Learning & Research Laboratories

Design and Modeling Lab

The design and modeling lab focuses on quantitative and qualitative models of manufacturing and service systems, including the design and development of supply chain and logistics processes.  Researchers perform basic and applied research related to design theory, optimization, probability & statistics, decision analysis, and simulation.  Current areas of emphasis include, renewable energy infrastructures, alternative vehicle systems, and sustainable transportation.

Design Engineering Center (DEC)

Human Performance Modeling Lab

The human performance modeling lab brings together students and faculty conducting research in human systems integration and human factors. The goal is to provide basic research and analysis tools to improve the performance of equipment, systems, and operations by considering human abilities and limitations. An emphasis is placed on safety and usability.  Email: murray@mst.edu

Laboratory for Investment and Financial Engineering (LIFE)

The goal of the Laboratory for Investment and Financial Engineering is to develop techniques and computational tools for increasing investment and capital return while managing and reducing financial risk. This involves research into stocks and financial derivatives (options, futures, forwards, swaps), financial risk and uncertainty, financial forecasting, market efficiency and behavioral finance, fundamental and technical analysis, equity valuation, real options, and engineering economics. In cooperation with the Smart Engineering Systems Lab, research in the lab may also involve the use of smart and intelligent systems, such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic and evolutionary algorithms, expert systems, intelligent agents, artificial life, chaos and fractals, and dynamic and complex systems. Data mining, principal component analysis and various other forms of applied statistics are also used. Members of the lab have access to financial data and various financial modeling software packages.

Smart Engineering Systems Lab (SESL)

The Department established the Smart Engineering Systems Lab (SESL) to develop approaches in building complex systems that can adapt in the environments in which they operate. The term "smart" in the context indicates physical systems that can interact with their environment and adapt to changes both in space and time by their ability to manipulate the environment through self-awareness and perceived models of the world based on both quantitative and qualitative information. The emerging fields of artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary programming, chaos, wavelets, fractels, complex systems, and virtual reality provide essential tools for designing such systems. The focus of the SESL is in developing smart engineering architectures that integrate and/or enhance the current and future technologies necessary for developing smart engineering systems while illustrating the real life applications of these architectures. The smart engineering systems design and operations cut across a diversity of disciplines, namely, manufacturing, electrical, computer, and mechanical, biomedical, civil and other related fields such as applied mathematics, cognitive sciences, biology and medicine. Current research topics include data mining, artificial life, evolutionary robotics, internet-based pattern recognition, and systems architecture based on DoDAF framework. Capabilities of the developed computational intelligence models are demonstrated physically in the lab through mini autonomous research robots.