ME6105 Syllabus for Spring 2008

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Instructor: Chris Paredis

Room: MARC 256

Phone: 404-894-5613 (office),
             404-315-7864 (home; leave message)

Email: chris.paredis@me.gatech.edu

Web: http://www.srl.gatech.edu/Members/cparedis

Office Hours:  Mon 1:00 - 2:00PM, Fri 11:00 - 12:00, and by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Stephanie Thompson

Room: MARC 266

Phone: 404-894-8169 (office)

Email: stephaniecthompson@gatech.edu

Web: http://www.srl.gatech.edu/Members/sthompson

Office Hours:  Stephanie is a Ph.D. student training to become a professor.  She will help organize the course, teach several lectures, and help prepare and grade homework assignments.  She does not have regular office hours, but you can send her e-mail to set up an appointment.

Lectures

Room:  Love 184

Time:  Tue-Thu 1:35-2:55

Prerequisites

Graduate standing in engineering or related discipline;  Undergraduate seniors with permission of the instructor.

Prerequisites by topics: The students are expected to be familiar with the following topics at an undergraduate level:

• Statistics
• Differential equations
• Design topics: specifications, functional requirements, conceptual design, embodiment and detailed design.
• The behavior of physical systems: thermal systems, electrical systems, dynamics of mechanical systems, hydraulics (to complete their projects, the students will need familiarity with at least a subset of these topics).
• Computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE)

Course Goals

To provide a theoretical foundation for the development
and use of models in system design. The models include both
decision models and analysis models

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• frame decisions: objectives, alternatives, outcomes, preferences.
• evaluate design alternatives by conducting simulation studies
• select the appropriate modeling paradigm to support a design decision
• select a solution algorithm that matches the characteristics of an analysis model
• critically evaluate analysis results in the presence of uncertainty
• model designer preferences -- risk averseness, multi-attribute utilities, robustness
• recognize the trade-offs between the costs and value of different simulation-based design processes

Course Materials

Web Page: All materials will be posted on the official course web-site: http://www.srl.gatech.edu/education/ME6105/index_html. In addition, homework and project submissions need to be submitted electronically via t-square: http://www.t-square.gatech.edu

Textbook:

• Making Hard Decision: An Introduction to Decision Analysis, R.T. Clemen, Duxbury Press, 1997. (ISBN: 0534260349)
  
  The book should be available in the bookstore or you may be able to find a good deal on-line. 

In addition, specific chapters or overview articles will be provided on-line in the Reading Material section.

References:

• Introduction to Systems Engineering, A.P. Sage, J.E. Armstrong Jr., Wiley & Sons, 2000. (ISBN: 0471027669) 
• Principles of Object-Oriented Modeling and Simulation with Modelica 2.1, Peter Fritzson, Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Press, 2003. (ISBN: 047147163)
• Continuous System Simulation, F.E. Cellier and E. Kofman, Springer, 2006. (ISBN: 0387261028)
• Simulation with Arena, 3rd edition, W. Kelton, R. Sadowski, D. Sturrock, McGraw-Hill, 2003. (ISBN: 0072919817)

Topics

1. Course Overview and Introduction
• Modeling of energy-based systems
• Object Oriented Modeling in Dymola
2. Modeling the structure of design problems
• Modeling the structure of design problems:  Influence diagrams
• Modeling Design Objectives
• What is modeling and Simulation?
3. Modeling of energy-based systems
• The Modelica Language
• Evaluation and comparison of continuous-time M&S software
• Solving differential (algebraic) equations
• Debugging Modelica Models
4. Modeling uncertainty
• Sources and types of uncertainty
• Representation of uncertainty
• Computing with uncertainty information
• Sensitivity Analysis
• The Method of Morris
5. Modeling preferences
• Value functions and trade-offs under certainty
• Utility theory
• Multi-attribute utility theory
• The role of optimization in design
• Information Economics -- trade-offs between (design) process and system objectives
6. Selected Topics
• Information Modeling for Systems Engineering -- SysML
• Example: Discrete event simulation in Arena

Software

The homework assignments will involve two software packages: Dymola and ModelCenter.

• Dymola: An academic license is available and CDs with the software will be distributed to all students. The software can only be used in the context of this course.  Find more information about the Dymola software at www.dynasim.com. 
• ModelCenter: An academic license is available and CDs with the software will be distributed to all students.  To software can only be used in the context of this course. Find more information about the ModelCenter software at www.phoenix-integration.com.

In addition, the arena software for discrete event simulation will be used for an in-class demonstration, but is not necessary for any of the assignments.

• Arena: A free copy of Arena is included in the book: Simulation with Arena, 3rd edition, by Kelton, Sadowski and Sturrock.  Arena will be used for an in-class demonstration, but will not be required for assignments.

Projects

A major component of this course are the projects. You are allowed (encouraged) to work in teams of 2-3 students. You are encouraged to choose a topic for your project that is of particular interest to you and that is in an application domain in which you have prior expertise.  This will allow you to tailor the course to your specific interests and needs. If your thesis research includes a component that relates to modeling and simulation, you may be able to develop that component further as part of your course project.

The project is also closely tied to the homework assignments. For each of the homework assignments you will model for a different aspect of the same application as for your project. In the project you can then leverage your results of the homework assignments into a complete simulation-based design study.

Grading Scheme

• There are no exams.  The entire grade will be based on a comprehensive course project that is divided into 5 homework assignments:
• Homework Assignment 1: Becoming familiar with object-oriented modeling in Dymola (10%) -- individual assignment
• Homework Assignment 2:  Planning your simulation-based design study (15%)
• Homework Assignment 3:  Energy-based modeling with Modelica (25%)
• Homework Assignment 4:  Uncertainty Analysis (20%)
• Homework Assignment 5:  Preference modeling and optimization (30%)

Distance Learning

• All lecture materials and assignments will be made available electronically through the course web-site.
• All assignments are due 1 week after the on-campus deadlines (DL deadlines will be listed explicitly in the assignments)
• All homework submissions should be uploaded to t-square (no need to fax your submission)
• Graded assignments will be e-mailed back to students in pdf format
• Office hours for DL students:  I like interaction.  Don't hesitate to call or contact me through skype (ID: chris.paredis).  When you have modeling problems with either Dymola or ModelCenter, make sure to e-mail your model to me before you call.

Additional Class Policies

Honor Code Policy: The members of the Georgia Tech Community believe that the fundamental objective of the Institute is to provide the students with a high quality education while developing in them a sense of ethics and social responsibility. We believe that trust is an integral part of the learning process and that self-discipline is necessary in this pursuit. We also believe that any instance of dishonesty hurts the entire community. It is with this in mind that we have set forth a Student Honor Code at Georgia Tech.

Office Hour Policy: We fully support an open-door policy for answering any questions you might have concerning this class. In fact, we appreciate students stopping by to ask questions. However, we hope that you: a) recognize that we have other duties as a faculty member and a student, b) respect our time, c) understand that we might not be able to see you immediately. Therefore, when stopping by outside office hours, call or send e-mail first.

Changes: When appropriate or necessary, the instructor may adjust, amend, or otherwise modify the information presented in the syllabus. Changes will be made in a manner to minimize disruption and in the interest of fostering learning. Every effort will be made to ensure that all changes are brought to the attention of students so as to minimize inconvenience.