Graduate Student Seminar

Speaker 1: Nadeesri Wijekoon

Title

A Brief Introduction to Directional Statistics with some applications

Abstract

Directional Statistics or Circular Statistics is a subarea of statistics which uses observations taken as points on a circle of unit radius or unit vectors in the plane. The two-main principle circular/directional measuring instruments are the compass and clock.  Dispersion of migrating animals, wind directions or times of motor vehicle accidents over 24-hour cycle are some examples for circular data.  Applications of this method can be found in many areas in scientific fields such as Earth science, climatology, Astronomy, Physics, etc. In this talk, we will give a brief introduction about Directional Statistics with use of few examples.

Speaker 2: Eswar Kammara

Title

Material Optimization

Abstract

This study comes under the category of cutting stock problem, it deals with the optimization of production cost of lathe parts at RK Enterprises.  The major contributor to the cost of production is the material cost. Usage of inappropriate raw material for production results in increased costs of manufacturing. In this talk, we present a solution to this problem by optimally grouping the parts based on their dimensions (OD - Outer Diameter and ID - Inner Diameter). Every group has a designated raw material with particular dimensions and members of the group have their dimensions very close to these dimensions.

This problems is formulated and solved using LINGO and R. This case study demonstrates the ability of optimization techniques in helping organisations to achieve huge profits.