Basic Notions Seminar

Fall 2022

All talks are from 12:00-12:50 p.m. in the Seminar room, unless otherwise specified.

• Sep

  28
• How the Navy uses Operations Research in testing new systems

  Brad Cowden

  USNA Math

  Time: 12:00 PM

  View Abstract

  Have you been looking for ways to relate your course topics to current Navy and Marine Corps uses? Are you not sure what the SM437, Experimental Design, course is all about during academic advising? This talk will focus on how the Navy uses Design of Experiments (DoE) to operationally test new systems before they are used in the Fleet, and will also explain the course objectives of SM437. Executing an experiment in the Navy usually involves a great deal of time and money, and DoE is the process that optimizes these resources while also making sure that we get the data that we need to characterize the system under test. We will discuss the idea of how we test within the operational envelope using design methodologies of full factorial, general factorial, fractional factorial, response surface, and optimal. Dealing with different types of independent and dependent variables and restrictions to randomization will also be looked at. The talk will also walk through some of the hands-on labs we do in SM437, showing how students learn how to plan, design, execute, and analyze their own experiments.