Building Resilience in a Major City Evacuation Plan Using Simulation Modeling

This study provides data on the optimal staff, materials, space, and time resources required to operate a regional hub reception center, a “short-term facility with the goal to process and transport displaced survivors (evacuees) to temporary or permanent shelters following a catastrophic incident,” (Regional Catastrophic Planning Team, 2012). The facility will process approximately 20,000 evacuees over its entire seven-day duration following a disaster to assist in community resilience. The study was performed using a model created using the computer simulation software, AnyLogic. The results of the study demonstrated that the goals set forth by the Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin Regional Catastrophic Planning Team could be improved upon and that the largest contributing factor to optimizing the RHRC is finding the optimal number of total staff members to operate the facility

Quantify Benefits of Home Energy Management System Under Dynamic Electricity Pricing

Retail electricity rates have been kept flat for the past century due to the lack of advanced metering technology and infrastructure. The flat-rate structure prevents consumers from responding to the fluctuation of actual costs of electricity generation, which varies hourly (or even minute-by-minute). The absence of demand response leads to an electricity system that is overly built with costly assets, solely to maintain system reliability. One of the core visions of the future electricity system, referred to as Smart Grid, is to use advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and information technology to enable dynamic electricity rates. The main goal of this paper is to present an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) based modeling and algorithm framework that can make home energy management systems capable of optimally managing the appliance usage using the information of anticipated whole electricity prices. The other goal of the paper is to use the modeling framework to provide numerical evidence to the debate that if dynamic rate structure is superior than the current flat rate structure in terms of reducing peak demand and overall electricity costs

Optimizing Perioperative Decision Making: Improved Information for Clinical Workflow Planning

Perioperative care is complex and involves multiple interconnected subsystems. Delayed starts, prolonged cases and overtime are common. Surgical procedures account for 40–70% of hospital revenues and 30–40% of total costs. Most planning and scheduling in healthcare is done without modern planning tools, which have potential for improving access by assisting in operations planning support. We identified key planning scenarios of interest to perioperative leaders, in order to examine the feasibility of applying combinatorial optimization software solving some of those planning issues in the operative setting. Perioperative leaders desire a broad range of tools for planning and assessing alternate solutions. Our modeled solutions generated feasible solutions that varied as expected, based on resource and policy assumptions and found better utilization of scarce resources. Combinatorial optimization modeling can effectively evaluate alternatives to support key decisions for planning clinical workflow and improving care efficiency and satisfaction

July 2004 Report of Progress

Progress of each ALS-NSCORT project given by each project lead. 10 pages

February 2005 Report of Progress

Progress of each ALS-NSCORT project given by each project lead. 8 pages

May 2004 Report of Progress

Progress of each ALS-NSCORT project given by each project lead. 11 pages

The Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering: Designing, Implementing and Sustaining Interdisciplinary Solutions to Transform Healthcare Delivery Systems

With start-up funding provided by the Regenstrief Foundation, Purdue University has created the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) to design, implement, and sustain interdisciplinary solutions to improve the safety, quality, efficiency and accessibility of healthcare delivery systems. RCHE’s primary goal is to bring a systems-analysis approach to improving the processes of healthcare delivery, not to provide tools or techniques for medical research, diagnosis, or treatment. This article will describe RCHE’s business model; that is, how RCHE “engineers” interdisciplinary solutions, using the multiple perspectives of healthcare and multiple project time scales to organize and leverage healthcare delivery transformation. We then illustrate the model through the description of projects conducted with RCHE’s “partnerships” with various healthcare delivery organizations. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for RCHE

Effect of Different Waste Recovery Systems on the Overall Waste Generation Rates for an Advanced Life Support System

This work demonstrates how studies of life support systems can be used to advance the understanding of environmental principles. Efficient waste recovery systems that are developed for the Advanced Life Support System used in space explorations can be utilised on Earth. As an example, we explored three different ALSS scenarios, each having different waste recovery technologies. The results are compared in terms of the overall waste generation rates. It is concluded that physicochemical waste recovery systems, with their low level of uncertainty in operating conditions and high recovery efficiencies, are the best choice for a 600 day mission to Mars. Description:21 page

ESM Calculations for Hydroponic Plant and Fungi Growth Chambers, Biosolids Dewatering Plant System, and Tilapia Growth System--EAC Presentation 2004

In this work, preliminary Equivalent System Mass (ESM) estimations of the Hydroponic Plant and Fungi Growth Chambers, Biosolids Dewatering Plant and Tilapia Growth Systems are presented. ESM may be used to evaluate a system or technology based on its mass, volume, power, cooling and manpower requirements. This ESM analysis focuses on a hypothetical device, instead of the anticipated technology that is system flight proven in mission operations. We have examined the Evolved Mars Base mission, with facility lifetime of 14.6 years. It should be noted that all of these technologies are at the development stage. Therefore, throughout the ESM calculations, appropriate assumptions and educated guesses are done with the subsystem experts where necessary. All of the ESM results are presented composed of two parts, time dependent and time-independent contributions and the highest ESM contribution of each technology is identified and presented in Discussion section. 1 slide Related Documents:WM1, WM2, WM3, WM