Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

In the push to develop smart energy systems, designers have increasingly focused on systems that measure and predict user behavior to effect optimal energy consumption. While such focus is an important component in these systems' success, designers have paid substantially less attention to the people on the other side of the energy system loop-the supervisors of power generation processes. Smart energy systems that leverage pervasive computing could add to these supervisory control operators' workload. They'll have to predict possible power plant load and production changes caused by environmental and plant events, as well as dynamic system adaptation in response to consumer behaviors. Contrary to many assumptions, inserting more automation, including distributed sensors and algorithms to postprocess data, won't necessarily reduce operators' workload or improve system performance

Mapping complexity sources in nuclear power plant domains

Understanding the sources of complexity in advanced Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) control rooms and their effects on human reliability is critical for ensuring safe performance of both operators and the entire system. New generation control rooms will rely more heavily on automation and computerized Human-System Interfaces (HSI). Without proper management, information representation and required operator-system interaction could challenge operator information processing capabilities. This paper provides an initial step in assessing the sources of complexity in the NPP control rooms and introduces a systems-theoretic descriptive model of these sources of complexity leveraging network theory.U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissio

DISRUPTIVE EMERGENT SYSTEMS IN DISASTER RESPONSE

The 2017 hurricanes in the southern United States provided an impetus for wider social technology use than during previous disaster responses. Hurricane survivors rapidly turned to social media for help, while physically unaffected social media users crowdsourced emergent crisis mapping systems. Volunteers unaffiliated with first responder organizations conducted rescues based on those systems to form new response systems. These new, disruptive emergent systems displaced, supplemented, or filled gaps in the established, federally managed responses. This research examined disruptive emergent systems and associated effects on disaster responses. A total of thirteen disruptive emergent systems from four hurricane responses were analyzed. This research resulted in a set of eight features and an ontological visualization of disruptive emergent systems. The results show that disruptive emergent systems demonstrated supply responses to survivor demand. That is, these systems emerged through particular capability and organizational mechanism conditions to satisfy survivor demands. Cultural motivations provided the call to action for many of these disruptive emergent systems. These features can be used to understand disruptive emergent systems in the context of future disaster responses.http://archive.org/details/disruptiveemerge1094562309Outstanding ThesisLieutenant, United States Coast GuardApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited