IEMS 2010 Program by Tracks

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Keynote Speaker: H. James Harrington, CEO Harrington Institute

Accounting/Finance:

Chair: LuAnn Bean, Florida Institute of Technology, lbean@it.fit.edu

Session 1: Monday March 8, 9:45 am Pelican room, Jarrett Kotrozo, session chair.

A Forensic Accounting Framework: Investigating the Cracks Between Accounting and the Law
LuAnn Bean and Tamika Linton
This paper presents a forensic accounting framework approach to practical accounting challenges as they morph into legal issues. Recent insights gained from current legal cases are included as: (1) critical reference points to accounting responses and (2) potential roadmaps to ways in which accounting will shape the future world of exchange.

Evaluating Assets in Tough Times: The Impairment Process and Auditor Tension
LuAnn Bean and Angelika Isaacs
While the traditional logic says that companies should never be happy about impairing assets in these recessionary times, strategic experts promote write downs as opportunities to increase cash flow and improve the bottom line. This paper investigates whether tension in the audit process, as reflected by auditor resignations and dismissals, has changed significantly in light of a changing management motivation for more aggressive impairment evaluations.

Bank of America and the Merrill Lynch Acquisition: A Multi-Theoretical Analysis
Randall D. Harris and Jarrett Kotrozo
In this article, we discuss Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch during the global financial crisis of 2008. Certain elements of this acquisition appear to contain a-theoretical implications. We also briefly examine the legal implications of this acquisition and also touch on the constitutional limits to the power of US Treasury Secretaries. Further, we speculate on the implications of the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch acquisition for management theory, financial markets theory and the future of the US financial system.

Session 1: Wednesday March 10, 9:45 am Pelican Room, Mostafa Khattab, session chair

Applying Lean as a Strategy for Sustainable Homebuilding
Isabelina Nahmens, Laura Ikuma and Marwa Hassan
Sustainable homebuilding is attainable through practical innovations and technologies. However, the greatest barrier to a widespread application of sustainable homebuilding is inefficient construction processes. This paper proposes the use of lean principles and tools as a viable and effective strategy to address this challenge. Results of the study are presented.

Life Cycle Cost Estimator as a Decision Tool for Bridge Deck Selections
Sidharta Sahirman, Robert C. Creese and Hota V.S. GangaRao
Comparison of infrastructural projects that have high investment costs and a long life expectancy requires a life-cycle costing (LCC) methodology, because there are costs beyond the initial construction costs that should be considered. LCC is the comprehensive way to compare long term projects, which lead the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) encourages states to use LCC when determining which roadway projects to fund.

Session 1: Monday March 8, 1:00 pm Flamingo Room, E. Ertugrul Karsak, session chair

Fuzzy Group Decision Making for Health-Care Waste Management
Mehtap Dursun, E. Ertugrul Karsak and Melis Almula Karadayi
Evaluation of health-care waste (HCW) disposal alternatives requires the consideration of multiple subjective and conflicting criteria with the involvement of a group of experts. Constructing an efficient HCW management system, which considers environmental, economic, technical and social factors, is a highly important multi-criteria group decision making problem. This paper presents a hierarchical distance-based fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making framework for evaluating HCW disposal alternatives for Istanbul, one of the most crowded cities in Europe.

Business Decision to Adopt a New Technology: SMEs Struggle to Increase Performance
Michael Stoica
Adoption of new technology is critical for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). The adoption process is dependent upon organizational culture of the business, its strategy and maturity, as well its size and the surrounding environment and the industry in which the business is operating. A model has been developed that incorporates all these variables. The model is tested using hierarchical regression. The methodology, results, and managerial implications are discussed.

Enhancing the Procurement Management Using an AHP Tool
Mohamed ELNassery, Khaled S. EL-Kilany and Azziz Ezzat
Procurement management is the bottle neck of any supply chain business unit, and as it involves a set of repetitive group decisions, an AHP tool is applied to screen inconsistency of voters’ input and to facilitate both centralized and decentralized multi-criteria decisions between the different alternatives over the various procurement activities

Applications of Fuzzy Logic in Maintenance Management
Lotfi Gaafar and Amr Abo El-Fadl
This study presents a fuzzy logic-based maintenance management system and demonstrates how fuzzy logic techniques are able to capture human knowledge and work as a decision support system for maintenance management. The proposed system consists of two fuzzy logic models: a maintenance planning model and a maintenance rescheduling model. As part of their validation, the two models have been applied at a five-star hotel in Cairo where they led to reduction in both the annual preventive maintenance cost and the preventive maintenance workload.

An Expert System Addressing Concerns for Security With Cloud Computing
Robert L. Mullen
This paper describes the conceptual development of an expert system to capture the knowledge of experts regarding the concerns for data security for enterprises considering the use of a new technology known as “cloud computing”. This technology has great potential for meeting all computer processing needs of small and medium sized firms with this utilitarian approach to providing a full service of computing power on the Internet but it is primarily held back by this major concern for data and information security of their business operational needs.

A Calculus for Modeling Security and Mobility in Multi-Agent Systems
Jean Gourd
In this paper, we present API-S, a calculus for modeling security and mobility in multi-agent systems. API-S extends API Calculus by integrating new primitives that provide a powerful way of modeling numerous security methodologies within groups of interacting agents. We also show how API-S can be used to model a simple system.

A Novel Approach for Computer Assisted Table Top Exercises for Stadium Security and Safety Operations
Adel Lotfy Ali, Lou Marciani and Jim McGee
New approach that utilizes simulation evacuation, visual decision support system, and supportive geospatial database to computerize the design, conducting, and assessment of table top exercises (TTXs). The new approach expands the scope of TTX’s from mere incident management training to assessment of pre-game preparedness and post-game analysis capabilities.

