goals and capture the situations that influence their prioritization. Through a synthesis of mental model evaluation techniques, we defined and executed a process for designing human studies of intent. This human-in-the-loop study produced a corpus of data which was demonstrated the feasibility of estimating operationalized intent