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Curriculum Vitae
a. Candidate Information
a.1 Personal
a.1.1 Name
David J. Singer
a.1.2 Education
Ph.D. University of Michigan, 2003, Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering
Thesis: A Hybrid Agent Approach for Set-Based Conceptual
Ship Design through the Use of a Fuzzy Logic Agent to
Facilitate Communications and Negotiation
Advisor: Michael G. Parsons
M.S.E. University of Michigan, 2001, Industrial and Operations
Engineering
M.Eng. University of Michigan, 1997, Concurrent Marine Design
B.S.E. University of Michigan, 1995, Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering - Cum Laude
a.1.3 Positions at U of M
Assistant Professor, 2010 - present
Co-Director, Naval Engineering Education Center, May 2010 - September 2015
Director, Advanced Naval Concepts Research Laboratory, 2008 - present
Director of the NAVSEA Ship Production Science Program, 2006 – present
Assistant Research Scientist, 2006 - 2010
Adjunct Assistant Professor, 2006 - 2010
Post Doctoral Fellow, 2003 - 2004
Graduate Student Research Scientist / Graduate Student Instructor, 1996 - 2003
a.1.4 Positions at other institutions or organizations
Manufacturing Analyst / Special Projects Manager, Plastipak Packaging Inc.,
Plymouth Michigan, 2004 - 2006
a.2 Honors and Awards
2014 Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
2014 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Distinguished Service Award
This award is given for “for dedicated personal service and/or technical
contributions to the Society.”
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2007, 2009, 2013 Outstanding Faculty Member in Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering, Quarterdeck Society (Naval Architecture Student
Honors Society)
2012 American Society of Naval Engineers Solberg Award
The Solberg Award, presented annually since 1967, is given to an
individual who has made a significant contribution to Naval Engineering
through personal research during the past three years.
2010 Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Award for Outstanding
Accomplishment
2007 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program Award (YIP)
b. Teaching
b.1 New courses introduced at U of M
NA 562 Marine Systems Production Business Strategy and Operations Management
(major revision 2006)
NA 562 focuses on the systematic description of the underlying behavior of
manufacturing systems put into the context of shipbuilding. The course
addresses shipyard and boat yard business and product strategy definition,
operations planning and scheduling, performance measurement, process control,
and improvement strategies. The course relies heavily on the book Factory
Physics by Hopp and Spearman.
b.2 Courses taught at U of M
Required Courses
End-of-semester Student Evaluations. Scale 1-5 best.
Q1: “Overall, this was an excellent course.”
Q2: “Overall, this was an excellent teacher.”
Q4: “I had a strong desire to take this course.”
Course
#
Course title Teaching
Role
Term Enrollment
/Responses
Q1
Q2 Q4
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2015
45/45 4.37 4.77 4.42
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2015
31/30 4.75 4.85 4.75
ISD 520 Introduction to Systems
Engineering: Objectives,
Principles and Practices
Co-
Instructor
Fall
2014
43/43 4.52 4.81 4.42
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2014
36/34 4.5 4.89 4.12
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2013
30/29 4.40 4.59 4.27
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Independent Studies
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2013
49/45 4.70 4.91 4.56
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2012
45/44 4.07 4.08 4.26
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2012
50/47 4.56 4.89 4.74
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2011
36/33 4.34 4.53 4.20
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2011
38/34 4.33 4.73 4.04
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2010
36/26 3.88 4.10 4.19
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2010
36/19 4.64 4.97 4.68
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2009
41/19 4.04 4.64 4.55
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2009
42/13 4.31 4.57 4.14
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2008
32/24 4.32 4.64 4.50
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2008
40/36 4.75 4.92 4.39
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2007
20/16 4.00 4.08 4.05
NA 260 Marine Systems
Manufacturing
Instructor Winter
2007
35/26 4.03 4.42 3.83
NA 562 Marine Systems Production
Business Strategy and
Operations Management
Instructor Fall
2006
12/9 4.60 4.86 4.33
Course Course Title Teaching
Role
Term Enrolment
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2015 3
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2015 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2014 1
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2014 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2013 4
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2013 2
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2012 5
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2012 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2012 3
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2011 2
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Spring/Summer 2011 1
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b.3 Ph.D. Committees chaired/co-chaired
1. Conner Goodrum, PhD Pre-candidate, Expected graduation May 2019, Topic: Ship
Design, Chair
2. Michael Sypniewski, PhD Pre-candidate, Expected graduation May 2018, Topic:
Agent-Based Network Theory Set-Based Design, Chair
3. Dorian Brefort, PhD Pre-candidate, Expected graduation May 2018, Topic: Ship
Design, Chair
4. Colin Shields, PhD candidate, Expected graduation May 2017, Topic: Naval Ship
Distributed System Design Utilizing Network Theory and Complexity Theory, Chair
5. Austin Kana, January 2016, “Enabling Decision Insight by Applying Monte Carlo
Simulations and Eigenvalue Spectral Analysis to the Ship-Centric Markov Decision
Process Framework,” Chair, (Current position: Post Doctoral Fellow University of
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Spring 2011 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2011 4
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Winter 2011 2
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Fall 2010 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2010 2
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Spring 2010 6
NA 592 Thesis (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2010 1
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Winter 2010 9
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2009 4
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Spring/Summer 2009 3
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2009 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2009 4
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2008 2
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2008 3
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Spring 2008 2
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Winter 2008 2
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Winter 2008 2
NA 490 Direct Study (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2007 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Fall 2007 1
NA 590 Seminar (Independent Study) Instructor Spring 2007 1
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Spring 2007 5
NA 579 Concurrent Design Project
(Independent Study)
Instructor Winter 2007 5
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Michigan, Future Position: Austin has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at
Delft University of Technology, Delft Netherlands starting fall 2016.)
6. Jason Strickland, August 2015, “A Design Process Centric Application of State
Space Modeling as a Function of Communication and Cognitive Skills Assessments,”
Chair, (Current position: Chief Naval Architect, Surface Combatant Concept Team
U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) Future Ship and
Submarine Concepts Branch)
7. Morgan Parker, May 2014, “A Contextual Multipartite Network Approach to
Comprehending the Structure of Naval Design,” Chair, (Current position: Naval
Architect at the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command Advanced Submarine
Development Division (NAVSEA 05U6))
8. Doug Rigterink, May 2014, “Methods for Analyzing Early Stage Naval Distributed
Systems Designs, Employing Simplex, Multislice, and Multiplex Networks,” Chair,
(Current position: Naval Architect at U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock
Division (NSWCCD) Future Ship and Submarine Concepts Branch)
9. Joshua Knight, December 2013, “A Prospect Theory-Based Real Option Analogy for
Evaluating Flexible Systems and Architectures in Naval Ship Design,” Chair,
(Current position: Scientist, Navatek LTD)
10. Thomas McKenney, September 2013, “An Early-Stage Set-Based Design Reduction
Decision Support Framework Utilizing Design Space Mapping and a Graph
Theoretic Markov Decision Process Formulation,” Chair, (Current position:
Manager, Technical Projects and Revitalizations Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.)
11. Brian Cuneo, September 2013, “Development of a Human Centric Multidisciplinary
Design Optimization Method Using Fuzzy Logic Systems and Controllers,” Chair,
(Current position: Scientist, Navatek LTD)
12. Fang Dong, May 2013, “Dynamic Control of Flexible Queueing Networks with
Application to Shipbuilding,” Co-Chair, (Current position: Senior Data Scientist,
The Nielsen Company)
13. Nathan Niese, August 2012, “Life Cycle Evaluation under Uncertain Environmental
Policies Using a Ship-Centric Markov Decision Process Framework,” Chair, (Current
position: Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group)
14. Justin Gillespie, August 2012, “A Network Science Approach to Understanding and
Generating Ship Arrangements in Early-Stage Design,” Chair, (Current position:
Research Scientist and Field Analyst assigned to Commander, Carrier Strike Group
TWELVE (forward deployed) CNA’s Center for Naval Analyses)
15. Alexander Gray, August 2011, “Enhancement of Set-Based Practices Via
Introduction of Uncertainty Through the Use of Interval Type-2 Modeling and
General Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Agent Based Methods,” Chair, (Current position:
Acting Implementation Team Lead for the Future Ship and Submarine Concepts
Branch at U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD))
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b.4 Other Ph.D. committee membership
1. Dylan W. Temple, 2015, “A Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization Framework
to Understand Trade-offs between Naval Lifetime Costs Considering Production,
Operation, and Maintenance”
2. Jiandao Zhu, 2014, “Life Cycle Fatigue Management for High-Speed Vessel Using
Bayesian Updating Approaches”
3. Derek J. Dalle, 2013, Interactions between Flight Dynamics and Propulsion Systems
of Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles”
4. John P. Kim, 2013, “Multi-Scale Modeling with an Inverse Mapping Capability for
Designing Blast Resistant Composite Panel for Light Weight Vehicles”
5. Nicholas A. Stowe, 2013, “Focusing Energy Underwater Through Optimization of a
Spherical Source Array”
6. Shari E. Hannapel, 2012, “Development of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
Algorithms for Ship Design Under Uncertainty”
7. Christopher Gregory Hart, 2010, “Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Complex
Engineering Systems for Cost Assessment Under Uncertainty”
8. Athanasios Denisis, 2009, “An Economic Feasibility Study of Short Sea Shipping
Including the Estimation of Externalities with Fuzzy Logic”
b.5 M.S. students advised/co-advised
1. Aaron McCloud, May 2010, “Wind Energy on the Great Lakes,” Chair, (Current
Position: Manager at Shell International Exploration and Production Inc.)