Session 2: Tuesday March 9, 9:45 am Egret Room, Robert Mullen, session chair

SportEvac: Visual Decision Support System (VDSS) for Stadium Security and Safety Operations
Adel Lotfy Ali and Lou Marciani
VDSS is visual decisions support System that uses layered approach, 3-D graphical user interface, and rule engine to help end users in pre-game planning, during game incident management, and post game analysis of safety and security operations in stadiums.

Distributed Intelligence Framework for P2P File Sharing
James Jacobs
We propose a framework that provides an intelligence mechanism to address problems relevant to P2P networking. The framework is designed with the intelligence integrated and exchanged from peer-to-peer and the peers communicating, designing, and administrating the network for the good of the user, the network, and the infrastructure.

An Expert System for Evaluating Social Network Sites: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, vs. Text Messaging
Robert L. Mullen
This paper describes the conceptual development of an expert system to advise those considering the use of various social networking methods as to which best fits their needs. Now that email is no longer the main form of communication, this system is for those who have not yet entered the image-rich form of communication using social networking sites with its ease of keeping up with all your friends without individual emails or list serves. It is designed for the “elderly” to catch-up with the “youth” of today.

Healthy, Efficient, and Affordable Lunch System (HEALS) a Decision Support Tool for School Cafeteria
James Jacobs, Paulus Wahjudi and Dia Ali
One of main concerns from parents regarding their kids’ school other than quality of education is the quality of food served in the school cafeteria. Due to limited budget and manpower, schools often serve preprocessed foods with low nutritional value. We propose a Healthy, Efficient, and Affordable lunch system (HEALS) to aid schools in designing the menu for their cafeteria.

Force Depletion Mechanics as an Evaluation Tool for Mobile Agents
Jeremy Kackley and Paulus Wahjudi
We propose the use of force expenditure measurement to analyze mobile agent performance and network cost. This mechanism allows the ranking and optimization of agents with differing algorithms but similar goals, as well as detecting excessive replication, hung processes, and network anomalies.

Intelligent Framework for Software Analysis, Reuse and Fabrication
Paulus Wahjudi
We propose a framework that provides a common repository structure to represent information about existing software assets. The framework shall provide the ability to document existing systems, discover reusable components in existing software, and support transformations to new systems by facilitating software fabrication. The goal is to facilitate information exchange related to transformation of existing software assets.

Relating White Papers using Word Frequency and Clustering
Daniel J. Bond, Lacey Duckworth, James Ross and Dia Ali
In this paper we propose a technique for relating documents using word frequencies not explicit keywords. Our approach uses clustering to relate papers based upon the frequency of words that occur in the body of the document. We shall discuss the motivation, implementation and results of our approach.

An Enhanced Image Restoration Algorithm
Xiaoli Huan, Beddhu Murali and Adel L. Ali
Automatic image restoration is a technique which repairs damaged images or removes unwanted objects from images. In this paper, we propose an enhanced image restoration algorithm which has the improved filling order of the pixels in target regions and structure and texture constructions in a dynamic searching range. In our approach, the user provides few needed information for the structure construction and texture synthesis.

BEMD-Based Image Processing: A novel Approach to Color Image Edge Detection and Analysis Using Bicubic Interpolation
Isaac K. Gang and Dia Ali
The area of edge detection has been quite intriguing, which is why it continuously draws interest from different fields of science outside of computer science. Despite this reality, however, designing a color image edge detection operator has been elusive. In this paper, the authors propose an efficient, yet simple technique to address the problem.

Design and Development of a Visualization and Mapping System for use in an Indoor 802.11g Wireless Localization and Tracking System utilizing a Directional Antenna Array
Leondre Yarbrough and Tamara Rogers
In the field of wireless network security there exist many scenarios, such as the presence of a malicious intruder, in which it is important to have information that is real time and in a form that can be clearly understood by the wireless network administrator. If the network administrator can visualize the location of an unauthorized user in a wireless environment, then a more informed decision can be made.

Session 1. Monday March 8, 1:00 pm Pelican room, Robert Fleming, session chair

Utilizing Mentoring Programs in the Development of Fire Officers
Robert S. Fleming and Faye X. Zhu
This paper examines the utilization of a formal mentoring process in the development of fire service officers. The value of mentoring programs to prepare fire department personnel to successfully “make the transition” first from firefighter to company officer, and later from company officer to chief officer will be considered

Educate Your Operator Using a CNC Machine Control
Morteza Sadat
This paper focuses on the selection of online programs and courses suitable for delivery on a CNC machine control. It will also focus on the advance features of new machine controls that allow the utilization of software programs such as, CAD, CAM, and PLC functions built into the machine controls. These features make new controls a feasible training stations and simulators.

Fault Detection for Smart Grid Reliability Enhancement
Wei Zhan, Joshua Kirksey, Logan Porter, Joshua McCracken, and Dylan Kwan
A student senior design team is sponsored by a local power distribution company to develop a smart sensor for a circuit breaker to detection several different types of faults. The sensor is required to be nonintrusive, low cost, and work in a harsh environment with high level electromagnetic interference. The smart sensor greatly enhances the reliability of smart grid power transmission systems

Innovative Organizational E-learning Model: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia
Abdulhameed A. Alelaiwi
The modernization of education is one of the most obvious concerns of Saudi educational institutions. In Saudi Arabia today, there are more than 24,000 educational institutions located throughout the Kingdom and more than four million students enrolling into these institutions. This paper introduces a survey of E-learning key practices in the Kingdom. In addition, an innovative E-learning model is proposed to meet E-leaning objectives in the Kingdom.

