Projects
Doctoral Projects
Design of Flexible and Sustainable Engineering systems
We are looking at the role of Deep Reinforcement Learning to support the design and operations of adaptable and reconfigurable systems.
The system learns new adaptation strategies, configurations, and timings based on large datasets. The approach improves both sustainability and resilience of complex engineered systems, dealing with important uncertainty.
The work complements existing techniques based on creativity, standard real options analysis and decision rules.
Current applications are in civil infrastructures, waste-to-energy, and dynamic micro-power systems
People:
Cesare Caputo, PhD Student
Co-supervisors:
Dr. Anna Korre, Professor of Environmental Engineering
Dr. Antonio Del Rio Chanona, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
AR for Space Mining System Design and Operations
Designing and operating complex systems under uncertainty is a challenging endeavour.
Our work aims to develop an immersive environment to support the design and operations of complex engineering systems under uncertainty.
We aim to understand the psycho-cognitive factors that influence better decision-making under uncertainty in a context where flexibility, sustainability, and resilience are absolutely needed in order for the system and people to survive.
Current applications involve in-situ resource extraction in a Lunar environment, and for mining operations in remote, harsh environments
People:
Luka Malone, PhD Student
Alex Sayegh, MEng Student in Design Engineering
Co-Supervisors:
Dr. Jan Cilliers, Chair Professor in Mineral Processing
Dr. Kathryn Hadler, Lecturer in Mineral Processing
Master's Projects
Design and Analysis of Flexible Multi-Layer Staged Deploymen
This project analyses the value of flexibility in designing and deploying satellite mega-constellations.
The work is motivated by ongoing activities by SpaceX, and OneWeb, aiming at deploying space-based internet provider infrastructures.
Deployment of such constellations have faced significant challenges in the past i.e., Iridium, GlobalStar.
The paper aims to inform policy-makers and business leaders on ways to design and deploy such system in the future, exploiting the concept of multi-layered reconfigurable satellite systems
People:
Joshua Anderson, MEng in Design Engineering
Ismael Josue Tapia Tamayo, PhD student at Stevens Institute of Technology
Jordan Stern, PhD student at Stevens Institute of Technology
Co-Supervisor
Dr. Paul Grogan, Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology
Improving the Future Social Cost of Metro Systems
This project proposes a new approach to design strategically and operate future subway systems.
The research is motivated by the need for better sustainability and resilience for future transportation systems.
The analysis proposes a novel agent-based modeling approach to analyse flexibility at strategic, tactical, and operational levels.
It proposes a novel metric accounting for social cost, as a way to quantify the value of flexibility.
The work informs businesses and policy-makers on a different, data-driven approach to conceive and operate future generation subway systems.
People:
Rachel Brown, MEng in Design Engineering, 2021 DESIRE Award for Sustainability
Co-Supervisors
Dr. Steffen Blume, PhD in Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich
Dr. Giovanni Sansavini, Associate Professor in Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich
Completed Projects
For completed projects, please click here.