A senior collected data concerning the amount of time students had to wait when adding or dropping courses at the beginning of the semester. The student then built a model of the behavior and experimented different strategies that at some cost would reduce the amount of waiting time.
| Waiting Time |
Occurrances |
| 0-15 |
146 |
| 16-30 |
94 |
| 31-46 |
82 |
| 46-60 |
79 |
| 61-75 |
74 |
| 76-90 |
78 |
| 91-105 |
51 |
| 106-120 |
49 |
| 121-135 |
40 |
| 136-150 |
25 |
| 151-165 |
28 |
| 166-180 |
8 |
| 181-195 |
4 |
| Total |
758 |
Students are greeted by a receptionist who collects copies of their academic schedules. They then wait to be served by one of five "Academic Counselors". The counselors perform the following services:
| Hour Changes |
| Hour Conflict Resolution |
| Add a Course |
| Replace a Course |
| Overload a Coarse |
| Change Field of Study |
After accomplishing the necessary operation, students are logged out by a "receptionist" who collects the "Add-Drop" slips. However, approximately 5% of students must go to "Departmental Counselors" to gain approvals.
Requirement 1: Modeling the Current System Identify any statistics that you would want to generate from your computer simulation. Why would the statistics be useful to the decision maker? Using the "Harbor Simulation Algorithm" of the text as an example, construct an algorithm to simulate the scenario described above. (DO NOT CODE) Describe in detail any data that you would like collected that would allow you to construct (and code) the various submodels of your algorithm.
Requirement 2: Constructing a Submodel Each of the services described above would have to be studied and developed as a submodel. Additionally we must determine which service(s) the students required. The following data was collected for the 758 students serviced:
| Service |
Occurances |
| Hour Changes |
269 |
| Hour Conflict Resolution |
71 |
| Add a Course |
238 |
| Replace a Course |
325 |
| Overload a Coarse |
22 |
| Change Field of Study |
30 |
| Total |
955 |
Refer to the Algorithm you constructed in Requirement 1. Construct a computer code in a language of your choice that assigns students to a service (or services) in the proper proportions. Run the simulation you modeled above a sufficient number of times to mimic the distribution you are attempting to evaluate. Print out the assignments periodically to determine if you are converging to the required distribution.
Requirement 3: Modifying the Existing System Discuss how you can verify that your simulation adequately models the observed behavior. Discuss any changes you would consider making to the system. How would you measure the effect of the change? For example, consider the number of counselors used and the arrival pattern of students.