M.Eng. Team Project Advised
1. David Komar, Thomas Olsen, Kenneth Au, Christopher Greenough, 2013, U.S. Coast
Guard Arctic Patrol Cutter Design: Identifying Major Tradeoffs with Design
Building Blocks
Refer to section b.8 “Outreach directly related to teaching” for more information.
2. Jeff Bybee and Patrick Burnett, 2011, Applying Lessons Learned From
Manufacturing to Systems Engineering
Refereed conference publication was generated.
3. Jayme Dubinsky, Douglas Graul, Arcpoln Harinsuit, Jarrred Hinton, Jeremy Kime,
Zhonghui Lui, Alexander Ogdon, Catherine Phillips, 2010, Arctic Patrol Cutter: A
Conceptual Design
Refer to section b.8 “Outreach directly related to teaching” for more information.
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4. Anders Hammersborg, Robin Madsen, Johan Kemnitz, 2008, Design of a Steel Slab
Carrier for Great Lakes Service
A publication in popular press/magazine was generated.
5. Malcolm Belt, Kevin Keenan, Jeff Payne, Tracy Phillips, Emily Tharp, 2007,
Analysis and Design of a United States Coast Guard 18’ Ice Rescue Boat
Refer to section b.8 “Outreach directly related to teaching” for more information.
b.6 Undergraduate major projects directed
1. Faculty Advisor for UM::Autonomy, 20+ students per year, (September 2007 - 2013)
UMA is a Wilson Center student robotics team founded in 2007 under the guidance
of Professor Ryan Eustice and Professor David Singer to compete in the annual
AUVSI/ONR Roboboat Competition.
– UMA won 1st place out of 19 participating teams in the 2012 AUVSI/ONR
competition.
– UMA won 1st place out of 13 participating teams in the 2010 AUVSI/ONR
competition.
b.7 Short courses and workshops taught
1. Lean Champion Certification Program, Plastipak Packaging, 2004 - 2006, 400
employees, developed corporate training program and provided training.
b.8 Outreach directly related to teaching
1. David Komar, Thomas Olsen, Kenneth Au, Christopher Greenough, 2013, U.S. Coast
Guard Arctic Patrol Cutter Design: Identifying Major Tradeoffs with Design
Building Blocks
The United States Coast Guard and United States Navy sponsored this study.
2. Jayme Dubinsky, Douglas Graul, Arcpoln Harinsuit, Jarrred Hinton, Jeremy Kime,
Zhonghui Lui, Alexander Ogdon, Catherine Phillips, 2010, Arctic Patrol Cutter: A
Conceptual Design
The United States Coast Guard sponsored this study.
The results of the study were used in the development of the requirements for a
potential future arctic patrol cutter.
3. Malcolm Belt, Kevin Keenan, Jeff Payne, Tracy Phillips, Emily Tharp, 2007,
Analysis and Design of a United States Coast Guard 18’ Ice Rescue Boat
The United States Coast Guard sponsored this study.
The results of the study were used in determine the requirements and acquisition
strategy for a new series of Ice Rescue Boats.
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b.9 Other
1. Co-Director, Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC) (May 2010 - September
2015)
The goal of the NEEC is to educate and develop world-class naval systems engineers
for the Navy's civilian engineering, science and acquisition workforce through
project-based education, collaboration, and curriculum development. Led by the
University of Michigan during a five and a half year contract time period, the NEEC
was comprised of 27 colleges and universities, the American Society of Naval
Engineers (ASNE) and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
(SNAME).
Academic Participants in the NEEC- During the contract period the operational
management of the NEEC resided at the University of Michigan (UM), which served
as the lead academic institution. NEEC members included the following academic
institutions: Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech), Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(VPI), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pennsylvania State University
(PSU), Webb Institute (Webb), Florida State University (FSU), Florida Atlantic
University (FAU), Old Dominion University (ODU), Stevens Institute of Technology
(SIT), Tennessee State University (TSU), University of New Orleans (UNO),
University of Iowa (Iowa), University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA), University of
Washington (UW), University of Rhode Island (RI), University of New Hampshire
(NH), University of California - Riverside (UCR), Villanova University (VU), and
Boston University (BU).
The NEEC’s three primary objectives:
• Increase the Number of Students Introduced to Naval Engineering- The goal
of the NEEC was and is to expose and encourage the best students to a career in
Naval Engineering. Many incoming students equate Naval Engineering with Naval
Architecture alone, but they must be introduced to the wide range of interdisciplinary
challenges that make up modern Naval Engineering. In addition to University
outreach, the NEEC consortium members utilized the extensive outreach resources
that are contained within each of the member Universities and professional societies
(SNAME and ASNE) to introduce Naval Engineering in the “K-12” grades. The
NEEC widened the prospective pool of Naval interested students by forming the
consortium with a broad range of schools, including Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions.
• Project-Based Education for Naval Engineers- The past and current NEEC
program brings students, faculty and Navy researchers together to work on exciting
and important technical challenges. Modern engineering students must learn to cope
with increasingly complex technical problems that require them to work in teams on
problems that cross multiple academic boundaries. The primary goal of the NEEC
was and is the development of engineers to use the newest tools and methodologies
so that they will be ready to immediately employ the tools once the join the Navy
workforce.
• Strengthen Naval Engineering Program and Curriculum- Academic programs
that have Naval Engineering will be enhanced with their involvement in the NEEC
through increased enrollment and faculty support. Moreover, these schools will offer
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curriculum that need not be duplicated across the NEEC, providing their faculty an
opportunity to provide their specialized course offerings to a wider cohort of
students. By making courses available across the consortium, academic programs
that specialize in particular aspects of Naval Engineering can achieve sustainable
enrollments and spread knowledge across academic boundaries.
Dr. Singer’s specific responsibilities within the NEEC were as follows:
Facilitate relationships between Professors and U.S. Navy researchers.
Manage the solicitation and selection process of NEEC projects.
Work with the Co-Directors of the NEEC to promote the NEEC within
the Navy and partner universities.
Create opportunities for NEEC projects outside of core funding.
Along with the Co-Directors provide leadership and management of all
aspects of the NEEC program.
When the NEEC’s contract ended in September 2015 the U.S. Navy decided to
continue the NEEC and transition it into an internal U.S. Navy program. Please go
to Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Naval Engineering Education
Consortium (NEEC) Solicitation Number: N00174-15-0001 for more information.
2. University of Michigan College of Engineering Science, Mathematics And Research
for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program recruitment
coordinator (2009 - 2015)
3. Faculty Advisor to Quarterdeck Society (The Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering Student Honors Society) - Coordinated technical presentations for the
students, assisted in fund raising. These funds enable an average of 20 students to
attend the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers annual meeting each
year. (2006 - present)
4. Faculty Liaison and Originator - Hyundai Heavy Industry (HHI) Internship and
Cultural Exchange Program: An Innovation in Curriculum Collaboration between
the University of Michigan, HHI and the University of Ulsan. (2008 - 2010)
The program consists of:
1. Two University of Ulsan students completed two semesters (6 months) at
University of Michigan graduate program along side University of Michigan
students. This consisted of courses in the winter and spring semesters of 2009.
2. Ten University of Michigan students and a University of Michigan faculty
member and/or faculty representative spent four weeks in Korea participating in
an international internship experience. The Korean experience consists of one
week at the University of Ulsan learning about Korean culture and three weeks at
HHI learning about shipbuilding and ship design. These internships are funded by
HHI and UM.
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c. Research
c.1 Research programs underway
The University of Michigan Advanced Naval Concepts Research Laboratory (ANCR) is a
multidiscipline research and development center, created and led by Dr. David Singer, which
promotes the advancement of naval ship and naval systems design through people,
knowledge, and innovation. The ANCR laboratory is dedicated to the support of the
development of the human infrastructure and research needed to support the design of
advanced naval vessels and systems. It conducts multi-year long-term research projects as
well as short-term research projects related to advanced ship technology and design.
The objectives of the ANCR Lab and the metrics by which its success is measured are as
follows:
1. To ensure the continuing availability of future ship designers with total ship system
design capabilities.
2. Advance the state of the art of ship design related technologies while fostering
innovative ship designs for the future.
3. Leverage the research and technologies developed within other industries and ONR
and apply them to naval ship design.
