Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Model-Based Systems Engineering Simulation: Analysis and Design of Hospital Bed Maintenance in Critical Health Care Systems
    (2018) Dávila Andino, Arturo; Fu, Michael C.; Wood, Kenneth E.; Systems Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis summarizes the results of various methodologies integrated to solve a staffing problem when cleaning and maintaining hospital beds. First, a simplified systems engineering design model was developed to translate the need for reducing the total turnaround time of maintaining hospital beds into a performance requirement of the average time a hospital bed waits for service. The tools that were used were queueing analysis, discrete-event simulation modeling, and optimization via simulation. Finally, this work presents the derived staffing requirements from the pertinent measure of effectiveness, the average waiting time.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Semantic-driven modeling and reasoning for enhanced safety of cyber-physical systems
    (2016) Petnga, Leonard; Austin, Mark; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation is concerned with the development of new methodologies and semantics for model-based systems engineering (MBSE) procedures for the behavior modeling of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Our main interest is to enhance system-level safety through effective reasoning capabilities embedded in procedures for CPS design. This class of systems is defined by a tight integration of software and physical processes, the need to satisfy stringent constraints on performance, safety and a reliance on automation for the management of system functionality. Our approach employs semantic–driven modeling and reasoning : (1) for the design of cyber that can understand the physical world and reason with physical quantities, time and space, (2) to improve synthesis of component-based CPS architectures, and (3) to prevent under-specification of system requirements (the main cause of safety failures in software). We investigate and understand metadomains, especially temporal and spatial theories, and the role ontologies play in deriving formal, precise models of CPS. Description logic-based semantics and metadomain ontologies for reasoning in CPS and an integrated approach to unify the semantic foundations for decision making in CPS are covered. The research agenda is driven by Civil Systems design and operation applications, especially the dilemma zone problem. Semantic models of time and space supported respectively by Allen’s Temporal Interval Calculus (ATIC) and Region Connectedness Calculus (RCC-8) are developed and demonstrated thanks to the capabilities of Semantic Web technologies. A modular, flexible, and reusable reasoning-enabled semantic-based platform for safety-critical CPS modeling and analysis is developed and demonstrated. The platform employs formal representations of domains (cyber, physical) and metadomains (temporal and spatial) entities using decidable web ontology language (OWL) formalisms. Decidable fragments of temporal and spatial calculus are found to play a central role in the development of spatio-temporal algorithms to assure system safety. They rely on formalized safety metrics developed in the context of cyber-physical transportation systems and collision avoidance for autonomous systems. The platform components are integrated together with Whistle, a small scripting language (under development) able to process complex datatypes including physical quantities and units. The language also enables the simulation, visualization and analysis of safety tubes for collision prediction and prevention at signalized and non-signalized traffic intersections.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Health Care Management System for Diabetes Mellitus: A Model-based Systems Engineering Framework
    (2015) Katsipis, Iakovos; Baras, John S.; Systems Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The present thesis develops a framework for Health Care Management Systems using modern Model-Based Systems Engineering methodologies and applies it to Diabetes Mellitus. The desired architecture of such systems is described. Tests and interventions, including Health Care IT, used for Diabetes 2 diagnosis and treatment, are described and modeled. A Controlled Markov Chain model for the progression of Diabetes Mellitus with three states, three diagnostic tests, ten interventions, three patient types, is developed. Evaluation metrics for healthcare quality and associated costs are developed. Using these metrics and disease models, two methods for tradeoff analysis between healthcare quality and costs are developed and analyzed. One is an exhaustive Monte Carlo simulation and the other utilizes multi-criteria optimization with full state information. The latter obtains similar results as the former at a fraction of the time. Practical examples illustrate the powerful capabilities of the framework. Future research directions and extensions are described.