VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Salado Diez, Alejandro"

Browsing by Author "Salado Diez, Alejandro"

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Closed System Precepts in Systems Engineering for Artificial Intelligence- SE4AI
Shadab, Niloofar (Virginia Tech, 2024-01-08)
Intelligent systems ought to be distinguished as a special type of systems that require distinctive engineering processes. While this distinction is informally acknowledged by some, practical systems engineering (SE) methodologies for intelligent systems remain primarily rooted in traditional SE paradigms centered around component aggregation. Initially, this dissertation posits that the traditional approach is grounded in the notion of open systems as the fundamental precept, whereas engineering intelligent systems necessitates an alternative approach founded on the principles of closed systems. This dissertation endeavors to identify potential gaps within the current SE foundations concerning the accommodation of the unique characteristics of intelligent systems, such as continuous learning and sensitivity to environmental changes. Furthermore, it argues for the mitigation of these gaps through the formalization of closed systems precepts. It adopts a systems-theoretic perspective to elucidate the phenomena of closed systems and their intricate interplay with engineering intelligent systems. This research contends that, given the intricate coupling between intelligent systems and their environments, the incorporation of closed systems precepts into SE represents a pivotal pathway to construct engineered intelligence. In pursuit of this objective, this dissertation establishes a formal foundation to delineate closed systems precepts and other fundamental practices. Subsequently, it provides formalism to discern two important categories of closed systems, informationally and functionally closed systems, and their relevance in the domains of engineering and design across diverse levels of system abstraction. Additionally, it explores the practical application of the closed systems precepts through the novel paradigm of core and periphery, followed by its examination within real-world contexts. This dissertation is organizes as follows: Chapter 1 initiates the dissertation by presenting the problem formulation and motivation. It subsequently delves into a thorough literature review and outlines the research's scope and objectives, contributing to the essence of this work. In Chapter 2, a narrative unfolds, elucidating the contributions of the provided papers to the objectives outlined in Chapter 1. This chapter illuminates how each paper aligns with and furthers the overarching goals set forth in the Chapter 1. Chapter 3 serves as a culmination, offering a summary of the accomplishments, acknowledging limitations, and delineating potential avenues for future research within this domain. Paper A is devoted to substantiating the closed notion of intelligence property. In the realm of artificial intelligence (AI), systems are often expected to exert influence upon their environments and, reciprocally, to be influenced by their surroundings. Consequently, a profound interdependence exists between the system and its environment, transcending the confines of conventional input-output relations. In this regard, Paper A postulates that the engineering of intelligent systems mandates an approach that elevates closed systems as foundational precepts for characterizing intelligence as a property contingent upon the system's relationship with its context. The ensuing discussion will juxtapose the viewpoints of open and closed systems, illustrating the limitations of the open system perspective in representing intelligence as a relational property. In response, this paper will advocate for the adoption of the closed system view to establish intelligence as an inherent relational property arising from the system's dynamic interactions with its environment. Paper B is dedicated to the formalization of the closed systems paradigm within SE. In this paper, formalism is proffered for the closed systems precepts, drawing upon systems theory, cybernetics, and information theory. A comprehensive comparison of two closure types, informational and functional closure, within closed systems is presented, underpinned by a common systems-theoretic formal framework. This dissertation contends that by grounding these initiatives in the core and periphery concept, we can facilitate the design and engineering of intelligent systems across multiple levels of abstraction. These levels may span a spectrum from informational closure to a synthesis of informational and functional openness. It posits that this approach represents a versatile, method-agnostic solution to some of the principal challenges encountered when engineering multiple tiers of intelligence for complex systems. Paper C delves into the rise of the concept of core-periphery from some cybernetics principles, such as variety and "The Law of Requisite Variety" and provides a formalism that is a derivation of the mentioned principles in Cybernetics. Later, it elaborates on the practical implications of such concepts in intelligent systems from biological systems and entails an engagement with a CNN model to explore the core and periphery concept within AI-enabled systems. Paper D proposes the practical implementation of the closed systems doctrine in SE, offering frameworks that rigorously define the boundaries between closed systems and their environment. These frameworks are meticulously designed to account for stakeholder requirements and the inherent design constraints of the system. This paper illustrates practical applications of informational and functional closure within SE processes, leveraging a hypothetical example for elucidation. It focuses on two aspects of engineering intelligence, scope and scale to provide a platform for the utilization of closed systems precepts.