Session 2. Monday March 8, 2:30 pm Pelican room, Ed Bellman, session chair

Benefits From Living the Accreditation Process
Michael E. Opar, Thomas W. Hill, Jr., Jodi F. Prosise
Although institutions focus on the accreditation, it is following the process created to attain accreditation that yields the highest value. Living the accreditation process continuously, not just in six-year cycles, has forced careful definition of and distinction between education and training. The results include expected adjustments as well as novel and unexpected ideas to bridge academic requirements in fundamentals, and industry expectations in technological proficiency.

The Traditional Distance Education and Online Education in America: Advantages and Disadvantages
Stephen Frempong
Distance education and online education are very common in today’s society with some great advantages and some few disadvantages that come with it. This paper will look at the traditional distance education as compared to today’s online education, the role of technology, the type of students most likely to succeed, and finally look into some of the first distance/online institutions in the United States in terms of graduation rates and cost.

The Use of a Database System for the Early Intervention of STEM Students
Samir Y. Khoury and Christine Russell
Students at risk of dropping out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs often display signs that indicate they are at risk of dropping out. Since instructors are the first to identify at risk students but are either too busy or unqualified to intervene, a mechanism is needed to report and track at risk students, to facility implementation of intervention strategies, and to identify those strategies that work.

Lessons Learned from the Implementation of a Novel Entrepreneurial Training Services Program
Shirley Ann Becker, Robert Keimer and Tim Muth
The Entrepreneurial Training Services (ETS) framework is designed for making effective decisions during the business startup process. The framework includes an intensive training program combined with support from mentors and counselors. The intended outcome is an informed and effective approach to business startup. Lessons learned are summarized from its initial implementation.

Session 3. Tuesday March 9, 8:00 am Pelican room, Ed Bellman, session chair

What is the Difference Between Engineering and Engineering Technology?
Noureddine Bekhouche
To present the similarities and differences between the engineering and engineering technology programs particularly for the electronics programs. The presentation will focus on three major groups of programs: Electronics engineering accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), electronics engineering technology accredited by ABET, and electronics technology accredited by ATMAE (The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering), formerly NAIT (National Association of Industrial Technology).

Engineering Leadership: Team Teaching, Team Learning
Douglas Reed and Jerry W. Samples
In today’s global marketplace, engineers must have people skills to be effective on the job. Influencing the actions of people is leadership. Using an interdisciplinary instructor team (Management and Engineering) we help engineering technology students develop their leadership skills. A large portion of the course is team taught by the students and every class involves team exercises. The results are astounding and worth discussion.

A Novel Use of Data Mining on Studying Student College Performance
Mohammed Ali
This work reports a novel use of data mining technique to study the effects of high school grade point average (GPA), standardized test scores, age, gender, credit hrs enrolled, and current college GPA (six variables) for predicting students’ college performance of a west-south-central state university. Data mining (DM), a knowledge discovery approach in which the mining outcome(s) should be unpredictable, and no implicit assumptions on underlying relationships between predictor and dependent variables should be made before running the DM algorithms.

Illustrating Lean Using Lab Exercises
Edwin R. Bellman
There are hundreds of books on Lean Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management available as teaching tools. Students leave our classes able to repeat the principles they learned ‘by the book’. However, when asked to put these facts into practice, they very often return a sub-par exercise. It has become apparent that lecture is not enough. The question has become: how do we integrate the real world in to our classes? In the paper/presentation we will discuss several methods of integrating real world experiences into the classroom.

Session 1: Wednesday March 10, 9:45 pm Egret room, Stephen Frempong, Session Chair

Design of LED Backlighting System for Aircraft Cockpit Displays
Jeng-Nan Juang and R. Radharamanan
The overall objective of this paper is to design, build, and test a backlighting system for aircraft cockpit displays using LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). The current technology for backlighting the displays uses fluorescent bulbs. LEDs provide the best light distribution and viewing ability compared to the fluorescent bulbs.

A Comparative Study on HCN and CO2 Gas Lasers
Jeng-Nan Juang and R. Radharamanan
This paper presents a comparative study on HCN (wave length 337 mm) and CO2 (wave length 10.6 mm) gas lasers. The study focused on the operating principles and distinctive differences of these two gas laser. The CO2 lasers produce the highest output power known among all gas lasers.

Why Modulations in Telecommunications Technology
Stephen Frempong
Modulation is the process of combining two signals into a form that is appropriate for transmission. Modulation is very critical in telecommunications and there are various modulations in telecommunications technology. As a result, this paper will discuss the importance of modulations in telecommunication technology, the various modulations, and focus on the differences and advantages between Amplitude Modulations and Frequency Modulations

Algebraic Framework for Multi-Dimensional Systems
Andrzej Gapinski
Algebra of modules over rings provides an algebraic framework for control, identification, and realization of time invariant and time-varying multidimensional systems. The paper investigates extension of this framework to two-variable, multidimensional systems.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 1:00 pm Heron room, Konnie Kustron, Session Chair

Towards Gender Equity in Research Participation within STEM Disciplines at Tennessee State University
Maria Thompson, S. Keith Hargrove, and Tamara Rogers
This paper will described the planning process at Tennessee State University to examine its current infrastructure through self-assessment, and how the engagement of research can play a critical role in increasing gender equity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. The predicted outcome of this project is an institutional environment more supportive of women on traditional or nontraditional tenure-track pathways, and introducing a unique model for research strategies in professional development for diverse faculty and potential administrators at Tennessee State University.

A Benchmarking Study to Discover Best Practices in Curriculum Vitae Construction and Intellectual Property Protection
Renee C. Colletti
This session will report on a benchmarking study to discover the best practices in curriculum vitae construction. A review of the literature provides very limited data on the best practices on vitae construction. The current information available on Curriculum Vitae construction will be analyzed to determine best practices. A summary of the data based on experts in the topic will be compiled to design the Best Practices model.

