This seminar has been cancelled.
Title: On Systems to Implement Railroad Blocking Plans
Speaker: Erick D. Wikum, TCS Innovation Lab
Time: October 13, 2014, 2:00pm
Venue: ME 217
Abstract: Blocking is a key component of a freight railroad's operating plan. A blocking plan specifies which blocks are to built at each classification yard and what traffic is to be permitted in each block. We compare two approaches to implement a railroad blocking plan--tag tables and algorithmic blocking. We explain some significant advantages of algorithmic blocking along with corresponding implementation challenges.
About the speaker: Erick D. Wikum is a Principal Scientist at the TCS Innovation Lab in Cincinnati, OH who focuses on applied supply chain research, interacting with leading universities, other TCS labs and corporate partners. Dr. Wikum has over 20 years of experience in applying Operations Research and analytics techniques to help people and organizations make better, data-driven decisions. His primary application area has been freight transportation, with expertise in airlift, rail, truckload trucking, truck-rail intermodal, third-party logistics, freight brokerage and pipeline transport. In the past, Erick has worked with US Air Force, Norfolk Southern, Schneider National, Freelance OR LLC and IBM.
Dr. Wikum earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Mathematics and Operations Research from the United States Air Force Academy.