ISE Graduate Seminars

Summer is a slow time for seminars at the college of engineering with the exception of the Graduate Seminar Series, hosted by the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering, which is designed to showcase the work of visiting faculty and to provide graduate students with a venue to discuss their latest research findings and visitors.

Guest speaker, I.C. Parmee, professor at the University of West England, discussed the utilization of evolutionary computation as a search and exploration process from which high-quality, relevant information can be extracted.

Parmee is vice-chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Evolutionary Computing and is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation and of the Journal of Engineering Optimization. He chairs and organizes the biennial International Conference on Adaptive Computing in Design and Manufacture. Parmee is a peer college member of the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council and director of the AHRC / EPSRC funded Institute for People-centered Computation.

Student speakers included:

Doctoral student Pinar Kaymaz discussed the problems associated with increasing electric power generation capacity in an existing power network against the backdrop of today's competitive marketplace. In this deregulated arena, expansion decisions are made in a competitive environment where power producers, distributors and consumers all make their own decisions that maximize payoff from power transactions. Her work explored new ways to integrate this competitive power market structure into existing generation expansion models.

Doctoral candidate Hakan Balci presented an approach for predicting long-term electricity prices in a competitive and deregulated power market, while considering the effect of changes in fuel costs on the price. The discussion also covered a method to allow power generators to estimate profits.

Master's degree student Shaman Ahuja provide an overview of an energy control program audit conducted at Briggs and Stratton in Auburn, Ala. The audit process included a comparison of company policies and procedures against all applicable federal and state standards; the identification of missing, defaced, illegible or inaccessible Lock Out /Tag Out procedures; and an evaluation of procedures for specific equipment, as well as a brainstorm on developing procedures for specific situations and the development of a computer-based refresher training program.

Master's degree student Saktihivael Kandaswaamy discussed his work on the mapping of the thermal field around welding tool during friction stir welding, a relatively new process invented in the early 1990s that involves the joining of metals without fusion or filler materials. This form of welding is often used for the joining of structural components made of aluminum and its alloys because it results in strong and ductile joints - something that is difficult to achieve using conventional welding techniques.

Doctoral student Serdar Yucel discussed his modeling work on mini-load storage, one of the five different storage systems utilized in the Siemens VDO Automotive distribution center.  This automated storage and retrieval system consists of six aisles of storage and computer controlled storage and retrieval equipment that stores and retrieves totes of items.