Constructing True Model-Based Requirements in SysML
Salado Diez, Alejandro; Wach, Paul (MDPI, 2019-03-28)
Some authors suggest that transitioning requirements engineering from the traditional statements in natural language with shall clauses to model-based requirements within a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment could improve communication, requirements traceability, and system decomposition, among others. Requirement elements in the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) fail to fulfill this objective, as they are really a textual requirement in natural language as a model element. Current efforts to directly leverage behavioral and structural models of the system lack an overarching theoretical framework with which to assess the adequacy of how those models are used to capture requirements. This paper presents an approach to construct true model-based requirements in SysML. The presented approach leverages some of SysML’s behavioral and structural models and diagrams, with specific construction rules derived from Wymore’s mathematical framework for MBSE and taxonomies of requirements and interfaces. The central proposition of the approach is that every requirement can be modeled as an input/output transformation. Examples are used to show how attributes traditionally thought of as non-functional requirements can be captured, with higher precision, as functional transformations.
Design of Joint Verification-Correction Strategies for Engineered Systems
Xu, Peng (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-28)
System verification is a critical process in the development of engineered systems. Engineers gain confidence in the correct functionality of the system by executing system verification. Traditionally, system verification is implemented by conducting a verification strategy (VS) consisting of verification activities (VA). A VS can be generated using industry standards, expert experience, or quantitative-based methods. However, two limitations exist in these previous studies. First, as an essential part of system verification, correction activities (CA) are used to correct system errors or defects identified by VAs. However, CAs are usually simplified and treated as a component associated with VAs instead of independent decisions. Even though this simplification may accelerate the VS design, it results in inferior VSs because the optimization of correction decisions is ignored. Second, current methods have not handled the issue of complex engineered systems. As the number of activities increases, the magnitude of the possible VSs becomes so large that finding the optimal VS is impossible or impractical. Therefore, these limitations leave room for improving the VS design, especially for complex engineered systems. This dissertation presents a joint verification-correction model (JVCM) to address these gaps. The basic idea of this model is to provide an engineering paradigm for complex engineered systems that simultaneously consider decisions about VAs and CAs. The accompanying research problem is to develop a modeling and analysis framework to solve for joint verification-correction strategies (JVCS). This dissertation aims to address them in three steps. First, verification processes (VP) are modeled mathematically to capture the impacts of VAs and CAs. Second, a JVCM with small strategy spaces is established with all conditions of a VP. A modified backward induction method is proposed to solve for an optimal JVCS in small strategy spaces. Third, a UCB-based tree search approach is designed to find near-optimal JVCSs in large strategy spaces. A case study is conducted and analyzed in each step to show the feasibility of the proposed models and methods.
Elegance as Complexity Reduction in Systems Design
Iandoli, Luca; Piantedosi, Letizia; Salado Diez, Alejandro; Zollo, Giuseppe (Hindawi, 2018-08-26)
Elegance is often invoked as a characteristic of good design, but it cannot be pursued as a design objective because of the absence of actionable definitions that can be translated into design strategies and metrics. In this work, we analyze elegance in the context of systems engineering using a perspective that integrates visual art, Gestalt psychology, neuroscience, and complexity theory. In particular, we measure elegance as effective complexity and theorize that it can be achieved by a process of complexity resolution based on the adoption of eight visual heuristics. We present an empirical study in which a sample of systems engineers were asked to assess alternative representations of a same system and show that effective complexity is strongly correlated to perceived elegance and systems effectiveness. Our results are consistent with independent findings obtained in other fields including design and psychology of perception showing that good design must embed an effective level of complexity achievable through a mix of familiarity and novelty.
