ABE 565 - Agricultural Systems Engineering

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Class Schedule

Week 1 - Aug 25  Introduction
        Modeling, Systems Engineering, Operations Research
Week 2 - Sept 1  Modeling Physical Systems
        Modeling Biological Systems
        Analytical Models
Week 2 - Sept 1  Introduction to Linear Programming (LP)
        LP: Setting Up Problems
        LP: Sensitivity Analyses
Week 3 - Sept 8  LP: LINDO Solutions
        LP: Applications
Week 4 - Sept 15 LP: Applications
Week 5 - Sept 22 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Applications
        Introduction to Expert Systems
Week 6 - Sept 29  Knowledge Representation
        Inferencing
        Knowledge Engineering
        CLIPS - An Expert System Development Environment
Week 7 - Oct 6  CLIPS; CLIPS Documentation
Week 8 - Oct 13  CLIPS
Week 9 - Oct 20 CLIPS
Week 10 - Oct 27 Case Based Reasoning
        Neural Networks
Week 11 - Nov 3 Neural Networks
Week 12 - Nov 10 Introduction to Simulation
        Simulation Applications
        Discrete Event Simulation: SLAM
        Neural Net HW 
Week 13 - Nov 17  Introduction to SLAM and discrete simulation examples
Week 14 - Nov 24 Continuous Simulation: SLAM
Week 15 - Dec 1 Simulation
Week 16 - Dec 8  Combined Simulation: SLAM
        Integration of Systems Engineering Methodologies
Week 17 - Dec 16 Final 7pm

Instructor:

Bernie Engel
1146 Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1146
USA
engelb@ecn.purdue.edu
Phone: (765) 494-1198
FAX: (765) 496-1115

Introduction

Welcome to ABE 565.

Course objectives

The intent of this course is to teach the philosophy of solving problems from a system perspective. Students will learn solution techniques for expert systems, neural networks, simulation, and linear programming. Students will become familiar with recent applications of systems engineering in agriculture.

Course Format and Message from the Instructor

The format and style of this course will likely be different than any you have taken. I will expect more reading than normal and you will be interacting with computer-based educational materials available via the World Wide Web (WWW) to replace many lectures. Much of this course has historically been "hands on" with the systems engineering and analysis software tools and this emphasis will be continued. The best way to contact me will be by email - my email address is engelb. You are also welcome to stop by my office if you have a question, phone or wait until weekly class meetings. Please do not hesitate to contact me!

We will not "meet" as a class for each of the 3 scheduled weekly meetings. You will be free to work on the WWW materials at your convenience during a given week. However, you will be expected to complete the materials assigned weekly during that week. On Fridays, we will meet as a class during most weeks. On Fridays, we will discuss the week's materials, take exams and quizzes, receive handouts, etc. I would like this course to be a good experience for everyone involved. Thus, if you have suggestions for improvement at any time, please let me know.

Text and References

The course will use numerous handouts. The text that will be used is "Expert Systems: Principles and Programming." A CLIPS reference manual will be available for purchase later in the semester. We will use numerous handouts that you will receive on Fridays.

Grading Policy

Homework                45% 
Exams and quizzes       20% 
Class Project           35% 
                       ----
Total                  100%
Off-campus credit registration information. 
Home Page: Agricultural Engineering Dept.