The ANCR Laboratory’s research is focused on one primary goal; “how can the design of
complex Naval combatants be improved?” Naval ship design is an extremely complex
problem to which the ANCR completes research in two areas; (1) human interaction within
the design process and (2) research that can bring activities that are historically completed
late in the design process into the early stage design.
The ANCR team currently includes Dr. David Singer, 5 graduate students, 2 undergraduate
students and 1 post doctoral fellow. Since its inception the ANCR has graduated 7 masters
students and 11 Ph.D. students and numerous undergraduate students. Given ANCR’s unique
skills and research contribution the U.S. Navy awarded a five-million-dollar sole source
contract (2008 - 2013) to the University of Michigan (Singer PI). This enabled the ANCR
and the Navy to collaborate more efficiency by providing a direct funding contract vehicle.
The ANCR’s research is described in the following section:
Complex Systems Theory Approach to Naval Design
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research and U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command
Graduate Student: Mr. Colin Shields (GSRA and National Defense Science and Engineering
Graduate Fellowship Supported)
Collaborators: Mr. Robert Ames (Office of Naval Research), Dr. Bart van Oers (Project /
Team leader Ship Design at Defense Materiel Organization - Netherlands
Ministry of Defense, Dr. Norbert Doerry (Technical Director NAVSEA 05T)
Outreach: None
This new naval design research direction uses a complex systems perspective to examine how
failures occur in naval design. In contrast to traditional views, which treat design as an
isolated process of turning requirements into engineering specifications, a complex systems
view considers how a design, its designers and its users adapt together. This notion is
especially applicable to naval design that exhibits long design cycles and a goal of producing
knowledge to inform future design versus designing a product for a market.
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The applications of this approach to the naval design problem are in the starting stages and
focus on leveraging previous naval design work and in other fields. From naval design
research, network science studies provide qualitative analysis of design product and process
attributes that are more applicable to the study of a complex system than simulations or
classic naval architecture analysis. Research in complex systems engineering and the study of
other complex systems show promise in evaluating how the naval design system adapts to
vessel requirements and knowledge generation. Analyzing these responses will hopefully
enable engineers and program managers to identify areas of design failure that are not
captured by current methods.
Current research is focused on considering the impact of distributed systems on complex
nature of a vessel; specifically, when, through the act of design does a vessel transition from
complicated to complex. The goal of this work is to predict when a vessel requirement turns
a complicated, decomposable product into a complex product for which current design
approaches are known to fail. For this work the interactions of survivability requirements and
the requisite variety of the product are analyzed to identify phase transitions in the vessel
characteristics. This requires an agent-based approach to distributed system routing in order
to manifest the interdependencies of shipboard systems. The approach and analysis can be
expanded to incorporate network science analysis and other agent based modeling tools with
the goal of identifying the driving mechanisms of design system success and failure.
Set-Based Design (SBD) in Naval Ship Design
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research and U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command
Graduate Student: Mr. Michael Sypniewski (GSRA Supported)
Collaborators: Dr. Alexander Gray (Engineer NSWCCD; UM PhD 2011), Dr. Norbert
Doerry (Technical Director NAVSEA 05T), Mr. Walter Mebane (Senior
Ship Design Manager for the DDG 51 Flight III program), Mr. Adrian
Mackenna (Naval Architect Ship Design Tools Implementation Team Lead
NSWCCD)
Outreach: Numerous undergraduate and graduate students have taken part in SBD
experiments.
This research is focused on methods associated with SBD execution and the guidance of set-
convergence. Within the Navy, determining when and how much to reduce or expand a set-
range is currently a more heuristic process decided by a chief engineer or experienced
designer. Also, as variable set-ranges are modified and the design progresses, evaluation tools
and design relationships change. These temporal dynamics make it even more difficult to
fully understand the implications of modifying set-ranges and in what order. The problems
presented by SBD proponents and the limitations of current research show that there is still a
substantial need for SBD implementation support, especially in how decisions should be
made to reduce the design space while considering the total design process impacts.
The purpose of the current research is to understand the relationships between key functions
and design parameters at multiple stages of the design as well as the implications associated
with making the decision to converge certain areas of the design space. A design space
mapping method is used to understand the mappings between design spaces and the longest
path problem formulated as a Markov Decision Process with the goal of understanding design
convergence approaches as the design process progresses. The combination of these two
approaches can enable the central decision-maker to understand how a decision to narrow the
design space impacts the relationships between design variables and key functions such as
performance metrics.
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Preliminary Ship Design General Arrangements International Cooperative Research
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research
Graduate Student: Mr. Collin Shields and Mr. Dorian Brefort (GSRA Supported)
Collaborators: Dr. Justin Gillespie (Research Analyst, CNA’s Center for Naval Analyses;
UM PhD 2012) Professor Hans Hopman (Delft University of Technology),
Mr. Etienne Duchateau (Delft University of Technology), Professor David
Andrews (University College London), Dr. Rachel Pawling (University
College London), Dr. Bart van Oers (Netherlands Ministry of Defense)
Outreach: Several undergraduate students
The University College London (UCL), Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the
University of Michigan (UM) are currently conducting extensive research in the area of ship
design with a specific focus on general arrangements and sizing. Team members have taken
their own unique approach to this research problem. While each approach is different they are
very complementary. The goal of the collaborative research is to provide both a platform for
multi-university effort, in collaborative ship design research, and a noticeable advancement of
research within the area of early stage naval ship design. The cornerstone of this effort is a
new novel distributed system arrangements methodology.
Network Science Approach to Ship Arrangements
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research and Naval Sea Systems Command
Graduate Student: Mr. Dorian Brefort
Collaborators: Dr. Doug Rigterink (Engineer at U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center
Carderock Division (NSWCCD); UM PhD 2014) and Mr. Adrian Mackenna
(Naval Architect Ship Design Tools Implementation Team Lead NSWCCD)
Outreach: None
The new ship arrangements research direction uses network science to re-envision the
traditional CAD centric layout problem from a new perspective. In this view, design
relationships are information inputs into layout-related analyses rather than only post-
processors for evaluating layouts. This is consistent with existing design processes where
human designers attempt to keep relevant relationships in the back of their mind at all times
to inform decisions. Network nodes represent ship compartments and edges correspond to
design constraints forming a relationship network.
Within this new approach, network concepts of centrality and hierarchy are used to highlight
and rank the embedded drivers of an early-stage arrangement prior to developing spatial
layouts by directly analyzing the relationship network in a methodical and holistic manner.
Once drivers are determined, a network partitioning method is used to cluster shipboard
elements into communities of mutually compatible elements to minimize the degradation of
other items located in the same region of the ship. These communities can form the basis of
functional zone definitions and help designers establish connections between the network of
inter-element relationships and spatial ship arrangements.
Current research is focused on a network theory approach to linking disparate information in
early stage ship design. For this work a multislice, all-to-all inter-slice coupling model is used
with compartments represented as nodes and the edges in the different slices of the model
representing different interactions. The goal of this research is to connect two disparate types
of information and optimize an arrangement for both spatial constraints and egress time. This
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work will then be expanded to maximize the robustness of egress possibilities using
percolation models to simulate damaged compartments or passageways. The multi-slice
model can be expanded to include any number of distributed systems linking various
compartments and a similar robustness optimization can be completed to create the most
survivable arrangement.
Physiology Driven Ship Design and Arrangements
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research funding through Michigan Engineering Services LLC
Graduate Student: Mr. Jason Strickland (GSRA Supported) Graduated September 2015, new
student TBD
Collaborators: Dr. Paul Kileny (Professor and Academic Program Director, Audiology and
Electrophysiology, University of Michigan Health System / Medical School),
Michigan Engineering Services LLC
Outreach: None
The main objective of the ongoing research is to develop the capability for physiology driven
ship design for mitigation of noise-induced hearing loss with emphasis on advanced Naval
vessel applications. Due to the high operational noise levels onboard Navy ships, sailors are
exposed to hazardous noise levels resulting in both a significant human cost due to noise
induced hearing loss and tinnitus encountered by Navy personnel, and a high monetary
medical cost. Health issues associated with high noise environments can be amplified in
advanced Naval vessels where light weight materials such as aluminum, titanium, and
composites are considered for construction in order to keep the structural weight at a
minimum thus improving the fuel consumption, and for increasing the range, speed, and
payload. The high frequency excitation created by the turbines, fans, and other operating
machinery, propagate very effectively in light structures and noise is transmitted throughout
the ship and in the spaces where Naval personnel is located.
A Fuzzy Logic physiology based evaluation method that links noise levels and time histories
to temporary and permanent damage has been created. The next step in the research is to link
the physiology based fuzzy logic metrics calculator, an Energy Finite Element Analysis
(EFEA) simulation that will enable fast running structural-acoustic simulations and
previously develop ship arrangement optimization methods together. The ultimate goal of
this research will be to produce optimized ship arrangements that can take into account
hearing loss and noise impact in early stage design.