Enabling Connections in the Product Lifecycle using the Digital Thread
Hedberg, Thomas Daniel Jr. (Virginia Tech, 2018-11-01)
Product lifecycles are complex heterogeneous systems. Applying control methods to lifecycles requires significant human capital. Additionally, measuring lifecycles relies primarily on domain expertise and estimates. Presented in this dissertation is a way to semantically represent a product lifecycle as a cyber-physical system for enabling the application of control methods to the lifecycle. Control requires a model and no models exist currently that integrate each phase of lifecycles. The contribution is an integration framework that brings all phases and systems of a lifecycle together. First presented is a conceptual framework and technology innovation. Next, linking product lifecycle data dynamical is described and then how that linked data could be certified and traced for trustworthiness. After that, discussion is focused how the trusted linked data could be combined with machine learning to drive applications throughout the product lifecycle. Last, a case study is provided that integrates the framework and technology. Integrating all of this would enable efficient and effective measurements of the lifecycle to support prognostic and diagnostic control of that lifecycle and related decisions.
Exploring the Adoption Process of MBSE: A Closer Look at Contributing Organizational Structure Factors
Henderson, Kaitlin Anne (Virginia Tech, 2022-10-07)
Over the past few decades, not only have systems continued to increase in complexity, but they are expected to be delivered in the same timeframe and cost range. Technology has advanced us into what some refer to as the 4th Industrial Revolution. Digital is becoming the expectation in all areas of people's lives. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) represents the transition of systems into this new digital age, promising many improvements over the previous Document-Based Systems Engineering. This transition, however, is not simple. MBSE is a major paradigm shift for systems engineers, especially for those who have been in this field for many years. In order to work as intended, MBSE requires the participation of many different disciplines and functionalities in an organization. Gaining this level of organizational collaboration, however, is no easy task. Organizational structure and culture have intuitively been believed to be critical barriers to the successful adoption of MBSE, but little work has been done to discover what the impacts of these organizational factors are. The purpose of this research is to further explore the MBSE adoption process in the context of the organization. There were three research objectives designed to address the research question: how does organizational structure influence the adoption and implementation of MBSE? Research objective one was: relate organizational structure characteristics to MBSE adoption and implementation measures. Research objective two was: discover how organizational factors contribute to decisions made and other aspects of the MBSE adoption process. Research objective three was: connect different organizational structure and adoption variables together to derive critical variables in the adoption process. Research objective one was carried out using a survey as the instrument. The objective of the survey was to examine what the effects of organizational structure are on MBSE adoption and implementation. Organizational structure was represented by seven variables: Size, Formalization, Centralization, Specialization, Vertical Differentiation, Flexibility, and Interconnectedness. These are different characteristics of organizational structure that can be measured on a scale. MBSE adoption and implementation was represented by one adoption and three implementation variables. These include Adoption Process, Maturity of MBSE, Use of MBSE, and Influence on organizational outcomes. A total of 51 survey responses were received that met the inclusion criteria. Factor analysis was done for variables with multi-item measures. The factors were then analyzed using pairwise correlations to determine which relationships were significant. Formalization, Flexibility, and Interconnectedness were found to have positive correlations with adoption and implementation variables. Size and Vertical Differentiation had a negative correlation with Use of MBSE (implementation). Centralization was found to have negative correlations with adoption and implementation. Specialization did not have any significant correlations. Research objective two utilized semi-structured interviews as the main instrument. Survey participants had the opportunity to provide more detailed explanations of their organizations' experiences in the form of follow-up interviews. Eighteen survey participants agreed to this follow-up interview focused on MBSE adoption. Two of the participants shared failed adoption experiences, with the rest were at various stages of the adoption process. One of the most emergent themes out of the interviews was the