QSR Poster Session by Timothy Hopper

The research presented in Monday's Quality, Statistics and Reliability (QSR) poster session showed that quality and reliability has moved far beyond manufacturing. The research of 10 presenters from around the world ranged from theory of experimental design to applications in disaster management and healthcare.

PhD student Okan Pala from the University of North Carolina Charlotte presented his research on multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) for decision makers involved in the recovery of critical infrastructure, such as power grids, after a disaster. Through simulation of various scenarios, he created a simple lookup table to inform decision makers based on the attributes of a particular event. Shahrzad Faghih Roohi from the National University of Singapore used the Bayesian network to guide sensor deployment that balances competing objects of cost and reliability. Virginia Tech PhD student Lee Wells has developed a framework to quickly visualize variation in automobile assembly and identify needed process improvements.

Patrick Wanko of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University presented a variation on genetic algorithms dubbed "Schooling Genetic Algorithms." Wanko's research follows the successful trend of nature-inspired metaheuristics by considering how schooling fish move between feeding zones. Marilia Perez from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez displayed her comparison of regression models frequently used in simulation metamodels with kriging, a technique recently borrowed from spatial statistics. Purdue University PhD student Dadi Xing shared his application of variable selection with LASSO to supersaturated experimental design.

The QSR poster session exhibited the breadth of quality and reliability research as it penetrates the complex systems of many fields. Researchers are combining relatively recent developments in statistics, such as LASSO and Bayesian networks, with developments in computing to help businesses and communities increase quality and better serve their markets.