Prof Alice E. Smith of Auburn University, USA

This talk discusses novel approaches for employing drones to accomplish logistical tasks in diverse environments.  Drones, working in tandem with traditional transportation vehicles and with humans, offer environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternatives for moving small items such as medicines, electronic devices, and assembly parts.  This talk will cover two ongoing research projects which involve a combination of mathematical modeling, computational optimization, simulation in virtual environments, and actual physical experimentation and trials.  While using drones has challenges in terms of human interaction and practicality of operating in certain environments, they are more pragmatic than might be expected for some situations.  One focus is on assembly facilities where drones bring needed parts to works at their stations on the line.  This setting is indoors where GPS cannot be used for drone positioning and guidance so alternative methods must be employed. The second focus is on part delivery to offshore oil rigs from mobile additive manufacturing factories.  Deliveries can be done by a combination of truck and ship or by long-range drone.  In this case, not only is delivery optimized but also the production schedule and any relocations of the factories.

Biography:

ALICE E. SMITH is the Joe W. Forehand, Jr. Distinguished Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Auburn University, where she served as Department Chair from 1999-2011.  She also has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.  Previously, she was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh from 1991-99, which she joined after industrial experience with Southwestern Bell Corporation.  Dr. Smith has degrees from Rice University, Saint Louis University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Smith’s research focus is analysis, modeling, and optimization of complex systems with emphasis on computation inspired by natural systems.  She holds one U.S. patent and several international patents and has authored more than 200 publications which have garnered over 18,000 citations, an H Index of 53, and an i10 Index of 133 (Google Scholar).  Dr. Smith is on the top half of the List of Top 2% of Scientific Researchers worldwide compiled by Stanford University based on publishing impact.  She is the editor of Women in Computational Intelligence: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79092-9) and Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics (https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030118655#aboutBook). Several of her papers are among the most highly cited in their respective journals including the most cited paper of Reliability Engineering & System Safety and the 4th most cited paper of IEEE Transactions on Reliability.  She won the E. L. Grant Best Paper Awards in 1999 and in 2006, and the William A. J. Golomski Best Paper Award in 2002.  Dr. Smith is the Editor in Chief of INFORMS Journal on Computing and an Area Editor of Computers & Operations Research.

Dr. Smith has been a principal investigator on over $12 million of sponsored research with funding by NASA, U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, National Security Agency, NIST, U.S. Department of Transportation, Frontier Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin, Adtranz (now Bombardier Transportation), the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Western Pennsylvania, and U.S. National Science Foundation, from which she has been awarded 18 distinct grants including a CAREER grant and an ADVANCE Leadership grant.  Her industrial partners on sponsored research projects have included DaimlerChrysler Electronics, Toyota, Eljer, Frontier Technology Inc., Extrude Hone, Ford Motor, and Crucible Compaction Metals.  International research collaborations have been sponsored by Germany, Mexico, Japan, Turkey, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Egypt, South Korea, Iraq, China, Colombia, Chile, Algeria, and the U.S., and by the Institute of International Education.  In 2013 she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, in 2016 a Fulbright Specialist at EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia, in 2017 a Senior Fulbright Fellow at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile, and in 2020, a Fulbright Specialist at University La Sabana in Bogota, Colombia.

Address:Auburn University, , Alabama, United States