idea of integration. Integration needs to occur at the organizational level, and the technical level. The technical level refers to the fact that tools, models, and/or data repositories need to be linked together in some way. Integration also has to occur at the organizational level, because a lot of different functional areas need to come together for MBSE. The way that organizations can address the issue of integration is through coordination mechanisms. The ultimate goal is to achieve implicit coordination through the use of connected models, but getting to that point will require coordination between different subunits. Interview responses were evaluated for coordination mechanisms, or situations that showed a distinct lack of a coordination mechanism. The lack of coordination mechanisms largely consists of a lack of standardization, lack of communication between subunits, and issues of authority. The final research objective of this work was carried out through a causal analysis using the data obtained from the survey and interviews. The purpose of this analysis was to visualize and better understand the adoption process. According to the calculated measures of centrality, the important nodes in this model are Improved organizational outcomes, Coordination between subunits, Projects use tools/methods, and People willing to use tools. Improved organizational outcomes is part of a key loop in the causal model. Improved organizational outcomes contributes to leaders and employees' willingness to support and use MBSE methods and tools, which contribute to actual use of tools and methods. This creates more Improved organizational outcomes, completing the loop. The survey results showed that Formalization, Decentralization, Flexibility, and Interconnectedness all have positive correlations with the Influence on organizational outcomes. So these organizational structure components are external factors that can be used to positively impact the adoption loop. Overall, this work provided several contributions to the field regarding the MBSE adoption process in an organizational setting. Organizational structure was shown to have significant correlations with adoption and implementation of MBSE. Coordination mechanisms were identified as a method to achieve integration across different functional areas of the organization. Improved organizational outcomes was shown to be a critical variable in the adoption process as an avenue for organizational structure factors to have a positive effect on the adoption process.
Impediments to Effective Safety Risk Assessment of Safety Critical Systems: An Insight into SRM Processes and Expert Aggregation
Stephen, Cynthia (Virginia Tech, 2020-06-25)
Safety risk assessment forms an integral part of the design and development of Safety Critical Systems. Conventionally in these systems, standards and policies have been developed to prescribe processes for safety risk assessment. These standards provide guidelines, references and structure to personnel involved in the risk assessment process. However, in some of these standards, the prescribed methods for safety decision making were found to be deficient in some respects. Two such deficiencies have been addressed in this thesis. First, when different safety metrics are required to be combined for a safety related decision, the current practices of using safety risk matrices were found to be inconsistent with the axioms of decision theory. Second, in the safety risk assessment process, when multiple experts are consulted to provide their judgment on the severity and/or likelihood of hazards, the standards were lacking detailed guidelines for aggregating experts' judgements. Such deficiencies could lead to misconceptions pertaining to the safety risk level of critical hazards. These misconceptions potentially give rise to inconsistent safety decisions that might ultimately result in catastrophic outcomes. This thesis addresses both these concerns present in SRM processes. For the problem of combining safety metrics, three potential approaches have been proposed. Normative Decision Analysis tools such as Utility Theory and Multi-attribute Utility Theory were proposed in the first and second approaches. The third approach proposes the use of a Multi-Objective Optimization technique - Pareto Analysis. For problems in Expert Aggregation, behavioral and mathematical solutions have been explored and the implications of using these methods for Safety Risk Assessment have been discussed. Two standard documents that contain the Safety Risk Management Processes of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and the U.S. Navy were used to structure the case studies. This thesis has two main contributions. First, it evaluates the use of decision analysis in safety decision process of Safety Critical Systems. It provides guidelines to decision makers on how to meaningfully use and/or combine different safety metrics in the decision process. Second, it identifies the best practices and methods of aggregating expert assessments pertaining to safety decision making.
