9423929 Jacobson This is a research equipment grant (REG) for the purchase of workstations to support computational research projects in the areas of large-scale simulation and mathematical programming. The equipment is to be housed in an existing laboratory on simulation and optimization. The new equipment will be used to support a host of research projects , including computational research necessary to assess the viability of new algorithms for verifying simulation model structural properties, test new simulation algorithms that study the design of efficient and effective manufacturing processes, assess the efficiency of new steady state simulation sensitivity estimators, as well as design and test algorithms for solving large-scale mixed integer zero-one problems, nonlinear and nonconvex engineering design problems, and various transportation and distribution problems. Because of the enhanced speed and memory storage capacity, the workstations requested will provide the resources necessary to undertake in-depth testing and analysis of algorithms in several areas of research currently pursued by the investigators. This could lead to improvement that would otherwise not be possible. In addition, both graduate and undergraduate students will benefit from the new hardware. The use of the equipment by graduate students will allow them to investigate larger and more meaningful research problems. For undergraduates, the use of the equipment in support of classroom instructions will expose them to the applications of modern computing facilities to solve large-scale engineering problems.
