Ralph Brown Draughn Library

I spent two hours in the Ralph Brown Draughn library yesterday.  That is more time than I spent collectively in the same library the last time I was in school.  Given the maps and directions from the online card catalog I was able to find the books I needed and it was very quiet and conducive to research. I'm finishing a project for Adaptive Optimization class that is due next week.  I've written a program to use Ant Colony System to solve the Double Row Layout Problem.  I think it's working pretty well.  Now I'm writing the project report which is nothing less than a term paper with footnotes, figures, tables and a bibliography.  And, finally, I'll develop a power point from the paper and present to the class (Tuesday!)

I've done significant research on Ant Colony System and on all of the many algorithms used to solve layout problems.  I'd really like to take a field trip to a manufacturing facility and see the automated system that I'm designing the rows for.  I've developed a picture in my brain of machines with robotic arms on either side of a clean shiny rail...my imagination runs away here--I see them waving those arms in anticipation...The rail is the highway on which an item moves from machine to machine for a particular step in the manufacturing process to take place.   My computer program puts the machines in the order that optimizes the manufacturing process based on machine sizes, rail length, the relationships between the machines and the precedences in the manufacturing process.  Given the entire plant floor and many such processes connecting to each other, a good layout can save the plant lots of money.