Incentive Mechanism Design for Systems with Many Agents: A Multiscale Decision Theory Approach
Kulkarni, Aditya Umesh (Virginia Tech, 2018-08-14)
Incentives are an effective mechanism to align the interests of decision-makers. For example, employers use incentives to motivate their employees to take actions that benefit both the employers and the employees. Incentives also play a role in the interaction between firms, for example in a supply chain network. The prevalent approach to analyzing interactions between decision-makers is through principal-agent models. Due to mathematical intractability, the majority of these models are restricted to the interaction between two decision-makers. However, modern organizations have many decision-makers that interact with each other in a network. Therefore, effective incentive mechanisms for systems with many decision-makers (agents) must account for the numerous network interdependencies. The objective of this dissertation is to design incentive mechanisms for systems with many agents, with a focus on teams and multi-firm networks. Methodologically, our approach applies and builds upon multiscale decision theory (MSDT). MSDT can effectively and efficiently model the interdependencies between decision-makers and their optimal response to incentives. This dissertation consists of three parts. The first part focuses on incentives in teams, where multiple subordinates work under a single supervisor. The contribution of the team model to MSDT is the introduction of continuous decision variables; prior MSDT models have only used discrete decision variables. In the second and third part of this dissertation, we analyze a network of collaborating firms in a systems engineering project and focus on verification decisions. We introduce a belief-based model, which is a novel approach for both MSDT and verification modeling in systems engineering. Using MSDT, we determine how incentives can be used by a contractor to motivate a subcontractor to verify its design when the subcontractor prefers not to do so. We extend this two-firm model to a general multi-firm network model for verification coordination and incentivization. This firm network resembles the inter-firm collaboration present in most large-scale system engineering projects. Through better aligned verification activities, system-wide verification costs decrease, while the reliability of the final system improves.
Management of Complex Sociotechnical Systems
Topcu, Taylan Gunes (Virginia Tech, 2020-04-20)
Sociotechnical systems (STSs) rely on the collaboration between humans and autonomous decision-making units to fulfill their objectives. Highly intertwined social and technical contextual factors influence the collaboration between these human and engineered elements, and consequently the performance characteristics of the STS. In the next two decades, the role allocated to STSs in our society will drastically increase. Thus, the effective design of STSs requires an improved understanding of the human-autonomy interdependency. This dissertation brings together management science along with systems thinking and uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate the interdependencies between people and the autonomous systems they collaborate within complex socio-technical enterprises. The dissertation is organized in three mutually exclusive essays, each investigating a distinct facet of STSs: safe management, collaboration, and efficiency measurement. The first essay investigates the amount of work allocated to safety-critical decision makers and quantifies Rasmussen's workload boundary that represents the limit of attainable workload. The major contribution of this study is to quantify the qualitative theoretical construct of the workload boundary through a Pareto-Koopmans frontier. This frontier allows one to capture the aggregate impact of the social and technical factors that originate from operational conditions on workload. The second essay studies how teams of humans and their autonomous partners share work, given their subjective preferences and contextual operational conditions. This study presents a novel integration of machine learning algorithms in an efficiency measurement framework to understand the influence of contextual factors. The results demonstrate that autonomous units successfully handle relatively simple operational conditions, while complex operational conditions require both workers and their autonomous counterparts to collaborate towards common objectives. The third essay explores the complementary and contrasting roles of efficiency measurement approaches that deal with the influence of contextual factors and their sensitivity to sample size. The results are organized in a structured taxonomy of their fundamental assumptions, limitations, mathematical structure, sensitivity to sample size, and their practical usefulness. To summarize, this dissertation provides an interdisciplinary and pragmatic research approach that benefits from the strengths of both theoretical and data-driven empirical approaches. Broader impacts of this dissertation are disseminated among the literatures of systems engineering, operations research, management science, and mechanical design.
