Optimal Ventilation Control in Complex Urban Tunnels

Oliver Gao and Zhen Tan, Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health (CTECH), Cornell University

Urban tunnels, with thousands of cars traveling through them, can become air pollution hotspots. The problem is how to design the layout, capacity, and air flow direction in the tunnel vents to control air quality and protect health. We developed an optimization model and system management policies that can help tunnel ventilation designers and controllers decide how many jet fans to use and where the ventilation system needs to be turned on and off.
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Built Environment and Sustainability: Transportation in Practice, Emissions, and Air Pollution

Oliver Gao and Todd Cowen, Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health (CTECH), Cornell University

In this lab session, students first learned systems thinking about the complexity of transportation, emissions, air pollution, and public health problems. Afterward, they conducted real-time measurement of respiratory exposures at different places/facilities (e.g., walking, on a bus, near a stop sign, in a parking lot, etc.) on the Cornell campus. With the collected exposure data, the students came back to the lab to analyze the data and discuss the results. The lab session consisted of a presentation and discussion led by Oliver Gao on transportation, emissions, and air quality, and a discussion and demonstration of pollutant dispersion led by Todd Cowen.
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From Transportation to Air Pollution and Public Health—Are We Doing the Right Thing, and Doing it Right?

Oliver Gao, OST’s Transportation Innovation Speaker Series, Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health (CTECH), Cornell University

Transportation-related air pollution, GHG emissions, and energy problems are a significant issue in the U.S., China, and across the world. Sacrificing transportation needs for environmental quality and public health is simply infeasible. How do we meet transportation needs in the age of development without sacrificing environment sustainability and public health?

Systems Conversations

Oliver organizes the Cornell Ezra Roundtable Systems Seminar Series, emphasizing the systems approach to meeting the grand challenges civilization is facing in areas such as infrastructure, transportation, energy, environmental quality, food, health care, and international peace.

Optimal Signaling Mechanisms in Unobservable Queues
Krishnamurthy Iyer, Assistant Professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University

Considering the problem of optimal information sharing in an unobservable single-server queue offering service at a fixed price to a Poisson arrival of delay-sensitive customers. Which signaling mechanism should the service provider adopt to maximize her expected revenue? Our work contributes to the literature on dynamic Bayesian persuasion, and provides many interesting directions for extensions (joint with David Lingenbrink, Cornell University).

Understanding and Reducing Gender Gaps in Engineering Team Participation?
Neil Lewis, Assistant Professor of Communication and Social Behavior, Cornell University

How gendered patterns of participation in engineering student teams influence retention in engineering, why these gendered patterns emerge, and what can be done to address these gender gaps to equalize participation and resulting outcomes.

Dynamics of Infectious Disease Spread Across Populations, Networks, and Landscapes
Chris Myers, Senior Research Associate in the Center for Advanced Computing and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics, Cornell University

Characterizing the dynamics and critical phenomena of cross-species spillover, the role of contact network topology on the spread of infection, and the long-distance spread of plant diseases over landscapes.

Battery Systems Engineering: Enabling Mobility and Independence from the Grid
Chris Rahn, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Introducing the chemistry, dynamic modeling, and controls associated with the emerging field of battery systems engineering. New research directions in heterogeneous and multifunctional battery systems are described.

Artificial Intelligence and the Barrier of Meaning
Melanie Mitchell, Professor of Computer Science, Portland State University

Surveying some prominent modern efforts in AI in which machines learn to “understand” and reason about images and natural language, as well as her own work on enabling programs to perform high-level perception and analogy-making.

The Macro Political System and Its Implications for Criminal Justice Policy in the United States
Peter Enns, Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Executive Director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Cornell University

Discussing the macro political system in the U.S. and how that system helps explain the rise of the carceral state. Particular attention will focus on the relationships between crime, news media, shifting public opinion, and criminal justice policy. The talk builds on his recent book Incarceration Nation.

Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Metabolic and Information Processing Systems in Biology
Jeffrey Varner, Professor in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University

Focusing on two commonly studied systems, namely, central carbon metabolism and signal transduction systems. Central carbon metabolism is responsible for processing nutrients and generating the building blocks and energy required for cellular function. Signal transduction systems are responsible for information processing, which informs the cell of its internal and external state. This talk will describe mathematical model construction and identification techniques along with computational tools to characterize the operation of these systems in the context of biotechnology and human health applications.

Communicating Complexity: Challenges and Strategies
Jeff Niederdeppe, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Cornell University

Describing three recent research projects that attempt to enhance understanding of complex health issues like diet and obesity through the use of short narratives or case studies to reframe and reconceptualize these issues.

The Role of Big Data & A.I. in Mental Health Research
Jyiotishman Pathak, Frances & John L. Loeb Professor of Medical Informatics, Professor of Healthcare Policy & Research, and the Chief of Division of Health Informatics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University

We continue to use primitive ways to identify and measure mental illness, lack organizational capacity for building and maintaining large and longitudinal data repositories, and have yet to define a robust model for turning individual data into collective knowledge that can benefit patient care. Our research is an attempt to address these challenges by developing and applying novel big data analytics methods in understanding effective ways to diagnose, treat, and manage patients suffering from major depression.

Strategic Foresight and Analysis of Critical Infrastructure Systems
Darryl Farber, Assistant Professor of Engineering Design in the School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs, Pennsylvania State University

Reporting on a research initiative that explores the interdependencies of a system of systems—the built environment, energy, and transportation—related to the redevelopment of The Navy Yard in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Metropolitan Region as well as to future planning that broadens the scope to include the mid-Atlantic region from New York City to Hampton Roads, Virginia. The goal of the project is a clearer understanding of the dynamics of multi-scale interactions and interdependencies of sociotechnical systems that will be useful to the professionals that own, operate, and invest in the systems, and that will advance the scientific understanding of complex systems of systems.

Energy Efficiency & Sustainability: New Vistas for Systems & Control Research
Podromos Daoutidis, College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor and Executive Officer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Focusing on control of integrated large-scale plants, a classic open problem in control, as well as the emerging theme of distributed production of power, fuels, and chemicals, using renewable resources. The motivation lies in the promise of developing efficient, sustainable and robust infrastructures utilizing local resources. Recent results along with exciting opportunities for systems research will be highlighted, on two broad fronts: micro-grids and bio-refineries.

The Impacts of Aerosol Biogeochemistry and Land Use on Reaching Low Climate Targets
Natalie Mahowald, Faculty Director for the Environment, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University

Much more action on sustainable energy conversion is required. Reductions in aerosol emissions to improve air quality, as well as ongoing conversion of land to agriculture, will make low temperature targets more difficult to achieve because of their impacts on climate and biogeochemistry.

Using Systems Engineering to Maximize Corporate Value by Measuring and Developing Intangible Assets
Joshua Jahani, Owner, Jahani and Associates

The narrow definition of intangible assets by regulators and investors causes innovative companies to be consistently undervalued. This undervaluation exacerbates the difficulty innovators have when aligning their competitive advantages such as: operational efficiencies, competitive business combinations, and cutting-edge technology with the business needs of a market. Systems engineering represents a powerful framework for solving this problem.