Ship-Centric Markov Decision Process Framework
Sponsor: American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Office of Naval Research and Naval Sea
Systems Command
Graduate Student: Mr. Austin Kana (GSRA Supported) Graduated January 2016, new
student TBD
Collaborators: Dr. Nathan Niese (Consultant, Boston Consulting Group)
Outreach: None
Recently a novel design evaluation framework that improves early stage design decisions
relating to environmental policy change and similar non-technical disturbances has been
completed. This research overcomes the traditional treatment of policy as a static, external
constraint and to address in early stage design the potential disruptions to performance posed
by regulatory policy change.
14
Use of a Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework serves as a unifying foundation for
incorporating temporal activities into early stage design considerations. The framework
employs probabilistic methods via a state-based structure to holistically address policy
uncertainty. The method enables exploration of the performance of a design solution through
time in the face of environmental instabilities and identifies decisions necessary to negotiate
path dependencies. The outcome of the research is an advanced early stage ship design
framework for addressing life cycle management needs that arise due to policy change, as
judged from a life cycle cost perspective. This research is being expanded to include
department of defense acquisition strategies and requirements.
c.2 Past grants and contracts
1. “American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) – University of Michigan Center for Marine and
Offshore Design Performance,” $1,767,802, September 2013 - December 2015, PI: Steve
Ceccio, Participating Investigator: David Singer, Candidate’s share: $340,933, Support 2
GSRAs
2. U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command, “Creation of the Naval Engineering Education
Consortium (NEEC),” $49,936,853, May 2010 - September 2015, PI: Steve Ceccio, Co-
PI and Co-Director: David Singer - Professor Singer had no funded students on the
NEEC due to his administrative role and ethical concerns given his role as project
director.
Naval Engineering Education Center Research (NEEC)
Sponsor: Naval Sea Systems Command
Collaborators: 27 Universities
Research Projects: Over 130
Outreach: Over 1000 Students
As stated above Dr. Singer served as a Co-Director of the NEEC. Working with
Dr. Steve Ceccio (NEEC Director), Dr. Singer coordinated the development,
selection, execution, and evaluation of over 25 million dollars of research
projects over 5 years across the NEEC.
As with any funded research program technical outcomes and transition of the
funded research are of importance. The scientific and engineering work
performed by the NEEC project teams must address technical issues of the
sponsor. While the primary purpose of NEEC projects was and is student
development and recruitment, it is expected that all funded research would result
in useful outcomes for the Navy. Thus, it is expected that the work performed
had technical merit and that the project team performs that work at a rate that
yields acceptable technical progress.
In order to assess the success of the NEEC projects Dr. Singer worked with each
project’s Navy Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to performs an annual
evaluation that reviews: 1) alignment to NEEC education needs; 2) technical
merit, applicability to Navy programs; 3) timeliness of results; and 4) potential
for transition to Navy. To date the NEEC has funded over 130 research projects.
15
As stated above, when the NEEC’s contract ended in September 2015 the U.S.
Navy decided to continue the NEEC and transition it into an internal U.S. Navy
program.
3. Office of Naval Research, “Tasking in the Areas of Naval Design Methodology, Tools,
Simulation and System Integration Coordinated by the Marine Research Center for
Advanced Naval Ship Design,” $2,145,413, April 2008 – December 2014, PI: David
Singer, Co-Investigators: Dr. Jignesh Patel (CS), Dr. Jing Sun (NAME), Dr. Nick
Vlahopoulus (NAME), Dr. Kevin Maki (NAME), Dr. Michael Parsons, Candidate’s
share: $2,075,000, Support 7 GSRAs
Dynamic Control of a Flexible Ship Production System
Navies around the world are plagued with cost and schedule overruns. The
primary reason for the cost growth has to do with design changes during the
construction phase. Military ships are densely packed with equipment, piping,
electrical, ventilation etc., which are called outfitting in the naval architecture
community. The reason for the cost increase is simple. If outfitting is
completed during the first stages of production it is the most cost efficient but if
the outfitting is not completed until the very last stages of production it is very
costly. This cost increase is due to access issues, interference issues, worker
ergonomic issues and the inefficient use of material and processes. The obvious
answer to this problem is to not complete outfit late but the reality of military
shipbuilding programs is that these issues do arise and we must develop methods
to mitigate the impact.
To address this issue research was conducted on the development of a production
control system that reduces the cost and schedule delay due to outfit issues
through the dynamic control of flexible queueing networks with the application
to shipbuilding. This research focused on developing a flexible ship production
framework that utilizes a CONstant Work in Process (CONWIP) control policy
to mitigate production delay and cost.
Utility-Based Real Option Framework
The U.S. Navy has a need for a framework to evaluate the total lifecycle
performance of flexible systems and architectures. Static budgetary techniques
and net present value (NPV) analysis underestimate the value of the embedded
“optionality” of flexible design features such as modular systems and design-for-
upgradability. The use of real options analysis (ROA) has been proposed to
correct this underestimation, however the theory is not universally applicable to
the naval domain because of key assumptions made by a real options approach.
This research is focused on resolving the key assumptions issues made by real
options methods and applying the method to naval ship design.
To resolve these issues a framework analogous to real options based on utility
theory and game theory, for naval applications that addresses some of the
shortfalls of traditional ROA was developed. The main attribute of the research
is that naval option valuation may be performed in the real space, instead of the
risk-neutral space, when value is expressed in terms of utility. The significance of
this is that there is no need for a market to provide the risk-neutral measure to
value naval options, when the payoff is expressed by utility, not currency. This is
because the investor (the U.S. Navy) will already be risk-neutral relative to their
16
utility function, according to utility theory. Game theory allows the framework to
build on this utility-based approach when the option(s) have a feedback affect on
the environment.
Network Theoretic Approach Design Framework
In an order to understand the complexity associated with advanced naval design
tools and their integration into the naval design process research was conducted
that used network theory to map the topology of an evolutionary solution space
of a developing ship design. The bounds of a solution space are typically pre-
determined by the tools used to resolve it, and these tools often have a “black
box” feel. For this research a network was constructed from a traditional ship
resistance analysis tool. This network was analyzed and insight from the structure
alone became available, attempting to eliminate the black box. Additionally an
initial static solution space network was analyzed for “core” and peripheral nodes
and edges. Core nodes and edges are those whose typical relationships and
functional evaluations are known, lesser complexity. Peripheral nodes and edges
are those whose relationships or existence is unknown, greater complexity.
Peripheral edges, and potentially nodes, are created with random (or semi-
random) edges to measure the effect on the network, susceptibility to unknown
change. By creating or manipulating edges and nodes in the periphery, the impact
on the network was observed and measured.
4. Naval Sea Systems Command, “Leading Edge Architecture for Prototyping Systems
Support,” $5,000,000 Level of Effort Contract, December 2008 - December 2013, PI:
David Singer, Participating Investigator: Robert Beck, Kevin Maki, Atul Prakash, Armin
Troesch, Candidate share: $1,049,645 out of $1,405,148 funded, Support 2 GSRAs
Heuristic Based Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO)
During the design of large-scale engineering systems, such as ships, competing
objectives of multiple discipline analyzers must be taken into account. Currently,
tools such as MDO provide an automated method for analyzing tradeoffs
between competing discipline design objectives. While automated design
methods are useful in the design world, results are dependent on the fidelity of
models used to represent the system. For design spaces where computationally
expensive high fidelity tools are feasible, current MDO methods provide an
efficient method of exploring the design space. For large complex design spaces
where such tools are not readily available, a more heuristic approach is desirable
during early stages of design to identify preferred areas of the design space for
further evaluation.
A new MDO method that attempts to emulate the intuition and intent of an
Engineer when examining low fidelity models in early stages of design was
developed. The method uses the ideas of managing tradeoffs and modeling
discipline interactions from MDO, and adds knowledge to the system that allows
for decisions to be made on early design space models more like a human
designer. The original ideation of the idea was derived from Dr. Singer’s original
SBD research in which he created fuzzy logic preference curves. This work was
been extended as an optimization engine through the use of hierarchical fuzzy
logic controllers that have been successfully used to emulate the decision making
of human operators in complex system control. The newly developed method
provides a more heuristic approach to automated early stage design optimization
17
by extending the ideas of hierarchical fuzzy logic controllers to the design
process.