An Operational Concept of an IoT System for the Palletized Distribution Supply Chain
Navarro Navarro, Nicolas Dario (Virginia Tech, 2020-09-23)
In recent years, Internet-of-Things technology (IoT) has been the subject of research in a diverse field of applications, given its essential role in transitioning society towards a more interconnected paradigm of conducting manufacturing, logistics, services, and business, what is also known as Industry 4.0. Consistent with this line of research, this project addresses the application of IoT in distribution packaging as a way to better understand supply chain conditions. Specifically, this work presents an operational concept for a system that implements IoT technology in the pallets that are used to move products along supply chains and serve as a vehicle to gain insight into the conditions experienced by products and unit loads. The development of this operational concept leverages a systems engineering framework to discover user needs, and stakeholders, and apply model-based systems engineering to create system models that capture expected system behavior and the outputs necessary to create value for the user. A semi structured interview was conducted with eleven companies in order to discover user needs related to their packaging during distribution processes in their supply chain. A system operational concept was developed through use cases, concept of operations, and formal modeling using Cameo System Modeling Software. A review of sensor and communication technologies is presented, as well as a description of the challenges and future research opportunities for the proposed operational concept in distribution packaging. The application of systems engineering framework, and model-based systems engineering to the distribution packaging domain brings clarity to problem formulation in order to lay-out solid value propositions for the adoption of IoT technologies, and to ensure successful realization of systems that achieve customer satisfaction. This work offers three main contributions. First, it provides an identification and description of the needs that industrial companies have in relation to their product and packaging performance during distribution operations. Secondly, it shows how a systems-based approach, leveraging on model-based systems engineering can be employed to conceptualize systems that use innovative technologies like IoT in the domain of distribution packaging. Third, it provides an overview of open research challenges and practical considerations for the implementation of IoT technology in the field of distribution packaging.
Pursuing Intentional Design of Global Engineering Programs: Understanding Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes
Davis, Kirsten A. (Virginia Tech, 2020-05-05)
As engineering work becomes more globalized, it is important to prepare students to succeed in a global engineering workforce. Prior research has explored different factors important to the design of global programs generally, but less is known about the experiences and learning outcomes of engineering students while abroad. Because this population has historically been underrepresented in global programs, few research-based practices have been identified to support the intentional design of global experiences for engineering students. This dissertation seeks to provide such insights through three studies that address the following components of global engineering program design: 1) the assessment of Global Engineering Competency (GEC) through use of a series of scenarios based in the Chinese context; 2) the relationship between program destination and students’ experiences and reported learning outcomes; and 3) the experiences that engineering students identify as most significant during their time abroad. I used a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods to explore students’ learning and experiences in global engineering programs. The results of these studies revealed that engineering students have a wide variety of learning outcomes and experiences as a result of global programs, that great care should be exercised in choosing and interpreting assessment methods for global programs, and that the design of global engineering programs should be informed by characteristics of both the student participants and the program destination. Overall, the results of this dissertation highlight the importance of intentionality when designing global engineering programs to better prepare students for success in a global work environment.
Study of Equivalence in Systems Engineering within the Frame of Verification
Wach, Paul F. (Virginia Tech, 2023-01-20)
This dissertation contributes to the theoretical foundations of systems engineering (SE) and exposes an unstudied SE area of definition of verification models. In practice, verification models are largely qualitatively defined based on heuristic assumptions rather than science-based approach. For example, we may state the desire for representativeness of a verification model in qualitative terms of low, medium, or high fidelity in early phases of a system lifecycle when verification requirements are typically defined. Given that fidelity is defined as a measure of approximation from reality and that the (real) final product does (or may) not exist in early phases, we are stating desire for and making assumptions of representative equivalence that may not be true. Therefore, this dissertation contends that verification models can and should be defined on the scientific basis of systems theoretic principles. Furthermore, the practice of SE is undergoing a digital transformation and corresponding desire to enhance SE educationally and as a discipline, which this research proposes to address through a science-based approach that is grounded in the mathematical formalism of systems theory. The maturity of engineering disciplines is reflected in their science-based approach, such as computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis. Much of the discipline of SE remains qualitatively descriptive, which may suffer from interpretation discrepancies; rather than being grounded in, inherently analytical, theoretical foundations such as is a stated goal of the SE professional organization the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). Additionally, along with the increased complexity of modern engineered systems comes the impracticality of verification through traditional means, which has resulted in verification being described as broken and in need of theoretical foundations. The relationships used to define verification models are explored through building on the systems theoretic lineage of A. Wayne Wymore; such as computational systems theory, theory of system design, and theory of problem formulation. Core systems theoretic concepts used to frame the relationship-based definition of verification models are the notions of system morphisms that characterize equivalence between pairs, problem spaces of functions that bound the acceptability of solution systems, and hierarchy of system specification that characterizes stratification. The research inquisition was in regard to how verification models should be defined and hypothesized that verification models should be defined through a combination of systems theoretic relationships between verification artifacts; system requirements, system designs, verification requirements, and verification models. The conclusions of this research provide a science-based metamodel for defining verification models through systems theoretic principles. The verification models were shown to be indirectly defined from system requirements, through system designs and verification requirements. Verification models are expected to be morphically equivalent to corresponding system designs; however, there may exist infinite equivalence which may be reduced through defining bounding conditions. These bounding conditions were found to be defined through verification requirements that are formed as (1) verification requirement problem spaces that characterize the verification activity on the basis of morphic equivalence to the system requirements and (2) morphic conditions that specify desired equivalence between a system design and verification model. An output of this research is a system theoretic metamodel of verification artifacts, which may be used for a science-based approach to define verification models and advancement of the maturity of the SE discipline.
