Plant projects, referred to as Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC), generate massive amounts of data throughout their life cycle, from the planning stages to the operation and maintenance (OM) stages. Many EPC contractors struggle with their projects due to the complexity of the decision-making processes, owing to the vast amount of project data generated during each project stage. In line with the fourth industrial revolution, the demand for engineering project management solutions to apply artificial intelligence (AI) in big data technology is increasing. The purpose of this study was to predict the risk of contractor and support decision-making at each project stage using machine-learning (ML) technology based on data generated in the bidding, engineering, construction, and OM stages of EPC projects. As a result of this study, the Engineering Machine-learning Automation Platform (EMAP), a cloud-based integrated analysis tool applied with big data and AI/ML technology, was developed. EMAP is an intelligent decision support system that consists of five modules: Invitation to Bid (ITB) Analysis, Design Cost Estimation, Design Error Checking, Change Order Forecasting, and Equipment Predictive Maintenance, using advanced AI/ML algorithms. In addition, each module was validated through case studies to assure the performance and accuracy of the module. This study contributes to the strengthening of the risk response for each stage of the EPC project, especially preventing errors by the project managers, and improving their work accuracy. Project risk management using AI/ML breaks away from the existing risk management practices centered on statistical analysis, and further expands the research scalability of related works.
Recently, there has been a constant barrage of worms over the Internet. Besides threatening network security, these worms create an enormous economic burden in terms of loss of productivity not only for the victim hosts, but also for other hosts, as these worms create unnecessary network traffic. Further, measures taken to filter these worms at the router level incur additional network delays because of the extra burden placed on the routers. To develop appropriate tools for thwarting the quick spread of worms, researchers are trying to understand the behavior of worm propagation with the aid of epidemiological models. In this study, we present an optimization model that takes into account infection and treatment costs. Using this model we can determine the level of treatment to be applied for a given rate of infection spread.
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