5. Office of Naval Research, “Development and Testing of a Hybrid Agent Approach for
Set-Based Conceptual Ship Design Through The Use of a Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Agent to
Facilitate Communications and Negotiation,” $300,000, April 2007 - December 2010, PI:
David Singer, Candidate’s share: $300,000, Support 1 GSRA
6. Office of Naval Research, “Evaluation of the Structure of the National Institute of
Aerospace as a Model for a Naval Ship Design Institute,” $23,940, January 2007 -
August 2010, PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share: 23,940
7. U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command, “NAVSEA Ship Production Sciences Program
Project: Design for Production - Early Stage Hull Form Development Utilizing
Multicriterion Optimization,” $81,306, September 2007 - April 2010, PI: David Singer,
Candidate’s share: $81,306, Support 1 GSRA
8. Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, “Evaluation of Integrated Electric Plants for
Great Lakes Self-Unloaders,” $47,998, February 2009 - January 2010, PI: David Singer,
Candidate’s share: $47,998
9. Michigan Engineering Services (Phase-I ONR STTR), “Support for STTR Topic N06-
T016, Advanced System of Systems Design Capability,” $30,000, December 2006 - June
2008, PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share: $30,000
10. Naval Sea Systems Command, “SNSSDP 2007 - Summer Naval Surface Ship Design
Program,” $50,000, November 2006 - September 2007, PI: Dr. Armin Troesch, Co-PI:
David Singer, Candidate’s share: $11,000
11. Naval Sea Systems Command, “06UN-1 University Outreach, SPAC2,” $65,400, May
2006 - February 2007, PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share: $65,400, Support 1 GSRA
12. Naval Sea Systems Command, “Special Student Project - Total Ship Thermodynamics,”
$46,750, March 2006 - February 2007, PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share: $46,750,
Support 1 GSRA
13. Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, “A Review of Great Lakes Shipbuilding and
Repair Capability: Past, Present, and Future,” $42,000, January 2006 - November 2007,
PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share: $42,000
c.3 Current grants and contracts
1. Office of Naval Research, “Distributed System and General Arrangements Design
Utilizing Complexity Theory for the Analysis of Architecture Implications,” $2,439,215,
June 2016 - May 2020, PI: David Singer, Participating Investigator: Professor Hans
Hopman (Delft University of Technology), Professor David Andrews (University College
London), Dr. Rachel Pawling (University College London), Candidate’s share:
$1,414,449, Support 2 GSRAs
18
2. Michigan Engineering Services (Phase-I NASA STTR), “Fusion of Modeling and
Simulation Credibility in Multidisciplinary Design,” $37,500, May 2015 - June 2016, PI:
David Singer, Candidate’s share: $37,500
3. Office of Naval Research, “A Contextual Multipartite Network Approach to Set-Based
Space Formulation for Naval Combatants,” $1,018,723, May 2014 - August 2019, PI:
David Singer, Candidate’s share: $1,018,723, Support 2 GSRAs
4. Office of Naval Research, “Preliminary Ship Design General Arrangements Naval
International Cooperative Opportunities in Science & Technology Program (NICOP)
Project,” $352,873, July 2011 - December 2016, PI: David Singer, Candidate’s share:
$352,873, Support 1 GSRA
5. Michigan Engineering Services (Prime Sponsor ONR), “Physiology Driven Ship Design
of Advanced Naval Vessels for Mitigation of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss,” $499,589,
October 2011 - August 2016, PI: David Singer, Co-PI: Dr. Paul Kileny, Candidate’s
share: $386,000, Support 1 GSRA
6. Michigan Engineering Services (Phase-II ONR STTR), “Support for STTR Topic N06-
T016 Advanced System of Systems Design Capability,” $900,000, November 2007 -
April 2018, PI: David Singer, Candidate share: $900,000, Support 2 GSRAs
c.4 New research directions
Dr. Singer’s new research direction in the area of Complexity Theory and Network Science
within the Naval ship design context is on track. This new area of research has recently been
awarded an ONR grant totally 2.4 million dollars. Additionally, Dr. Singer is currently
pursing opportunities to expand the newly developed Spectral Markov Decision Process
framework to the include methods that will enable rapid military engagement modeling
within the early stage design of naval combatant design. Lastly, Dr. Singer is pursuing
opportunities to expand his research to the automotive and aerospace domains.
c.5 Pending grants and contracts
None
c.6 Publications and scholarly presentations
Publication format may vary by discipline but should be consistent in casebook.
Underline the names of current graduate student(s) to whom you’ve provided significant
guidance listed among the authors;
Double underline the names of former graduate student(s) to whom you’ve provided
significant guidance listed among the authors;
Undergraduate students should be single underlined and noted by an asterisk * after their
name.
Daniels, A.S.# is a research specialist who worked for Dr. Singer.
Buckley, M.E.# is an adjunct research scientist who worked for Dr. Singer.
c.6.1 Full articles in refereed publications
(Full articles in refereed journals, transactions, or archives that have appeared or have
been accepted only)
19
1. Gray, A., and Singer, D.J., “A Hybrid Agent Type-1 Fuzzy Logic System for Set-
Based Conceptual Ship Design Communication and Negotiations,” Naval Engineer's
Journal, to be published December 2015
2. F. Dong, J. Deglise-Hawkinson, M. P. Van Oyen, and D. J. Singer, “Dynamic
Control of a Closed Two-Stage Queueing Network for Outfitting processes in
shipbuilding,” Computers & Operations Research, to be published in 2015
3. Gray, A., and Singer, D.J., “Applied set-based communications and negotiation
system,” Naval Engineer’s Journal, to be published September 2015
4. Nathan D. Niese, Austin A. Kana, and David J. Singer, “Ship Design Evaluation
Subject to Carbon Emission Policymaking Using a Markov Decision Process
Framework,” Ocean Engineering, Volume 106, Pages 371-385, September 2015
5. Morgan C. Parker and David J. Singer, “Analyzing the Dynamic Behavior of Marine
Design Tools Using Network Theory,” Ocean Engineering, Volume 106, Pages 227-
237, September 2015
6. Knight, J.T., Singer, D.J., and Collette, M.D., “Testing of a Spreading Mechanism to
Improve Diversity in Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization,” Optimization
and Engineering, Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 279-302, June 2015
7. Knight, J.T., Collette, M.D., and Singer, D.J., “Design for Flexibility: Evaluating the
Option to Extend Service Life in Preliminary Structural Design,” Ocean Engineering,
Volume 96, Pages 68-78, March 2015
8. Knight, J.T., and Singer, D.J., “Prospect Theory-based Real Options Analysis for
Non-Commercial Assets,” ASME journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering
Systems, Part B. Mechanical Engineering, Volume 1, March 2015
9. Knight, Joshua T., Zahradka, Frank T., Singer, David J., and Collette, Matthew D.,
“Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization of a Planning Craft with Uncertainty,”
Journal of Ship Production and Design, Volume 30, Number 4, Pages 194-200,
November 2014
10. Rigterink, D., and Singer, D.J., “A Network Complexity Metric Based on Planarity
and Community Structure,” Journal of Complex Networks, Volume 2 Issue 3,
September 2014
11. Nathan D. Niese and David J. Singer, “Assessing Changeability Under Uncertain
Exogenous Disturbance,” Research in Engineering Design, Volume 25, Issue 3,
Pages 241-258, July 2014
12. Rigterink, D., Piks, R., and Singer, D., “The Use of Network Theory to Model
Disparate Ship Design Information,” International Journal of Naval Architecture and
Ocean Engineering, Volume 6, Issue 2, Pages 187-506, June 2014
20
13. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M. P., and Singer, D. J., “Dynamic Control of "N" Queueing
Network with Application to Shipbuilding,” International Journal of Production
Research, Volume 52, Issue 4, Pages 967-984, February 2014
14. Niese, Nathan, and Singer, David, “Strategic Life Cycle Decision-Making for the
Management of Complex Systems Subject to Uncertain Environmental Policy,”
Ocean Engineering, Volume 72, Pages 365-374, November 2013
15. Gillespie, J.W., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Generating Functional Complex-
Based Ship Arrangements Using Network Partitioning and Community Preferences,”
Ocean Engineering, Volume 72, Pages 107-115, November 2013
16. Rigterink, D., Collette, M., and Singer, D. J., “A Method for Comparing Panel
Complexity to Traditional Material and Production Cost Estimating Techniques,”
Ocean Engineering, Volume 70, Pages 61-71, September 2013
17. Dong, F., Deglise-Hawkinson, J., Van Oyen, M. P., and Singer, D. J., “Analytical
Approach to a Two-Stage Queueing Network,” Journal of Ship Production and
Design, Volume 29, Number 3, Pages 136-141, August 2013
18. Gillespie, J.W., and Singer, D.J., “Identifying Drivers of General Arrangements
Through the Use of Network Measures of Centrality and Hierarchy,” Ocean
Engineering, Volume 57, Pages 230-239, January 2013
19. McKenney, T. A., Gray, A. W., Madrid, C.*, and Singer, D.J., “The Use of a Fuzzy
Logic Set-Based Design Tool to Evaluate Varying Complexities of Late-Stage
Design Changes,” Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects Part A:
International Journal of Maritime Engineering, Volume 154, Pages 179-189,
December 2012
Received the Royal Institution of Naval Architects W H C Nicholas Prize
Award The W H C Nicholas Prize which is awarded annually for the best
paper on a design related topic published in the Transactions by a member
under the age of 30.