Supply Chain Management for Higher Education: Trends and Challenges
Angela Lewis
The entrance of new players in a supply chain provides customers with more options, but often results in increased competition and marketing repositioning from existing suppliers. This preliminary study will attempt to address the question: As the higher education supply chain continues to expand, with the addition of online and for-profit corporations offering baccalaureate degrees, what is the impact on existing participants, specifically traditional four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.?

The Relationship Between Oral Class Participation and Computer Mediated Communication With Student’s Gender and Ethnicity
Syed Shahzad Naqvi
The oral participation of students in the classroom has remained the subject of debate for many years. This presentation will report why some graduate students who participate very well in computer mediated discussions, are unable to participate effectively in the oral discussions in the classroom. It will also try to determine if there exists a relationship between participation and student’s gender and ethnicity.

The Effects of Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) Based Social Interactions on Online Learner Expectations
Joe Bauer
“Digital natives” have never known a world without the Web and come to class with certain expectations for communication. This session reports on research exploring the relationship between the computer mediated communication (CMC) of online tools and the expectations a learner has for communication in an online classroom setting.

A Study of Students’ Utilization of the Tools for Online Communication and Collaboration
Daniela Todorova
This research project will investigate students’ perception regarding the availability of an online communication tool, ClassLive used in the online, graduate Engineering Management program at EMU. Also an overview of the communication tools used by students when working in virtual teams and outside the class shell will be included.

Selecting a Course Management System: Decision Making at Medium Size Public Universities
Upasana Raina
This presentation is regarding a study conducted to understand the decision-making processes and factors involved in the selection of a course management system (CMS) at medium sized public universities within the United States. The study will address the myriad of variables that a higher education institution must take into account in a complex decision-making process.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 9:45 pm Pelican room, Dr. Mohammad T. Khasawneh, chair

Assessing Operator Workload for a Fluid Power Controlled Rescue Crawler
Antonio Lee and Xiaochun Jiang
With the development of new fluid power technology, there is renewed interest of using fluid power for a rescue robot. Currently, researchers are developing a rescue crawler using fluid power. Despite the advantage of fluid power over the traditional battery power, the impact on robot operator is unclear. In this study, a discrete event simulation tool was used to model operator performance for this new robot. Specifically, operator workload was studied for various designs.

Human Visual Inspection of Automotive Paint Finishes
Edem Tetteh and Douglas McWilliams
The purpose of this research paper was to evaluate the impact of machine-pace and quality criteria on the accuracy of human visual inspection. Subjects inspected two types of automobiles— luxury and inexpensive—under different machine-paced inspection speeds and background density levels in a simulated laboratory experiment.

Manual Operations Improvement in a Semi-Automatic Electrical Inspection Station
Emad S. Al-Momani and Mohammad T. Khasawneh
Ergonomic interventions were validated and recommended to reduce the risk factors associated with manual operations in a semi-automatic electrical test station at an electronics manufacturing firm. JACKTM, a digital human modeling software package, have been used as a tool to provide quantitative analysis of the risk factors associated with the inspection task.

Session 2: Wednesday March 10, 8:00 am Pelican room, Emad S. Al-Momani, chair

Applying the Learning Curve to the Haptic Feedback Controller
Carmen Franklin and Zongliang Jiang
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of gender on the learning percentage in learning to use the haptic feedback controllers (HFC) to accomplish a simulated excavation task.

Using Eye Tracking to Evaluate Fluid Power System Interface
Xiaochun Jiang
With the development of new fluid power technology, systems applying fluid power technology will be different. One issue is the design of the new fluid power system interface. In this study, eye tracking technology was used to evaluate the system interface using Tobii®. Results indicated that eye tracking data revealed more information to complement a usability study.

Ergonomic Assessment of Manual Filling Station Operations in an Automated Medicine Dispensing System
Emad Al-Momani, Moh’d Elsharo, Akiev Samson, Mohammad T. Khasawneh, and Krishnaswami Srihari
This work utilized digital human modeling (DHM) to quantify the ergonomic risk factors associated with a manual filling station within an automated medicine dispensing system. Design alternatives were proposed to reduce the likelihood of injury and to ensure that people, products, and materials are arranged in the most efficient way possible.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 1:00 pm Pelican room, Deborah Carstens, session chair

LogMeIn.com Remote Access Usability Assessment
Ayuba Audu and Joseph Noel
Usability assessment performed on LogMeIn.com which is a remote access tool useful for information management technicians to resolve user technology issues. A usability study was conducted to identify strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for improvements to an online technical support tool

Educational Learning Software: Experiences Creating an Intuitive Software Interface
Jorge Arias and Daniela Natali
This research seeks to improve the usability features in ProgressTracker application. The Progress Tracker application was developed to improve students and educator’s progress measures and to help them manage their grades efficiently and effectively.

Yahoo v. Google: Usability Testing
Mohammad Alkahtani, Hassan AlSalem and Shaina Holder
A usability study was conducted to identify usability strengths, weaknesses and recommendations for improvements for the websites Yahoo! and Google. The test measured the length of time to do specific tasks geared towards the study and also provided the users to make comments and give useful feedback to improve the search engines usability.

The Value of Usability in State Websites
Shirley Ann Becker, Deborah Sater Carstens and Tamika Maree Linton
A heuristic evaluation was conducted in identifying potential usability barriers of state Web sites. The criteria in this study involved text resizing capabilities, readability, navigation, understandability, consistency, reading complexity, errors and the availability of help information. The findings of the study revealed potential usability issues that impede Web site users.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 8:00 am Heron room, Alexandra Schonning, session chair

How Does the Aspiring Vocational Instructor Improve the Relevance of His Courses?
Douglas Marsh
This research is based upon open ended conversations held with instructors from 21 of Michigan’s colleges which award a certificate or associates in applied science in welding or welding technology. The report concludes with a series of suggestions, or best practices, which the aspiring instructor can use to improve their courses to meet the ever changing demand of the industry.

