Join us in welcoming Susan Sanchez, a professor from the Naval Postgraduate School, as she discusses industrial engineering topics. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome.
Data farming: Methods for the present, opportunities for the future
Simulation models are integral to modern scientific research, national defense, industry and manufacturing, and public policy debates. These models tend to be extremely complicated, often with large numbers of factors and many sources of uncertainty, but recent breakthroughs help analysts deal with this complexity. Data farming is a descriptive metaphor that captures the notion of generating data purposefully in order to maximize the information “yield” from simulation models. Large-scale designed experiments let us grow the simulation output efficiently and effectively. We can explore massive input spaces, uncover interesting features of complex simulation response surfaces, and explicitly identify cause-and-effect relationships. Data farming has been used in the defense community for over a decade, and has resulted in quantum leaps in the breadth, depth, and timeliness of the insights that can be yielded by simulation studies. It can also serve as an accelerator for methodological research. In this talk, I will give an overview of the principles and tools of data farming, and briefly describe some recent applications of broad interest, such as acquisition, disaster relief, energy, and digital twins. The bottom line: once you have invested the time and effort to develop a simulation model, it’s time to let that model work for you!
Susan M. Sanchez is a distinguished professor emerita at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Operations Research Department. She has a BS in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MS and Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell. Her research interests include the design and analysis of large-scale simulation experiments, robust design and applied statistics, with application to military operations, manufacturing and health care. Sanchez co-founded NPS’s SEED Center for Data Farming. Her awards include a Koopman Prize from the INFORMS Military Applications Society, a NATO Scientific Achievement Award, a Distinguished Service Award from the INFORMS Simulation Society and recognition as an INFORMS Fellow and a Titan of Simulation.