20. Nam, J.H., Sohn, S., and Singer, D.J., “Estimation of Geometry-Based
Manufacturing Cost of Complex Offshore Structures in Early Design Stage,”
International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Volume 4,
Number 3, Pages 291-301, September 2012
21. Parsons, M.G., Singer, D.J., and Denomy, S.J.*, “Integrated Electric Plants in Future
Great Lakes Self-Unloaders,” Journal of Ship Production and Design, Volume 27,
Number 4, Pages 169-185, November 2011
Received Honorable Mention for the Society of Naval Architect and Marine
Engineers 2012 Vice Admiral E.L. Cochrane Award
22. He, J., Hannapel, S., Singer, D. J., and Vlahopoulos, N., “Multidisciplinary Design
Optimization of a Ship Hull Using Metamodels,” Journal of Ship Technology
Research, Volume 58, Number 3, Pages 156-167, September 2011
21
23. McKenney, T. A., Kemink, L. F., and Singer, D. J., “Adapting to Changes in Design
Requirements Using Set-Based Design,” Naval Engineers Journal, Volume 123,
Number 3, Pages 66-77, September 2011
24. Mebane, W.L., Carlson, C.M., Dowd, C., Singer, D.J., and Buckley, M.E.#, “Set-
Based Design and the Ship to Shore Connector,” Naval Engineers Journal, Volume
123, Number 3, Pages 79-92, September 2011
25. Daniels, A.S.#, Singer, D., and Parker, M., “Effects of Uncertainty in Fuzzy Utility
Values on General Arrangement Optimization,” Journal of Ship Technology
Research, Volume 57, Number 3, Pages 198-209, September 2010
26. Daniels, A.S.#, Tahmasbi, F., and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent Ship Arrangement (ISA)
Passage Variable Lattice Network Studies and Results,” Naval Engineers Journal,
Volume 122, Number 2, Pages107-119, June 2010
27. Gray, A.W., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Impacts of Fuzzy Logic Modeling for
Constraints Optimization,” Naval Engineers Journal, Volume 122, Number 2, Pages
115-127, June 2010
28. Thomas C. Rodzewicz, Jonathan H. Potterton, Katherine M. Lappe, Brent C.
Yezefski, and David J. Singer, “A New Approach to Ship Repair Utilizing CONWIP
and Parts Kits,” Journal of Ship Production and Design, Volume 26, Number 2,
Pages 155-162, May 2010
29. Dong, F., Parvin, H., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Innovative Ship Block
Assembly Production Control Utilizing a Flexible Curved Block Job Shop,” Journal
of Ship Production, Volume 25, Number 4, Pages 206-213, November 2009
30. Singer, D.J., Doerry, N., and Buckley, M.#, “What is Set-Based Design?,” Naval
Engineering Journal, Volume 121, Number 4, Pages 31-43, October 2009
31. Parsons, M.G., Singer, D.J., and Gaal, C.M., “Multicriterion Optimization of Stern
Flap Design,” Marine Technology, Volume 43, Number 1, January 2006
32. Parsons, M.G., Nam, J., and Singer, D. J., “A Scalar Metric for Assessing the
Producibility of a Hull Form in Early Design,” Journal of Ship Production, Volume
15, Number 2, May 1999
c.6.2 Shorter communications, letters or notes or briefs in refereed publications
None
c.6.3 Refereed conference or symposium proceedings papers
1. Morgan Parker and David Singer, “Comprehension of Design Synthesis
Utilizing Network Theory,” Proceedings of the 12th International Marine Design
Conference, May 11-15 2015, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-4-930966-04-9
22
2. Strickland, J., Sypniewski, M., and Singer, D.J., “Early Stage Design Integration of
Noise and Vibration Considerations,” Proceedings of the 12th International Marine
Design Conference, May 11-15 2015, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-4-930966-04-9
3. Jason Strickland and David Singer, “Impact of Error Propagation within a Design
Team through the Extension of Stream of Variation Method,” Proceedings of the
12th International Marine Design Conference, May 11-15 2015, Tokyo, Japan,
ISBN: 978-4-930966-04-9
4. Kana, A.A., Knight, J.T., Sypniewski, M.J., and Singer, D.J., “A Markov Decision
Process Framework for Analyzing LNG as Fuel in the Face of Uncertainty,”
Proceedings of the 12th International Marine Design Conference, May 11-15 2015,
Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-4-930966-04-9
5. Shields, C.P.F., Rigterink, D.T., and Singer, D.J., “The Information Dual Network
and its Application to Naval Architecture,” Proceedings of the 12th International
Marine Design Conference, May 11-15 2015, Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-4-930966-
04-9
6. Shields, C.P.F., Brefort, D., Parker, M.C., and Singer, D.J., “Adaptation of Path
Influence Methodology for Network Study of Iteration in Marine Design,”
Proceedings of the 12th International Marine Design Conference, May 11-15 2015,
Tokyo, Japan, ISBN: 978-4-930966-04-9
7. R. Pawling, R. Morandi, D. Andrews, C. Shields, E. Duchateau, D., Singer, D. J.
Andrews, and J. Hopman, “Manifestation of Style and its Use in the Design Process,”
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer and Information
Technology Applications in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT), Redworth, United
Kingdom, May 2014
8. Knight, J.T., and Singer, D.J., “Applying Real Options Analysis to Naval Ship
Design,” Proceedings of American Society of Naval Engineers Day 2014:
Engineering America's Maritime Dominance, Arlington, VA, February 2014
9. Rigterink, D., Piks, R., and Singer, D.J., “The Use of Network Theory to Model
Disparate Ship Design Information,” Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on
Practical Design of Ships and Floating Structures, Changwon, Republic of Korea,
October 2013
10. Strickland, J.D., Kileny, P.R., and Singer, D.J., “The Use of Fuzzy Logic Design
Tools for Habitability Considerations,” Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on
Practical Design of Ships and Floating Structures, Changwon, Republic of Korea,
October 2013
11. Parker, M. C., and Singer, D. J., “The Impact of Design Tools: Looking for Insights
with a Network Theoretic Approach,” 12th International Conference on Computer
and Information Technology Applications in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT),
Cortona, Italy, April 2013
12. Pawling, R., Andrews, D., Piks, R., Singer, D.J., Duchateau, E., and Hopman, H.,
“An Integrated Approach to Style Definition in Early Stage Design,” Proceedings of
23
the 12th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology
Applications in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT), Cortona, Italy, April 2013
13. Buckley, M.E.#, Singer, D.J., and Mebane, W.L., “Designing for Flexibility with Set
Based Design: Observations from Ship-to-Shore Connector,” Proceedings of
American Society of Naval Engineers Day 2013: Engineering America's Maritime
Dominance, Arlington, VA, February 2013
14. Gray, A.W., Cuneo, B.J., Vlahopoulos, N., and Singer, D.J., “The Rapid Ship Design
Environment – Multi-Disciplinary Optimization of a U.S. Navy Frigate,”
Proceedings of American Society of Naval Engineers Day 2013: Engineering
America's Maritime Dominance, Arlington, VA, February 2013
15. Dong, F., Deglise-Hawkinson, J., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D. J., “Analytical
Approach to a Two- Stage Queueing Network for the Planning of Outfitting
Processes in Shipbuilding,” Proceedings from Society of Naval Architects and
Marine Engineers Annual Meeting and Ship Production Symposia, Providence, RI,
October 2012
16. Hannapel, S., Vlahopoulos, N., and Singer, D. J., “Including Principles of Set-Based
Design in Multidisciplinary Design Optimization,” Proceedings from 12th AIAA
Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference and 14th
AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, Indianapolis,
IN, September 2012
17. Andrews, D., Pawling, R., Gillespie, J.W., Singer, D.J., Duchateau, E., and Hopman,
H., “State of the Art Report: Design for Layout,” Proceedings of the 11th
International Marine Design Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
18. Andrews, D., Papanikolaou, A., and Singer, D.J., “State of the art report on design
for X,” Proceedings of the 11th International Marine Design Conference, Glasgow,
Scotland, June 2012
19. Knight, J.T., and Singer, D.J., “A Real Options Approach to Valuing Flexible
Architectures in Ship Design,” Proceedings of the 11th International Marine Design
Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
20. McKenney, T. A., Buckley, M. E.#, and Singer, D. J., “Differentiating Set-Based
Design from other Design Methods and the Cultural Challenges of Implementation,”
Proceedings of the 11th International Marine Design Conference, Glasgow,
Scotland, June 2012
21. Gillespie, J.W., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Approaching Ship Arrangements
from a Non-Spatial Point of View Using Network Theory,” Proceedings of the 11th
International Marine Design Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
22. Parker, M.C., and Singer, D.J., “Flexibility and Modularity in Ship Design : An
Analytical Approach,” Proceedings of the 11th International Marine Design
Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
24
23. Rigterink, D., Collette, M., and Singer, D.J., “A Novel Structural Complexity Metric
and its Impact on Structural Cost Estimating,” Proceedings of the 11th International
Marine Design Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
24. Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent Ship Arrangement (ISA) Space