An Industry-Academia Partnership for the Design of a Robotics Technician Curriculum
Pauline Mosley, Yun Liu, Jayfus Doswell and S. Keith Hargrove
This paper will describe the Robotics Technician Curriculum Model (2+2+3), and an academic career pathway from the Baltimore City Public High School System to the Robotics Technician program at BCCC. The program also supports the transfer to four-year institutions, and internships with local industry that helped design the curricula.

Facilitating the Partnership of Industry & Academia: The Role of Research and Sponsored Programs at Tennessee State University
Maria Thompson and S. Keith Hargrove
This paper will describe the initiation and creation of a unique partnership between a small business owner in the aerospace industry, and the current research activities with a land-grant historically black university in Tennessee. The partnership has extended to include government contracts, and has benefited the institution in faculty and student research, and made the small business more competitive in attracting defense related business from the federal government.

Testing and Analysis of the Fatigue Properties of Bone Cement: A Collaborative Project
Lory Anne E. Reyes and Alexandra Schonning
The objective of this research project is to determine the effect antibiotics and bone cement mixer type have on the fatigue properties of bone cement. Collaborators are the University of North Florida and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 1:00 pm Flamingo room, Sandra Furterer, session chair.

Lean Strategies to Improve Warehouse Operations in Healthcare
Sanjith Venkateswaran, Isabelina Nahmens and Laura Ikuma
This paper showcases a case study conducted at a central warehouse of a leading healthcare unit in the southern region of the United States. The warehouse stores over 1100 medical supplies (e.g. syringes, gloves, primary IV) for different departments within the hospital and other clinics. The objective of the case study was to implement Lean strategies to reduce the inventory and optimize the space by adopting the 5S method

Enterprise Performance Excellence in Healthcare: A Model for Aligning Strategy and Improvement
Sandy Furterer
This presentation will provide a Healthcare model, framework and methodology for integrating an enterprise-wide focus to gain synergies between Lean, Six Sigma and Systems Engineering concepts and tools, to enhance enterprise-wide performance excellence.

Enterprise Lean Six Sigma in a Hospital’s Emergency Department
Sandy Furterer
The presentation will walk through the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC problem solving methodology as it relates to the Emergency Department process improvement effort and the significant results achieved.

Improving Revenue Assurance for a Telecom Company Using Six Sigma
Ibrahim Al Kattan, Fawzia Al Hammadi and Hamda Al Hammadi
This paper presents the application of Six Sigma methodology in Etisalat a Telecom Company in UAE. The outcome of this research illustrates that, Six Sigma used to analyze data in systematic manner to provide measures to robust customer satisfaction by eliminate defects and reducing revenue leakage. A pilot scheme is to implement Six Sigma through revenue department of Al Shamil to ensure the development’s profitability while improving the quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Correlation of Six Sigma Success in Theory X vs. Theory Y Organizations
Janet H. Sanders and Samir Y. Khoury
This paper discusses the results of a survey of companies who have in some way embarked upon the Six Sigma journey in their organizations (from the level of general training to a full staff of certified Six Sigma associates). The paper will discuss the analysis of survey data and any correlation between management practices and Six Sigma project success.

The Impacts of Closing the NUMMI Automotive Plant
Nael Aly and Patrick D. Mullin
This paper explores the far reaching impacts expected to result from the closing of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) automobile assembly plant in Fremont, California. In addition to the immediate and direct impact of the loss of jobs at the plant in Fremont and its suppliers, which are dispersed around the region and country, the subsequent impacts on the economy related to the infrastructure, support services and housing sectors dependant upon or affected by NUMMI payroll and taxes will be analyzed

A Longitudinal Statistical Analysis of the U.S. Health Care System and Associated Costs
John Wang, James Yao, Ruiliang Yan and Ruben Xing
The current environment of health care in the United States is quite complex and dynamic. In this paper, we examined the major drivers of cost and explored the main contributing variables. An analysis was conducted based on data between the years of 1960 and 2007. Statistical evaluation of the trends may lead to better planning and more vigorous reform in the future.

Undertaken Pioneering Challenges of an E-Titan
James Yao and John Wang
eBay provides online marketplaces for the sale of goods and services, online payments, and online communication offerings. As the one of the top ten largest global online retailers, eBay’s mission is to pioneer new communities around the world built on commerce, sustained by trust and inspired by opportunity. This paper will address its management’s philosophies, the corporate business model, its challenges, network relationships, and its corporate growth to date, as well as future horizons.

Session 1: Monday March 8, 9:45 am Egret room, Dr. Ed Hernandez, session chair

Mountain Full of Blood: Teaching Labor History/Law Through Theatre
Edward H. Hernandez, Alfred R. Petrosky, Kaylene Williams and Robert Page
This paper details a project involving the creation of a new dramatic play written to portray the U.S. labor movement originating in the coal-mine field of the Appalachian coal-mine region. A full-length play was tested in San Francisco and New York in two staged readings to produce a learning tool to be used for in-class dramatics stagings. Research on theatre and training indicates that several variables are optimized including motivation to learn, recall and attendance through the use of theatre in classes.

Evaluating Pay for Performance
Shaun Trochessett and Gordon W. Arbogast
Pay for Performance (P4P) programs, otherwise known as variable compensation, incentive pay, or pay at risk, are designed to incent individual or team contributors to meet certain performance goals. This paper investigates the P4P model, along with the extent of its impact on organizational performance.

Meeting and Exceeding Stakeholder Expectations for Fire Department Services
Robert S. Fleming and Faye X. Zhu
This paper considers the application of stakeholder analysis to the contemporary fire department. Analysis of the internal and external stakeholders of the fire department will be presented as will the expectations of these stakeholder groups and strategies that fire departments, and other emergency services organizations can utilize to meet and where possible exceed stakeholder expectations.

