Course Description

The goal of this class is to introduce students to the theory and application of modeling techniques and simulations in the analysis of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) problems. The first part of the class will cover the following theory:

• Different kinds of systems, models, and simulations.
• Queing Theory
• Event Graphs
• Discrete Event Simulations
• Modeling complex systems: System Dynamics approaches
• Verification and Validation of models and simulations
• Agent based modeling: Understanding concepts of classical optimization, evolution and constraint satisfaction

The second part of the class will study applications of some of the above techniques to representative work. Some example systems that will be studied are (but not limited to):

• Discrete Event Simulations: CYCLONE/STROBOSCOPE (Family of construction management simulations), CALSIM (Water resource simulation model)
• Monte Carlo Simulations: RiskAmp Analysis, Applications in structural reliability

The final part of the class will require students to model their problem of choice.