About the Book
This ambitious PhD-thesis is an outcome of the MoreSpace Project of TU Vienna, which is aiming for a better utilization of the lecture rooms. The author, key researcher in this project - introduced dynamic simulation at various levels in order to solve veritable bottleneck problems and lecture room shortages. This volume presents the complex overall simulation model, the generation of this simulation model from databases, and experiments with the model for better lecture room utilization and other system improvements. The simulation model consists of a combination of an agent-based model, describing the behaviour of the students when attending lectures, and a process model for the lecture rooms, including pathways within and between university buildings. The simulation model is gene-rated automatically from university databases: inscription data and curricula data drive the agent-based model, and building maps and lecture room data drive the process model. The prototype implementation in Java and Enterprise Dynamics is controlled by a graphical experimentation interface, allowing various simulation frames: classical semester investigations, long-term simulations over years for planning of university building construction, and short-term simulations for rescheduling in case of interruptions of the schedules - and can be used also for other teaching institutions due to the database parametrization.
About the Author
Shabnam Michèle Tauböck studied Technical Mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology. She very quickly got into the field of discrete, event-driven simulation and gained great experience in the development of computer-aided simulation models in the field of process optimization and logistics with a special focus on database-driven adaptive simulation models. She worked for several years as a simulation expert for the Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf and for Profactor Research GmbH. During this time she specialized in the development of hybrid simulation approaches to apply them in various fields from biomedical engineering, clinical studies and supply chain management to production plants and business processes. In 2007 she returned to the Institute for Analysis and Scientific Computing of the Vienna University of Technology. In 2010 she completed her dissertation as part of a research project on the optimal utilization of lecture room resources at university, using a hybrid modelling approach combining agent-based modelling with discrete event simulation systems.