Session 2: Tuesday March 9, 3:00 pm Pelican room, Detelin Elenkov, session chair.

Performance Implications of Fit: The Relationship among Knowledge Management Strategy, Information Technology Strategy, and Human Resource Management Strategy
Yue-Yang Chen and Hui-Ling Huang
The present research proposes a knowledge management (KM) fit modeling the management information system area within which KM strategy, IT strategy, and HRM strategy coexist. Empirical data for hypotheses testing are collected from top-ranked companies in Taiwan; yielding 161 valid samples. Performance implications of fit are examined using multiple perspectives with covariation and matching approaches.

Social Psychology and Cultural Context in Sport Business: An International Investigation
Detelin Elenkov and Kristian Serafimov
In this paper, we try to advance the understanding of the sport business, its increasing complexity and the factors affecting modern sport management. We investigate the above issues in an international context, focusing on football in the United States and wrestling in Bulgaria. We argue that the answers of many questions related to sports can be found by referring to influences of social psychology and culture. Insights for achieving success in the sport business are offered in the last part.

Theory to Practice: How one Technology Management Student Implemented a Final Project in “The Real World”
Joe Bauer
As a student Joe Bauer wrote a technology implementation plan, with the intention of implementing it at his workplace, as a final project in one of his classes. This session follows the twists and turns the document took from the classroom to the workplace and the experiences during implementation.

Factors that Influence Usage of Knowledge Management by Information Technology Professionals at Institutions of Higher Education
Ricardo A. Calix, Sri Mallepudi, Gerald M. Knapp and Isabelina Nahmens
Knowledge Management (KM) can increase productivity and knowledge sharing among Information Technology (IT) professionals. This study explores factors that influence usage of KM technologies, overall perceptions about KM, and rewards to encourage KM. Results of the study are presented, and guidelines for KM usage proposed.

Solar-Powered Air Conditioning: An Elegant Idea for Florida
Faissal A. Moslehy and Yasser A. Hosni
This paper discusses the concept of solar-powered air conditioning and the many advantages of its introduction as a renewable energy-based alternative to grid-powered mechanical air conditioning systems. With anticipated shortages and depletion of oil and gas resources, the implementation of solar energy for cooling purposes should be considered, especially since the sun’s energy is also a major cause for the use of air conditioning systems, especially in Florida.

Chair: Kaylene Williams, California State University, Stanislaus, kwilliams@csustan.edu

Session 1: Monday March 8, 9:45 am Flamingo Room, Kaylene Williams, session chair

Multi-Generational Descriptions and Marketing
Kaylene C. Williams, Robert Page, Alfred R. Petrosky and Edward H. Hernandez
Multi-generational marketing is the practice of appealing to the unique needs of individuals within more than one specific generational group, with a generation being a group of individuals born and living about the same time. The purpose of this paper is to describe the various U.S. generations including the times in which they grew up as well as the characteristics, lifestyles, and attitudes of the generation. The paper will conclude with general and specific tips for improving the practice of multi-generational marketing.

A Comparative Study of Healthcare Quality in the US and Saudi Healthcare Systems
Emad Abualsauod, Karla Moore and Ahmad Elshennawy
In this paper we discuss the different factors that affect patients’ satisfactions with healthcare services provided by public and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the United States. The study compares the two countries in healthcare services, patients’ requirements, and the impact of culture on patients’ requirements as well as their healthcare services satisfaction. The paper also provides demographic information and the correlation between some of variables such as age, gender; income, citizenship and the type of healthcare facility that patients prefer to use.

A Real Time Customer Satisfaction Indicator for Industrial Customers the Case of the Printed Wiring Boards Industry
Adam Maamoun and Ahmad Rahal
Using the business to business (B2B) setting of the Printed Wiring Boards Industry, this research proposes the use of archival data for the development of a non-survey driven customer satisfaction indicator capable of monitoring; in real time; probable shifts in customer satisfaction, and of alerting the sponsoring organizations to such occurrences for quick responsiveness to quality gaps, and for the implementation of customer driven initiatives or corrective actions for the enhancement of customer satisfaction and retention.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 8:00 am Flamingo room, J.S. Sutterfield, session chair

Optimizing Outbound Logistics Costs
J. S. Sutterfield, Rayvin Julien, Shannon Kirk, and Audreen Robinson
As the United States enters a jobless recovery and technology refuels the economy, many companies are insisting on finding ways to reduce cost as their industry struggles and revenue depletes. This paper studies optimizing outbound logistics cost for a paper production company. Recommendations and considerations include optimizing shipping cost by volume allocation; utilization rates for distribution centers; forecasting mass-market sales publications taking into account the current trend; and an evaluation of the book publishing market.

Taguchi Analysis for Plasma Etching Optimization
J. S. Sutterfield, Tiffany A. Williams and Christopher R. Strong
One of the most powerful techniques used in experimental method is that of Factorial Analysis. This technique re- lies upon an experimental construct called the Orthogonal Array. In this paper we employ Taguchi methods with orthogonal arrays to perform Factorial Analysis aimed at optimizing a plasma etching process.

Dependents of Competitive Advantage: Porter’s Five Forces Model, Total Quality Management, and Continuous Improvement Processes
Jason C. Van Pelt
Research on competitive advantage has examined many relationships throughout the years. However, few theoretical studies have focused on the relationship between the multiple variables of Porter’s five forces model, total quality management, and continuous improvement as dependents for competitive advantage.

Inventory Control of a Manufacturing/Remanufacturing System Using Neural Networks
Sebnem Ahiska and Russell E. King
This paper considers the stochastic inventory control problem for a single product manufacturing/remanufacturing system. The aim is to find the inventory policies that represent well the optimal inventory policy. A neural network is used to determine a functional relationship between the cost parameters of the system and the policy parameters, which enables quick computation of the policy parameter values for new cost configurations of the system.