Projection Methodology,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on
Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Maritime Industries,
Liege, Belgium, April 2012
25. McKenney, T.A., and Singer, D.J., “Determining the Influence of Variables for
Functional Design Groups in the Set-Based Design Process,” Proceedings of
American Society of Naval Engineers Day 2012: Naval Warfare - Critical
Engineering Challenges, Arlington, VA, February 2012
26. Gillespie, J.W., and Singer, D.J., “Helping Bridge the Gap Between Space-Only
Arrangements and Distributed System Layouts,” Proceedings of American Society of
Naval Engineers Day 2012: Naval Warfare - Critical Engineering Challenges,
Arlington, VA, February 2012
27. Bybee, J., Burnett, P., Buckley, M.E.#, and Singer, D.J., “Applying Lessons Learned
From Manufacturing to Systems Engineering,” Proceedings of American Society of
Naval Engineers Day 2012: Naval Warfare - Critical Engineering Challenges,
Arlington, VA, February 2012
28. Gray, A.W., and Singer, D.J., “Applied Set-Based Communications and Negotiations
System,” Proceedings American Society of Naval Engineers, Human Systems
Integration Symposium 2011, Vienna, VA, October 2011
29. Buckley, M.E.#, and Singer, D.J., “Capturing Decision Making Needs for Design
Affordability and Flexibility: Bridging the SE-HSI Gap,” Proceedings American
Society of Naval Engineers, Human Systems Integration Symposium 2011, Vienna,
VA, October 2011
30. Gillespie, J.W., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J, “Decomposing Ship Arrangements
Using Signed Networks,” Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on
Computer Applications in Shipbuilding, Trieste, Italy, September 2011
31. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M. P., and Singer, D. J., “Dynamic Control of the Flexible
Shipbuilding System under CONWIP Release,” Proceedings of the 15th
International Conference on Computer Applications in Shipbuilding, Trieste, Italy,
September 2011
32. Parker, M., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent Ship Arrangements:
Reseeding Scheme Development and Effectiveness.” Proceedings of the 15th
International Conference on Computer Applications in Shipbuilding, Trieste, Italy,
September 2011
33. Niese, N., and Singer, D.J., “Lifecycle Decision-making under Uncertain
Environmental Policy using Nonstationary Markov Decision Processes,”
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Applications in
Shipbuilding, Trieste, Italy, September 2011
25
34. McKenney, T.A., Gray, A.W., Madrid, C.*, and Singer, D.J., “The Use of a Fuzzy
Logic Set-Based Design Tool To Evaluate Complexities of Late-Stage Design
Changes,” Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer
Applications in Shipbuilding, Trieste, Italy, September 2011
35. Knight, J.T., Zahradka, F.T., Singer, D.J., and Collette, M.D., “Multi-objective
Particle Swarm Optimization of a Planning Craft with Uncertainty,” Proceedings of
11th International Conference on Fast Sea Transportation, Honolulu, HI, September
2011
36. Cuneo, B.J., Maki, K.J., and Singer, D.J., “Applying Soft Constraints to Multi-
Disciplinary Design Optimization Using Fuzzy Utility Functions,” Proceedings of
11th International Conference on Fast Sea Transportation, Honolulu, HI, September
2011
37. Daniels, A.S.#, Parker, M., and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent Ship Arrangement (ISA)
Passage Variable Lattice Network Templating Application,” Proceedings of the 10th
International Conference on Computer Applications and Information Technology in
the Maritime Industries, Berlin, Germany, May 2011
38. T. A. McKenney, L. Kemink, and D. J. Singer, “Adapting to Changes in Design
Requirements using Set-Based Design,” Proceedings of American Society of Naval
Engineers Day 2011: Thinking Outside the Hull, Arlington, VA, February 2011
39. Mebane, W.L., Carlson, C.M., Dowd, C., Singer, D.J., and Buckley, M.E., “Set-
Based Design and the Ship to Shore Connector,” Proceedings of American Society of
Naval Engineers Day 2011: Thinking Outside the Hull, Arlington, VA, February
2011
40. He, J., Hannapel, S., Singer, D.J., and Vlahopoulos, N., “Multi-discipline Hull Form
Ship Design,” Proceedings of American Society of Naval Engineers Day 2011:
Thinking Outside the Hull, Arlington, VA, February 2011
41. Niese, N., and Singer, D.J., “Future Environmental Policy Decision-Making for
Preliminary Ship Design,” The 11th International Symposium on Practical Design of
Ships and Other Floating Structures, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2010
42. Gray, A.W., and Singer, D.J., “An Application of a Fuzzy Logic Type-2 Modeling
Approach On a Set-Based Ship Design Experiment,” The 11th International
Symposium on Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, September 2010
43. Gillespie, J.W., and Singer, D.J., “An Agent-Based Framework for Simultaneously
Arranging Spaces, Components, and Systems,” The 11th International Symposium on
Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
September 2010
44. Daniels, A.S.#, Parker, M., and Singer, D.J., “Effects of Uncertainty in Fuzzy Utility
Values on General Arrangements Optimization,” Proceedings of the 9th
26
International Conference on Computer Applications and Information Technology in
the Maritime Industries, Gubbio, Italy, April 2010
45. Gillespie, J. W., Van Eseltine, R. K., Van Eseltine, R. T., Ames, B., and Singer, D. J.,
“Splitting LEAPS Goberized Solids (ReGoberization),” Proceedings of American
Society of Naval Engineers Day 2010 Engineering the Affordable Global Navy
Through Innovation, Arlington, VA, April 2010
46. Daniels, A.S.#, Tahmasbi, F., and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent Ship Arrangement (ISA)
Passage Variable Lattice Network Studies and Results,” Proceedings of American
Society of Naval Engineers Day 2010 Engineering the Affordable Global Navy
Through Innovation, Arlington, VA, April 2010
47. Gray, A.W., Daniels, A.S.#, and Singer, D.J., “Impacts of Fuzzy Logic Modeling on
Constraints Optimizations,” Proceedings of American Society of Naval Engineers
Day 2010 Engineering the Affordable Global Navy Through Innovation, Arlington,
VA, April 2010
48. Daniels, A.S.#, Tahmasbi, F., and Singer, D.J., “Intelligent ship arrangement (ISA)
methodology improvements and capability enhancements,” Proceedings of the 10th
International Marine Design Conference, Trondheim, Norway, May 2009
49. Papanikolaou, A., Andersen, P., Kristensen, H.O., Levander, K, Riska, K., Singer,
D.J., McKenney, T.A., and Vassalos, D., “State of the Art Report on Design for X,”
Proceedings of the 10th International Marine Design Conference, Trondheim,
Norway, May 2009
50. Rigterink, D., and Singer, D.J., “An Assessment of Producibility of a Stiffened Hull
Plate in Early Design Stage,” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on
Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Marine Industries,
Budapest, Hungry, May 2009
51. Singer, D.J., Doerry, N., and Buckley, M.E.#, “What is Set-Based Design?,”
Proceedings of ASNE Day 2009 Naval Engineering in Support of the 21st Century
Maritime Strategy, National Harbor, MD, April 2009
52. Gray, A.W., and Singer, D.J., “Impacts of Type-2 Fuzzy Modeling Approach on Set-
Based Design, Based On Results from an Existing Hybrid Agent Design
Experiment,” Proceedings of the 2008 International Simulation Multi-conference
(ISMc'08), Edinburgh, Scotland, June 2008
53. Souza, C., and Singer, D.J., “Block Erection Scheduling Optimization,” Presented at
the Great Lakes and Great Rivers Section of Society of Naval Architects and Marine
Engineers Meeting, March 2007
54. Singer, D.J., and Parsons, M.G., “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Fuzzy Logic
Software Agent to Aid Design Team Negotiation and Communication,” Proceedings
of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Applications and Information
Technology in the Maritime Industries, Hamburg, Germany, May 2003
27
55. Parsons, M. G., and Singer, D.J., “A Fuzzy Logic Agent for Design Team
Communications and Negotiations,” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference
on Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Maritime Industries,
Potsdam, Germany, March 2000
56. Parsons, M. G., Singer, D.J., and Sauter, J. A., “A Hybrid Agent Approach for Set-
Based Conceptual Ship Design,” Proceedings of the 10th International Conference
on Computer Applications in Shipbuilding, Cambridge, MA, June 1999
57. Parsons, M.G., Nam, J.-H., and Singer, D.J., “A Scalar Metric for Assessing the
Producibility of a Hull From in Early Design,” presented at the Great Lakes and
Great Rivers Section of Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Meeting,
October 1998
58. Singer, D.J., Wood, E. A., and Lamb, T., “A Trade-Off Analysis Tool for Ship
Designers,” Proceedings of ASNE/SNAME From Research to Reality in Ship Systems
Engineering Symposium, Washington, D.C., September 1998
c.6.4 Refereed conference summaries or abstracts
1. Dong, F., Deglise-Hawkinson, J., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic
Control of A Closed Two-Stage Queueing Network for Ship Outfitting Process,”
INFORMS Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, October 2012
2. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Control of a Closed Two-
stage Queueing Network for Ship Production with Outfitting,” IIE Annual
