BRIGE: Understanding and Managing Humanitarian Logistics Systems through Advances in Optimization and Game Theory

这一扩大参与研究启动赠款(Brige)赠款提供资金，以定量评估人道主义和公共卫生后勤系统在缺乏中央决策机构的情况下发生的效率损失，并通过优化设计系统参数来发现减轻这种影响的机制。在这种情况下集中决策是不太可能的，但分散的系统结果可能很差。这项研究将考察个人选择服务设施的环境，例如，在灾难发生后获取所需物资或接种传染病疫苗。模型将通过整合博弈论和优化的概念来创建，以表示分散的代理的决策，这些代理根据不同的目标行事，但其决策会影响整个系统的结果。将开发新的理论性能界限，以将分散系统的性能与最佳情况系统进行比较，在最佳情况下，中央计划员可以将个人分配到设施中。将寻求有效的算法来解决分散问题。最后，将设计机制来协调分散的系统，或确保其性能更接近于集中式系统。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致创建新的优化和博弈论工具，具有重大潜力，为人道主义和公共卫生物流系统的决策提供信息。这项研究将突出在这些环境中提高效率和效力的机会，改善稀缺资源的利用和受影响人口的成果。对所提出的模型的分析也将促进对更一般的分散网络的理论理解。拟议的研究活动与扩大参与计划相结合，该计划将为来自代表性不足群体的预科学生和本科生创造通往工程职业的道路，方法是让这些学生参与展示工程师如何改变社会的外联和研究活动。

This Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grant in Engineering (BRIGE) grant provides funding to quantitatively assess the loss of efficiency that occurs in humanitarian and public health logistics systems in the absence of a centralized decision-making authority and to discover mechanisms to mitigate this impact by optimally designing system parameters. Centralized decision-making in such settings is unlikely, but decentralized system outcomes can be poor. This research will examine settings in which individuals choose a facility for service, for example, to pick up needed supplies after a disaster or be vaccinated against an infectious disease. Models will be created by integrating concepts from game theory and optimization to represent decisions of decentralized agents, who act according to different objectives but whose decisions impact overall system outcomes. New theoretical performance bounds will be developed to compare the performance of the decentralized system to a best-case system in which a centralized planner can assign individuals to facilities. Efficient algorithms will be sought to solve the decentralized problem. Finally, mechanisms will be designed to coordinate the decentralized system, or ensure that its performance more closely approximates a centralized one.If successful, the results of this research will lead to the creation of new optimization and game theory tools with significant potential to inform decision-making in humanitarian and public health logistics systems. The research will highlight opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness in these settings, improving the utilization of scarce resources and outcomes for affected populations. Analysis of the proposed models will also advance theoretical understanding of more general decentralized networks. The proposed research activities are integrated with a broadening participation plan that will create pathways to engineering careers for pre-college and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups by engaging these students in outreach and research activities that illustrate ways that engineers make a difference in society.