Collaborative Research: Maximizing the Expected Value of Engineered Systems Through Coordinated Verification

验证是复杂系统开发中的一个关键过程，在此过程中，工程师可以建立系统按预期运行的信心。由于资源有限，工程师在计划和执行验证活动时必须具有战略性。许多大型工程系统由不同公司开发的部件和子系统组成，这使得系统验证复杂化。大部分核查过程是被动的，而不是主动的，并受到时间表和预算压力的影响。该研究项目将创建和评估激励的数学框架，作为系统验证期间工程团队之间的协调机制。各个小组将确定自己的核查战略，同时最大限度地提高整个系统的价值。如果成功，这项研究将通过提高商业产品和公共服务的安全性和有效性而造福公众。它将通过使系统验证更加高效和有效，使美国工业更具竞争力。该项目还包括积极的招聘和指导活动，这将促进妇女和其他代表性不足的群体在engineering. Objective的兴趣和技能，这项研究是数学推导出的价值最大化的多公司系统工程项目的系统验证策略。这种方法使计算验证策略，最大限度地提高公司的目标函数，同时考虑到公司之间的相互依赖关系，他们开发的组件，和整个系统的价值。此外，该框架将考虑并使公司之间的合同协议的设计，以确保本地最佳的公司验证决策有助于最大限度地提高系统价值的全球目标。为了实现这一研究目标，从运筹学，决策理论和经济学的数学方法将结合和先进的一个框架。研究的数学基础包括部分可观察的马尔可夫决策过程，用于为每个公司获得最佳的验证策略，多尺度决策理论在数学上捕获公司之间的相互依赖关系，以及合同理论设计有效的合同，可以实现全球最佳的验证策略。工程项目的研究将为这些方法提供经验证据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Verification is a crucial process in the development of complex systems during which engineers build confidence that their system functions as intended. Because resources are limited, engineers must be strategic in the planning and execution of verification activities. Many large engineered systems are composed of parts and subsystems developed by different firms, which complicates system verification. Much of the verification process is reactive rather than proactive and impacted by schedule and budget pressure. This research project will create and evaluate a mathematical framework of incentives as a coordination mechanism among engineering teams during system verification. Individual teams will define their own verification strategies while maximizing the value of the overall system. If successful, this research will benefit the public through increased safety and efficacy of commercial products and public services. It will enable U.S. industry to be more competitive by making system verification more efficient and effective. The project also includes active recruiting and mentoring activities that will advance the interests and skills of women and other underrepresented groups in engineering.The objective of this research is to mathematically derive value-maximizing system verification strategies for multi-firm systems engineering projects. This method enables computing verification strategies that maximize a firm's objective function, while accounting for the interdependencies between the firms, the components they develop, and the value of the overall system. Moreover, the framework will account for and enable the design of contractual agreements between firms in order to ensure that locally optimal firm verification decisions contribute to the global goal of maximizing system value. To achieve this research objective, mathematical methods from operations research, decision theory, and economics will be combined and advanced into one framework. The mathematical foundations of the research include partially observable Markov decision processes for deriving optimal verification strategies for each firm, multiscale decision theory to mathematically capture the interdependencies between firms, and contract theory to design effective contracts that can implement globally optimal verifications strategies. Studies of engineering projects will provide empirical evidence about these methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.