ISyE Seminar Series
Upcoming Seminar
 "Innovative Uses of Drones for Last Mile Delivery with a Focus on Healthcare"Presentation by Alice E. Smith Wednesday, February 9 *Required attendance for students in IE 8773 and 8774 |
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About the seminar: This seminar discusses two novel strategies for employing a combination of drones and delivery vehicles, such as trucks, for last mile delivery to homes and businesses. The work is general, but we aim for a healthcare application. One strategy uses drones to resupply trucks during the day for same day delivery, as orders are made available at a central depot. The trucks deliver the orders to the customers but do not have to return to the depot during the day since they are being supplied by the drones for new orders. The other strategy integrates a truck with a multi-capacity drone. In this case, either the truck or the drone can make both deliveries and pick-ups, and the drone is launched from and returned to the truck. A mathematical model is formulated and solved for each strategy. We show that both strategies offer benefits in customer service and cost of delivery compared to traditional truck delivery only. We focus our work on healthcare and specifically the delivery and pick up of medical supplies and tests (such as COVID tests) in challenged, rural environments. We are complementing our algorithmic and computational work with animations and a limited physical field trial. “The traveling salesman problem with release dates and drone resupply” (pdf) |
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Bio:
Alice E. Smith is the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Auburn University, where she served as Department Chair from 1999-2011. She also has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh from 1991-99, which she joined after industrial experience with Southwestern Bell Corporation. Dr. Smith has degrees from Rice University, Saint Louis University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology. Dr. Smith’s research focus is analysis, modeling, and optimization of complex systems with emphasis on computation inspired by natural systems. She holds one U.S. patent and several international patents and has authored more than 200 publications which have garnered over 14,500 citations and an H Index of 47 (Google Scholar). She is the editor of the recent book Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics.
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