Project Description

Major environmental, medical, military, or humanitarian crises are also information crises. Decision-makers are often overwhelmed with information. Our research team created virtual crisis advisory tools that facilitate real-time decisions for military or civilian leaders by reducing and essentializing the data. A map-driven analytic interface simplifies data sets to the essentials, modelling the near future, and suggesting possible courses of action. The tool is based on two main components: a virtual reality representation of the decision-maker’s map (geographical or virtual), and a probabilistic, predictive model of the flow of events. Unlike conventional discrete agent approaches, the mathematical model takes a continuum viewpoint, predicting the density of individuals, equipment, and force project in a region of the map, or the probability of finding someone or a force-unit at a given point. Our initial work, focusing on defense applications, proposes a continuous human flow model that extends the Lanchester equations for infantry combat (Poggie et al., 2020), reanalyzing famous battles, such as Gettysburg (1863), Smolensk (1941), and Omaha Beach (1944). We are expanding the military aspects of the model to tackle contagious disease and urban terror incidents. The project combines socio-psychological with engineering and mathematical modeling, supporting the interdisciplinary mission of the fellowship. 

Start Date

01/01/2021

Postdoc Qualifications

PhD holder or candidate in physical sciences or engineering with strong background in one or more of the following areas: nano/quantum photonics, electronics, machine learning, nanomaterials, quantum chemistry. Experience in IT and computer science would be beneficial. Strong abilities for independent, interdisciplinary research, and excellent oral and written communication skills. 

Co-Advisors

Prof. Jonathan Poggie, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, https://engineering.purdue.edu/~jpoggie/

Prof. Sorin Adam Matei, College of Liberal Arts, http://matei.org/ithink/

References

J. Poggie, S. Matei, and R. Kirchubel, “Simulating Military Conflict with a Continuous Flow Model,” Journal of the Operational Research Society, under revision review, August 2020.

https://cla.purdue.edu/research/forces-initiative/research-outreach/civil-war-project-poggie.html

https://cla.purdue.edu/research/forces-initiative/research-outreach/project-dday.html

https://cla.purdue.edu/research/forces-initiative/research-outreach/opmaps.html