A NEWLY FUNDED ARI PROPOSAL
Title:  "Range Limited Antenna, with The George          Washington University"
Sponsor:  LUCITE Program
Principal Investigators: Wasyl Wasylkiwskyj,
Amir Zaghloul and Bill Davis
In cooperation with The George Washington University, a professor at the Alexandria Research Institute (ARI), is helping to create an antenna that filters signals within a selected range. The project will design an antenna that detects and accepts sources, or electromagnetic signals, within a given range, while filtering sources outside of the range, said Professor Amir Zaghloul, an ARI professor and a co-investigator of the project.
 
“If you want to establish communication in a building, you don’t want interference from outside of the building,” Professor Zaghloul said. “You want to collect only the signals in the building—and this project will do that.”
 
Wasyl Wasylkiwskyj, professor of engineering and applied science at The George Washington University, will devise an algorithm for signal detection. Professor Bill Davis of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg will assist Professor Zaghloul to do the experimental work that verifies the algorithm and demonstrates the concept. This project has applications in security and telecommunications.
AN ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECT
 
Title:  "Improved Manufacturing Capacity Decision Impact Calculator"
Sponsor : Center for High Performance Manufacturing (CHPM)
Principal Investigators : Russell D. Meller, Sanjay Jain and Kimberly Ellis

Maximizing profits and minimizing costs in manufacturing is key.

The "Improved Manufacturing Capacity Decisions Impact Calculator" is an excel-based program that helps manufacturers do just that. The program works  by calculating the impact of capacity decisions.

"The objective of the project is to build a decision aid  that will help a company balance capacity costs with servicing customer demand," said Sanjay Jain, research associate professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and participant in the project. He said the program allows the user to be more confident in final decisions with respect to manufacturing capacity.

The user simply enters information, including current asset level, unit cost, inventory turns and manufacturing lead-time into the program. The program will then graphically represent the impact on  cost, inventory and lead-time for different levels of capacity. It allows its user to enter different scenarios to find the most appropriate solution.

The calculator is being further enhanced. "Through an   interactive process, the user will assign ‘weights’ associated with the calculator outputs. Once these weights are defined, the calculator will enumerate the capacity levels, prescribing the optimal level to the user," said Russell D. Meller, associate professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and principal investigator of the project.
COUNTRIES REPRESENTED AT THE ARI

Exploring perspectives from an international standpoint, the ARI is home to faculty, students and visiting scholars from 19 countries. 

“From its inception, ARI has focused on international collaboration and participation. Now we have students, faculty and staff from 19 countries who provide a culturally rich environment to study and work in,” said Saifur Rahman, ARI Director.

Multiculturalism is an every-day part of the ARI.

The diversity helps to facilitate ARI’s mission to be a catalyst for Northern Virginia by developing an internationally recognized center for engineering research and development.
Alexandria Research Institute
An Enterprise of Virginia Tech
206 N Washington Street, Suite 400,
Alexandria, VA 22314
Ph: (703) 518-8080