Tailoring an Airworthiness Document to Unmanned Aircraft Systems: A Case Study of MIL-HDBK-516C
Halefom, Mekonen H. (Virginia Tech, 2020-03-17)
With the popularity of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), there is a growing need to assess airworthiness for safe operations in shared airspace. In the context of this thesis, shared airspace implies the introduction of UAS into airspace designated for manned aircraft. Airworthiness guidelines are generally statements that state safety requirements to prevent unwanted consequences, such as aircraft accidents. Many governmental agencies such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) analyzed the risks of UAS to third-parties, all personnel and properties exterior to the aircraft. This thesis concerns the adaptation of existing airworthiness documents written for manned aircraft to UAS. The proposed method has three stages that are applied in sequence to identify relevant and irrelevant airworthiness statements, the building blocks of an airworthiness document, with regard to UAS. This method is applied to MIL-HDBK-516C, used as a case study; however, the proposed methodology can be applied to any airworthiness document developed for manned aircraft. This thesis presents a list of all MIL-HDBK-516C airworthiness statements that are directly relevant, indirectly relevant, and irrelevant to UAS; additionally, the indirectly relevant airworthiness statements to UAS are provided along with suggested modification.
Transdisciplinarity on Paper: How do interdisciplinary faculty translate university initiatives into the classroom?
Ozkan, Desen Sevi (Virginia Tech, 2020-06-24)
University-level transdisciplinary initiatives have become prevalent as institutions reorient disciplines around complex problems that are relevant to society. Transdisciplinary research initiatives, like those of interdisciplinarity in the previous decade, are reinforced by federal funding agencies because of their potential to yield technological innovation, and in turn, economic growth. However, the sustained development of transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary curriculum design remains limited due to the multiple competing factors that govern the curriculum. This dissertation research focuses on the implementation of the transdisciplinary initiative as it pertains to interdisciplinary curriculum design. I use public institutional documents to trace the transdisciplinary institutional initiative as it is enacted at different university levels and interviews to understand the initiatives in practice, drawing from administrators, faculty, and staff experiences as they develop interdisciplinary courses. Many university-level initiatives that purport transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary education fall short in their implementation because of academic structures that directly or indirectly inhibit sustainable interdisciplinary curricula. Instead, administrative organizations like the Registrar's Office, Office of Integrated General Education, and Transdisciplinary Initiative Office develop networks and artifacts that connect faculty who have experience bypassing academic structures with faculty who seek out these forms of institutional support. These emergent practices are an adaptation to the university system rather than a proactive measure that facilitates the large-scale structural change claimed by university-level transdisciplinary initiatives. This study contributes to the understanding of potential long-term implications through the examination of interrelated university initiatives as they exist through metrics and incentives provided by the upper administration and experiences of faculty and staff in developing interdisciplinary courses.

Browsing by Author "Salado Diez, Alejandro"

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