Applying Lean Production System to Bus Maintenance in Public Transit Authority Activity
M. Brian Thomas and Levent Baykut
A preliminary Lean project in a public transit authority is described. Observations, historical data, statistical analysis and simulation allow possible future-state configurations to be evaluated. The simulation justified a proposed configuration, predicting reductions in defects, floor stock, and space utilization. $200k in annual savings were realized.

Scheduling a Job Shop Concurrently with Order Selection and Lot Sizing
Zhongping Zhai and Chin-Sheng Chen
This paper considers the lot sizing problem in a job shop environment with order selection. The problem is viewed as a capacitated lot sizing problem (CLSP) and was formulated into a MILP model which deals with order selection, lot sizing and job shop scheduling simultaneously. The paper presents a heuristic to solve the problem of practical size and an application to a make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing operation.

A Parallel Kangaroo Algorithm for Multi-objective Flow-shop Scheduling
Mustafa Kerim Yilmaz, Umit Terzi, Alpaslan Figlali, Orhan Engin and Mesut Yavuz
In this paper a parallel kangaroo algorithm is proposed to solve a multi-objective flow shop scheduling problem. This paper is concerned with a flow shop scheduling problem with three minimization objectives: makespan, total flow time and total machine idle time. These objectives are combined in weighted form with a new approach that normalizes the magnitudes of different objectives to assign more realistic and balanced weights.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 9:45 am Flamingo room, Hesham Mahgoub, session chair

Third Party Management Audits: Evaluation of an Antiquated Process
Christopher J. Kluse
Third party audits are an accepted and mandatory practice within industry. This session will present research that will identify and describe the inefficiencies and short comings of the third party audit process and propose alternate methods to replace the existing controversial audit process.

Quality Measurements of Road Safety Audits
Hesham S. Mahgoub
Road Safety Audits have been used successfully worldwide for a number of years and are beginning to catch on in the United States. Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a proactive approach to improving highway safety. An RSA is an examination of an existing or proposed roadway by an independent and qualified team who prioritizes safety findings and reports on safety issues. This paper provides an overview of the application of Total Quality Management-philosophy to the Road Safety Audits process.

Assessing an Organization’s Transition to Lean
Sushil Shetty, Paul Componation, Sampson E. Gholston and Dawn Utley
The purpose of this research is to review lean principles and lean implementation assessment tools, and assess the similarities and differences of these tools in order to make recommendations for internal organizational lean implementation assessment tool.

Using Business Architecture as a Management Approach to the House of Quality Matrix
Diala Gammoh, Dima Nazzal and Ahmad Elshennawy
The purpose of this research is to introduce a new framework that integrates a quantitative quality function deployment (QFD) with business architecture. To expand the use of this novel framework, the unified modeling language (UML) is deployed in business enterprises that use software solutions as an intermediate language between management and technical teams.

Session 1: Tuesday March 10, 3:00 pm Egret room, Kevin O'Neill, session chair.

Applying Particle Swarm Optimization to the Multi-Level Lot Sizing Problem
Lotfi Gaafar and Sarah El Said
This research investigates the potential of applying particle swarm optimization (PSO) to the multi-level lot sizing problem. The demand for the final product is assumed to be deterministic. The order size is constrained to multiples of a certain batch size, and accordingly backorders are allowed to accommodate adjustments in the order size. The results obtained from the PSO are compared to those generated from a Wagner-Whitin (WW) algorithm.

Particle Swarm Optimization for Location Problem
Masaya Yoshikawa, Junya Morita
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is inspired by the behaviors of fishes or birds which form a swarm, and it is population-based optimization algorithm. Although each agent, which is the element to compose the swarm, has only simple intelligence, the high-grade intelligence emerges when they form a swarm. Thus, PSO is applied to various engineering's fields.

A Novel Design for a Proximal Interphalangeal Joint Implant
Jonathan Desa, Ha Van Vo and R. Radharamanan
A 3-dimensional finite element model of proximal interphalangeal joint endoprosthesis was designed and tested using SolidWork Cosmos. The proposed design uses Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) and titanium alloy; this design will allow the patient to regain the full random motion and release the pain in the interphalangeal joint.

The Implementation of TRAX and How Technicians Effectively Participate in an Integral Diagnosis, Communication and Training Program
Jos Pieterse, Thijs Homan and Jan Ulijn
This paper describes a case study of the change process for implementing TRAX, an maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) software solution for airline industries [1], within a low cost carrier in the Netherlands. We will describe the diagnoses phase before the implementation of TRAX, the use of an integral (diagnosis) model, a standardized questionnaire related to this model and the use of semi structured interviews

Modeling Work in Progress: A Comparison of Static vs. Dynamic Modeling Tools.
Kevin O’Neill and Kwangseek Choe
This paper compares the synthetic data streams from static and dynamic modeling tools to evaluate the efficiency and responsiveness of a simple WIP system. Utilizing Thiel inequality statistics, the WIP models are assessed across bias, variation, and covariation.

A Bayesian Approach for Determining the Sample Size
Gamal Weheba and Nasser Safaie
Bayesian sequential analysis offers a unique ability to protect against over sampling.
However, it has been criticized for the lack of simple methods for predicting the sample size which has limited its application in industry. In this paper a mathematical model is developed and used to determine the maximum sample size needed to verify a shift in the process average. Illustrative examples are used to indicate the model performance over a range of its input parameters.

A Simulation Study for a Modified Sudden Death Test
Erik Kostandyan
Total Accumulated Time is defined as total time needed to produce a selected number of failures. So it is a length of time during which the test equipment was used and utilized. The total accumulated time and a cost of test equipment per unit testing time of operation will result in the cost of the utilization of testing facility. In this paper a simulation study of total accumulated time for a Modified Sudden Death Test strategy is developed, under the assumption that the failure distribution of tested components is Weibull with a shape parameter greater than or equal to unity.

