Wow...an update...finally.

So life has been pretty interesting these past couple of weeks. Things have gone from a "moderate" level of work to a complete over-burdening of our time. This weekend was spent by everyone living in the LFM offices working on our Statistics helicopters and Systems Optimization Projects. The Statistics helicopters project is for each group to design the best helicopter that they can by running under 100 simulation flights with different designs. By applying statistics to the results of the simulation runs, we were able to determine which aspects of the design were important to the flight's success. By running successive models we were able to determine the optimized solution for our design. We had the "fly-off" today in class. Unofficial results: my group's heli was the closest to the target. I don't know about the time though. Note to future students: Get started on this project early on so that everything doesn't bunch up in the last week. It wasn't rolled out to us very well and so caught the whole class off-guard. So get it done. Early.
We based our Systems Optimization project on my previous work experience at Visteon scheduling production on the plant floor. We were able to set up a simulated factory using Excel and premium Solver and then we were able to set constraints based on the work environment (Labor Contract, hours worked, part/line constraints, etc). Pretty cool to see our model running as when I was the Supervisor, I would spend multiple hours everyday creating and adjusting the production schedule. Our model on the other hand gives a good idea of what parts need to run in about 5 minutes! It is a little simplified from real life, but what a great tool it could have been for me over those 3 years. Sat through 3 group presentations of the Systems project and I was really impressed by the results. We have two more classes and 6 more projects to see and I can't wait.
So classes end this Friday! None of us can believe that school is almost over. The summer just blew right by. Everyone is still having fun (though more stressed) and it is interesting to see how our class has come together over the past two and a half months. People are taking the week off and going on vacation, back home, or getting the things they need to do (that should have been done earlier but haven't had the time to do) done. Alicia and I are planning a day trip to Martha's Vineyard for the early part of next week and then after we get back we are getting our MA ID's, parking passes and running all the other errands that need to be run for the next semester. Another note to future students: spend a week or more in town before classes start. Get all your moving stuff taken care of during this time (ID, bank accounts, mail forwarding, etc) as you really don't have much time during the summer to do any of this. The summer moves really fast and it is hard to stay on top of the work let alone these extra tasks.
Well, I need to get back to class. More later....