Informs 2015

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INFORMS Philadelphia – 2015
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3 - Use of Pretesting to Assess Retention of Prerequisite Knowledge
Jill Wilson, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd.,
Room C211, Evanston, IL, 60208, United States of America,
Karen Smilowitz, Barry Nelson
We describe a pretest assessment scheme designed to test student retention of
knowledge obtained in prerequisite courses. Although useful in documenting
continuous improvement for ABET accreditation, pretests most importantly help
identify students who are unprepared for the current course and help faculty to
identify course-wide deficiencies that need remediation. We describe content of
pretests, details of implementation, and insights gleaned from data collected in the
first two years.
4 - Georgia Tech’s Systematic Approach to Improving PhD Students’
Academic Job Talks and Interviews
Judith Norback, , Alan Erera
Our goal is improving the academic job talks and interviews of IE/OR PhD
candidates currently on the job market. We describe the systematic work done to
identify instructional activities for the students. The seven steps we took were: 1)
observing PhD student INFORMS talks, 2) interviewing faculty to identify what
they expect in an excellent talk, 3) conducting a workshop where each student
gives a brief presentation and receives feedback from a presentation expert, 4)
holding oral skills meetings for instruction and practice, and 5) having a faculty
panel discussion of how to conduct interviews. 6) Finally, once a student has
arranged an interview, they give a practice talk to their advisers and the
presentation expert, and 7) the expert joins them in a final oral skills meeting.
Preliminary feedback from students and faculty, and instructional materials, will
be shared.
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61-Room 111B, CC
Electricity Markets and Renewable Power
Sponsor: ENRE – Energy I – Electricity
Sponsored Session
Chair: Nur Sunar, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina,
Kenan-Flagler School of Business, Chapel Hill, NC,
United States of America,
1 - Stochastic Co-Optimization Framework for Renewable
Power Generation
Shijie Deng, Georgia Inst of Tech, 755 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA,
United States of America, ,
Anthony Papavasiliou
We proposes a stochastic programming framework for solving the optimal
scheduling problem faced by a renewable power producer that simultaneously
participates in multiple markets. Specifically, the renewable-generator participates
in both the electricity spot market and the ancillary services market as a price
taker. Numerical case studies on the advantages of the proposed strategy for a
wind-generator to hedge market uncertainties are carried out with a set of
realistic parameters.
2 - Lessons from Large Scale Transmission Planning using
Stochastic Programming in WECC
Qingyu Xu, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street,
Baltmore, MD, 21218, United States of America, ,
Saamrat Kasina, Jonathan Ho, Pearl Donohoo-vallett,
Yueying Ouyang, Benjamin Hobbs
A 21-zone model and a 300-bus model of the western North America
interconnection are used to optimize transmission and generation investment and
production, facing uncertain economic, regulatory and climate scenarios. The
stochastic optima show very different patterns of transmission/generation
investment compared to deterministic solutions. The economic impacts of various
model simplifications are compared, including the network, number of scenarios,
and generator unit commitment.
3 - Supply Function Bidding with Uncertain Supply and Demand:
Electricity Markets and Renewable Power
Nur Sunar, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina,
Kenan-Flagler School of Business, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
of America, , John Birge
Motivated by high penetration of renewables into electricity generation mix, we
introduce and analyze a supply function competition model with both supply and
demand uncertainty. Using the ODE theory, we characterize a supply function
equilibrium, and analyze the implications of different penalty schemes and
subsidy for equilibrium day-ahead market clearing price, production schedules
and actual production quantities of generators. We also calibrate our model based
on MISO’s data.
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62-Room 112A, CC
Optimization Models for Bioenergy Production
and Delivery
Sponsor: ENRE – Environment I – Environment and Sustainability
Sponsored Session
Chair: Mohammad Roni, Computational Energy Analyst, Idaho
National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625,, Idaho Falls, ID, 83401,
United States of America,
1 - Economic, Environmental and Social Optimization of an
Integrated Bioenergy and Biofuel Supply Chain
Taraneh Sowlati, University of British Columbia, 2931-2424 Main
Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z4, Canada,
Claudia Cambero
A multi-objective optimization model is proposed for the network design and
strategic planning of integrated bioenergy and biofuel supply chains using forestry
by-products as feedstock. The objectives of the model are to maximize the NPV,
maximize the GHG emissions savings, and maximize the number of direct jobs
created. The model was applied to a case study in British Columbia, and a set of
Pareto-optimal solutions was obtained using the augmented ?-constraint
(AUGMECON) method.
2 - Analyzing Stranded Biomass Resource: Regional Case Study in
the United States of America
Mohammad Roni, Computational Energy Analyst, Idaho National
Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625,, Idaho Falls, ID, 83401, United States
of America, , Ross Hays, Damon Hartley,
Erin Searcy
National assessment such as Billion Ton Study has projected biomass resources to
meet biofuel production targets. But resources are often inaccessible because of
unfavorable economics—labeled as “stranded resources”. This study quantifies
stranded resources under conventional and proposed distributed depot based
supply design. A mixed integer, linear programming is formulated to quantify the
stranded resource. We perform a regional case study based on agricultural
residues and energy crops.
3 - Potential Savings and Cost Allocations for Forest Fuel
Transportation in Sweden
Mario Guajardo, Assistant Professor, NHH Norwegian School of
Economics, Helleveien 30, Bergen, 5045, Norway,
, Patrik Flisberg, Mikael Frisk,
Mikael Ronnqvist
Efficient logistics is crucial to make forest fuels a competitive source of bioenergy.
By using optimization models and a decision support system, we study
alternatives to lower the costs in a case that accounts for all forest fuel transport
operations in Sweden. This involves 200,000 transports of about 6.1 million tons
of forest biomass. We identify potential savings of about 22%. As one of the
alternatives is collaboration, we test cost allocation methods based on cooperative
game theory.
4 - GIS-Based Allocation of Lignocellulosic Biorefineries and Depots
Daniela S. Gonzales, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX,
United States of America, ,
Stephen W. Searcy
Our objective was to determine the structure of the likely biomass feedstock
supply chain that will develop in the US based on the DOE concept of an
advanced uniform feedstock format; the predicted availability of biomass
(presented in the 2011 Billion Ton Study Update), the geographic location of
suitable lands for biomass (based on the 2011 National Land Cover Data), and the
transportation infrastructure. We use ArcGIS tools to identify the location of
biorefineries and depots in the US.
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