Author: Madeline Suellentrop Major: Industrial Engineering
For the Fall 2020 semester, I conducted research in the Department of Industrial Engineering with the assistance of my advisor, Dr. Sarah Nurre. Dr. Nurre is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering. This semester I focused on creating a mathematical model specific to my project from a simple location coverage model. I also spent a lot of time analyzing data. In the previous Spring semester, I focused on finding data on the Rwanda’s population, health, geography, and supply chain. This semester I started interpreting the data into demand scenarios. For my final semester of research, my plan is to complete my model and run various scenarios based on different demands. With this done, I can complete my undergraduate research and write my final thesis before I graduate in May.
My research focuses on optimizing the location of drone battery swap stations in order to facilitate the delivery of life-saving blood units to rural areas. Currently, there are companies investing in and researching the use of drones to conduct deliveries; specifically, there is one company in Rwanda which is the main company of focus for my project. They set up stations that house the blood units, medical supplies, drones, and drone batteries. A drone is sent out with the correct supplies once an order is received. When the drone is done delivering to a local medical facility, they will swap out the battery and load it with new material. Although this process is already in the works, we found that existing operations focus more on optimizing the performance of the drone and its’ battery instead of optimizing the logistics of their processes. The purpose of my research is to create a mathematical model that can be implemented to optimize the location of drone battery swap stations to create faster and more efficient deliveries.
As an industrial engineering (IE) student, I chose my topic and my advisor through our IE Research Experience course my sophomore year. We can take 3 courses that help us find our topics and advisors, guide us in the grant application process, and finally helps us begin our thesis. In the first of the 3 courses, I heard from all the IE professors that are looking for undergraduates to mentor; thy explained what they are currently working on in their research when visiting the class. In this class, I was intrigued by my advisor’s research into both drone deliveries and the use of drones to deliver blood specifically. From her current research, I was able to tailor my research to my interests in logistics, optimization, and data analytics. My research advisor, Dr. Nurre, has played a big role in the modeling portion of my research. With her experience in optimization models, she has been instrumental in helping me solve some of the more complex modeling issues. Also, she has been very transparent regarding new information she receives from companies who perform drone deliveries which has been important in keeping my research up to date.
Even with the help of my advisor, conducting research while adjusting to online school and a socially distanced life was the biggest challenge of the semester. I personally do not find motivation from sitting behind a compute screen all day long. My weekly meetings with Dr. Nurre from the previous semesters kept me energized and excited about the project; however, this semester we were solely online due to COVID-19 restrictions. To keep my research exciting, Dr. Nurre and I were able to relay information and new findings regarding my research to on another to keep updated on the topic and to help me to stay motivated. From this semester, I especially learned a lot about my research topic regarding the different companies in the market. Prior to this fall semester, I was focusing on one main drone delivery company that operates in Rwanda: Zipline. However, Dr. Nurre introduced me to other companies and explained their
different operations. With a wider perspective into the use of drones to deliver blood, my research changed. For example, I am trying to find the optimal locations for these supply stations, but different companies have different methods of selecting locations based on their own criteria. This is where we introduced the different demand scenarios which can reflect different criteria from the different companies. If one company’s station locations are dependent on the station’s proximity to generators, then we can reflect the important of this in the demand scenario for different regions. In addition to demand scenarios, these different companies also use different types of drones. One company doesn’t use batteries, so the flight radius is longer which can make a big impact on location. The various business models from companies who perform drone deliveries was my biggest learning experience besides the challenge of staying motivated in socially distanced world.
As mentioned previously, my goal for this next semester is to finalize and run different demand scenarios with my mathematical model in order to complete my thesis. For the model, I will work by building a base mode, and I will use random numbers to test it out. Once I have my base model, I can start creating different scenarios based on different factors: population of children in an area, poverty, percent of children with anemia, etc. Once I run those scenarios, I can create new ones based off the performance of the others. If there is time, I can also advance my model to account for overlap. A station has a certain radius that it can service. If a station’s radius overlaps another station, then this allows for distribution of supplies between stations. This concept would take a more advanced model, and it will be considered depending on my progress. Overall, my goal for the next semester is to complete my honors thesis.