Yuval completed his masters thesis at NPS in the winter of 2011.  His work concentrated on intelligence collection in the presence of an overwhelming amount of information.  The abstract of his thesis is as follows.

In many intelligence agencies, the processing of data into usable information ready for analysis poses a significant bottleneck. Typically, much more data is available than what can be processed in the limited time available for processing.

We formulate the problem faced by an intelligence collection unit, when processing incoming raw information for delivery to intelligence analysts, as an exploration-exploitation problem: the processor has to choose between exploring for new sources of relevant information and exploiting known sources.

To address the exploration-exploitation problem, we develop a mathematical model of the processor’s knowledge and examine algorithms that allow the processor to maximize the discovery of relevant data given a time limit. We derive insights on the performance of different algorithms using a simulated case study. 

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Kiong completed his masters thesis at NPS in the winter of 2011.  His work concentrated on selecting good healthcare facility locations in Bamyan, Afghanistan.  The abstract of his thesis is as follows.

The facility location problem is one of the oldest and most researched operations research problems. In this thesis, we utilize facility location models to determine the optimal locations and types of medical facilities to address the healthcare needs of the people in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan. The staffing levels and materials of a local medical facility in Afghanistan are designed to cope with the healthcare needs of the people. In this thesis, the medical facilities are defined to be part of a network system. These facilities can be strategically located in order to provide essential healthcare services to the population. We investigate the location, operating cost, and accessibility of the existing and future healthcare facilities. We also look into the ethnicity problem that would affect the selection of operators for the medical facilities. Our model would lead to an increased understanding of the impact of healthcare facility locations and the selection of.....

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Rob completed his masters thesis at NPS in the fall of 2011.  His work concentrated on modeling the milk supply in California.  The abstract of his thesis is as follows.

We model the milk and dairy industry in California focusing on the production,processing, and distribution of bulk milk at the county level. We analyze the sensitivity ofthis industry when faced with worst-case disruptions, where a “worst-case” disruptioncorresponds to the greatest shortage of milk supply throughout California. The majorhighways in California are used to connect all of the counties and illustrate where thebulk milk is moving. We utilize Attacker-Defender (AD) modeling techniques todetermine where worst-case disruptions occur. This reveals vulnerabilities within themilk and dairy industry. We examine three specific scenarios: (1) a quarantine of eachcounty due to a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak or any other event that wouldcause the complete stoppage of production, processing and movement of milk in a countyover a seven day period; (2) 1 to 15 attacks on the milk and dairy industry in a 45 daytime period; and (3) the isolation of Northern and Southern California over a seven daytime.....

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