A Markovian Approach to Determining Optimum Process Means Under Rectifying Inspection Plan
Jingjing Liu, Mohammad T. Khasawneh
This paper proposes a mathematical model to solve the process targeting problem for a single-stage manufacturing system with dual quality characteristics. In this model, rectifying inspection plan is adopted and long-term system performance is calculated using a Markovian approach. Based on a quadratic quality loss function, the optimum process mean that maximized the overall profit is determined for a pre-determined quality level.

Improving the Accuracy of the Mobile Robot Using Factorial Analysis
Ayman S. Abbas and Tamer A. Mohamed
Mobile robots are increasing in popularity in industrial applications due to increased precision versus usability. The most common of these are path following and wall tracking at a pre-defined distance. This paper studies the influential factors that can affect the accuracy of the Mobile robot in tracking a wall.

The Design of a Poisson EWMA Control Charts Using Computer Simulation
Tamer A. Mohamed
This paper provides Average Run Lengths (ARLs) Tables and graphs for various ranges of weighing factor (l) and the control limit factor (A) to be used for the design of EWMA control charts utilized for Poisson data. It gives the optimum combination of l and A that insure the exact values of in-control and out of control ARLs using computer simulation.

A Study of Biofuel Characteristics Analysis Using the Advanced Instrumentation and Statistical Method
Hu Jun Cui
The object of this study was to compare fuel performance using two different blends biodiesel and petroleum diesel. Several tests were conducted under different condition such and all data were analyzed using the statistical method and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to see which factor will affect fuel performance.

Session 3: Wednesday March 10 8:00 am, Heron room, Ramachandran Radharamanan, session chair

Reliability Analysis on a Public Transportation Bus Motor Failures
R. Radharamanan and Angela P. Ansuj
This paper analyzes the failures of bus motors of a public transportation company using parametric and nonparametric techniques. The reliability function and hazard function were plotted for each motor failure and analyzed. The best fit distribution for each motor failure was found and compared to the published data.

Statistical Analysis on C-5 Aircraft Pod Panel Damage
R. Radharamanan and Jeng-Nan Juang
The statistical analysis on the C-5 aircraft’s pod panel damage explores the effects of three different factors on the area of the delaminations that occur. The factors evaluated are the age of the aircraft, the location of the panel, and the distance between the damage and an existing repair.

Session 1: Monday March 8, 2:45 pm Heron room, Ken Morrison, session chair

A Conceptual Approach to the Delivery of Emergency Services: A Supply Chain Perspective
Robert S. Fleming and Faye X. Zhu
This paper presents a conceptual perspective to the application of supply chain management to the contemporary fire and emergency services organization. While supply chain management has become a topic of interest to the business and academic communities, its application in the fire and emergency services and other non-profit areas has been limited.

Evaluation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Inventory Management for St. Cloud State University Library
Murali Lakshman and Hiral A. Shah
The Miller center Library currently uses bar coding technology for the shelving process, which is time consuming and inefficient. A pilot study was conducted for a RFID shelving process and this paper will discuss the results of the pilot study and the advantages and disadvantages of using an RFID system.

Fair Trade Coffee Supply Chain
Ewa Rudnicka
Fair Trade is a trading partnership that seeks great equity in international trade, and also contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to the producers and workers. One market which is affected significantly by the Fair Trade premise is the international coffee market. This paper examines differences between Fair Trade and Non-Fair Trade Coffee Supply Chains.

Supply Chain Case Study: Comparing Automotive and Medical Manufacturing
Matthew Sanders, Julia Boersma and Stephanie Jorgensen
This paper discusses the similarities and differences of the supply chain management models of two instances of manufacturing, namely 1) automotive manufacturing and 2) medical device manufacturing. Automotive manufacturing is a high-volume mature business with well-defined rules, while medical device manufacturing is restricted by Government interference and paperwork. The paper describes the two cases.

Session 1: Tuesday March 9, 9:45 am Heron room, Judith Barlow, session chair

Application of Lego Mindstorm Robotics in Computer Information Systems/Computer Science Courses at an Urban Community College
Michael Kaye and Yun Liu
An innovative approach to enhance the teaching of computer information systems/computer science courses has been implemented at Baltimore City Community College. Students in computer information systems/computer science courses are issued Lego NXT Mindstorm robots and learn to program them with RobotC, a programming language developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy. Using robotics to enhance computer information systems/computer science courses at urban community colleges, as well as the results of the study, will be discussed.

Learning Lessons: Hosting a SAP Certification Course
Gary C. Oliphant and Becky J. Oliphant
To aid the use of ES in the business curricula, corporations such Oracle and SAP have offered their software free of charge to institutions that join their alliance program and have offered grants to members to develop materials and tools for use in the classroom. Through the university alliance programs, information is shared to its members through a central web site, annual conference, and workshops. This paper will review the certification course offered by SAP to its University Alliance (UA) members.

The Effects of Different Stimuli on Procrastination
Sergey Popkov and Konnie Kustron
The study addresses the development of time management skills among students. This research was evaluating the effects of positive and negative stimuli on procrastination. The study also accounted for participants’ background to see if any correlations exist between it and the participants’ time management skills.

Engaging Technology within an Accounting Academic Research Program
James Patrick and Tiki L. Suarez-Brown
In order for the School of Business and Industry’s (SBI) Accounting Program to remain competitive an accounting research infrastructure must to be developed so students within this business concentration are better prepared for careers within this field. The purpose of this paper is to create the framework, as well as implementation, training, and maintenance strategies for an Accounting Research Lab and Accounting Tutoring Lab for SBI students at Florida A&M University.