Conference, Orlando, FL, May 2012
3. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Control of an "N" Queueing
Network with Application to Shipbuilding,” INFORMS Annual Conference,
Charlotte, NC, November 2011
4. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Scheduling of a Flexible "N"
Queueing Network under CONWIP,” INFORMS Annual Conference, Charlotte, NC,
November 2011
5. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Control of a Flexible
Shipbuilding System under CONWIP Discipline,” INFORMS Midwest Regional
Conference, Columbus, Ohio, August 2011
6. Gillespie, J.W., and Singer, D.J., “Gaining insight into the structure of an early-stage
ship design,” Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Complex
Systems, Quincy, MA, June 2011
7. Rigterink, D., and Singer, D.J., “A Producibility Metric for a Three Dimensional
Stiffened Box Structure,” Shiptech, Biloxi, MS, March 2011
8. Dong, F., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Control of Flexible Queueing
Network with Application to Shipbuilding,” INFORMS Annual Conference, Austin,
TX, November 2010
28
9. Dong, F., Parvin, H., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Dynamic Control of "N"
Queueing Network with Application to Shipbuilding,” 21st Annual POMS
Conference, Vancouver, Canada, May 2010
10. Dong, F., Parvin, H., Van Oyen, M.P., and Singer, D.J., “Innovative Ship Block
Assembly Production Control Utilizing a Flexible Curved Block Job Shop,” Winter
Simulation Conference Doctoral Colloquium, Miami, Florida, December 2008
c.6.5 Abstracts in non-refereed conference proceedings
None
c.6.6 Books
None
c.6.7 Chapters in books
None
c.6.8 Book reviews
None
c.6.9 Government, university, or industrial reports (non-refereed)
1. Singer, D.J., Gillespie. J.W., Hopman, H., Duchateau, E., Andrews, D., and Pawling,
R., “Preliminary Ship Design General Arrangements Naval International Cooperative
Opportunities in Science & Technology Program (NICOP) Project: Year 1 Interim
Report for Project #N00014-11-1-0847,” Office of Naval Research, 2012
2. Wdziekonski, M., and Singer, D.J., “Shipbuilding Simulation Teaching Tool User
Manual,” Final Report for Project 06-4640, March 2008
3. Singer, D.J., “A Review of Great Lakes Shipbuilding and Repair Capability: Past,
Present and Future,” The Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute Annual Report,
Report Number GLMRI-2007-0001, November 2007
4. Gatliff, R., and Singer, D.J., “Possibilities for Navy Energy Savings,” Final Report for
Project 06-3384 Task 1, May 2007
5. Gatliff, R., and Singer, D.J., “Energy Tracking and Planning in Navy Ships: Excel /
Visio Diagram Tool for Energy Accounting,” Final Report for Project 06-3384 Task 2,
May 2007
6. Parsons, M.G., Singer, D.J., and Gaal, C., “Stern Flap Preliminary Design Optimization
Program – User’s Manual,” University of Michigan, Department of Naval Architecture
and Marine Engineering, November 2004
29
7. Parsons, M.G., Li, J., and Singer, D.J., “Michigan Conceptual Ship Design Software
Environment User’s Manual,” University of Michigan, Department of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering, Report Number 338, July 1998
c.6.10 Publications in popular press/magazines
1. Thomas McKenney and David Singer, “Set-Based Design,” Marine Technology
Magazine, Pages 51-55, July 2014
2. T. A. McKenney, A. W. Gray, C. Madrid*, and D. J. Singer, “Evaluating Ship
Design Changes using a Fuzzy Logic Set-Based Design Tool,” The Naval Architect,
Pages 38–41, April 2012
3. Hammersborg, A., Madsen, R., Kemnitz, J., and Singer, D.J. “Designing a Steel Slab
Carrier,” Great Lakes Seaway Review, Volume38, Number 2, December 2009
4. Singer, D.J., “Capacity to Meet Demand,” Great Lakes Seaway Review, Volume 47,
Number 2, December 2008
c.6.11 Other submitted publications
c.6.12 Invited presentations
1. The Department of Defense Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition
Tools and Environments (CREATE) Program Developers’ Review Naval Air Station
Patuxent River, “Set-Based Design - An Effective Approach to Complex Design
Problems,” Patuxent River, Maryland, March 2015
2. Delft University of Technology Invited Lecture, “Set Reduction Through the use of a
Markov Decision Process,” Delft, Netherlands, September 2014
3. Newcastle University Invited Lecture, “Set-Based Design Flexibility: Observations
from the Ship-to-Shore Connector Program,” Newcastle, England, May 2014
4. Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT)
NATO AVT RTG-238 Workshop, “Naval Design from a New Perspective:
Overview of Alternative Methods for Design Creation and Analysis,” Bethesda,
Maryland, March 2014
5. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation and
the Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships (ACCeSS)
Educating Naval Engineers in the 21st Century Workshop, “Naval Engineering
Education Center,” London, England, December 2012
6. 11th International Marine Design Conference, “Design for Ship Production: Current
State of the Art,” Glasgow, Scotland, June 2012
7. Marine Community Day, “Integrated Electric Plants for Great Lakes Vessels,”
Cleveland, Ohio, February 2010
30
8. Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Naval Sea Systems command (NAVSEA) and
the U.S. Office of Secretary of Defense High performance computing Modernization
Program office (HPCMPO) Ship Design Process Workshop III, “A Fuzzy Logic
Communications and Negotiation Agent for Set-Based Conceptual Naval Ship
Design,” Bethesda, Maryland, April 2009
9. University of Ulsan department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering,
“Impacts of Type-2 Fuzzy Modeling Approach On Set-Based Design, Based On
Results from an Existing Hybrid Agent Design Experiment,” Ulsan South Korea, July
2008
10. University of Ulsan department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering,
“Intelligent Ship Arrangements (ISA): a New Approach to General Arrangements,”
Ulsan South Korea, July 2008
11. Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Naval Sea Systems command (NAVSEA) and
the OSD’s High performance computing Modernization Program office (HPCMPO)
Ship Design Process Workshop I, “Set-Based Naval Ship Design,” Bethesda,
Maryland, May 2008
12. Ship-to-Shore Connector Program Workshop, “Ship-to-Shore Connector Set-Based
Design Approach,” Washington, D.C., March 2008
13. Joint Maritime Assault Connector (JMAC) Preliminary Design Workshop, “Set-
Based Design Strategies,” Washington, D.C., November 2007
14. CGx Next Generation Cruiser Readiness Conference, “Set-Based Design Execution
within Naval Ship Design,” Washington, D.C., July 2007
c.7 Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship
c.7.1 US and international patents awarded (inventors, title, number, date issued)
None
c.7.2 Provisional patents and patents pending (inventors, title, date submitted)
None
c.7.3 Invention disclosures submitted (inventors, title, date submitted)
None
c.7.4 Licensing and technology transfer
None
31
c.7.5 Startups and entrepreneurial activities
Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, TrueSet Solutions, Ann Arbor Michigan (2009 -
Present)
TrueSet Solutions is minority-owned small Michigan business that specializes in
Set-Based Design implementation and Information Systems. Through a
partnership with Campfire Interactive, TrueSet has developed a SBD Design
Management Platform (DMP) that provides the adaptive support to bridge
organization and process for successful SBD execution. This is achieved through
SBD process tailoring, progress tracking, set reduction decisions support and
design decision repository.
c.7.6 Other major technology transfer activities
Intelligent Ship Arrangements (ISA)
The Intelligent Ship Arrangements (ISA) system, delivery by Dr. Singer and his
research team, is a US Navy Leading Edge Architecture for Prototyping System
(LEAPS) software system that assists the designer in developing rationally-based
arrangements that satisfy the design specific needs as well as general Navy
requirements and standard practices to the maximum extent practicable. The ISA
program was transitioned to Dr. Singer in 2007 and was completely reformulated and
redesigned from 2007 - 2012. ISA is based on a three-dimensional arrangements
optimization system that utilizes a highly effective fuzzy utility methods and a hybrid
agent-Genetic Algorithm. ISA contains over 500,000 lines of code and is currently in
alpha testing as part of the U.S. Navy’s ship design software system.
Set-Based Design
In 2008 Commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command, sent out a letter entitled:
Ship Design and Analysis Tool Goals. The purpose of the widely distributed
memorandum was to state the requirements and high-level capability goals for
NAVSEA design synthesis and analysis tools. In this memo, Admiral Sullivan
expressed the need for evolving models and analysis tools to be compatible with,
among other things, Set-Based Design (SBD). Admiral Sullivan’s memo was a
major step towards improving ship design programs with new, more powerful
analytical support tools. SBD is a complex design theory that requires a shift in how
one thinks about and manages design. The set-based design paradigm can replace
point based design construction with design discovery; it allows more of the design
effort to proceed concurrently and defers detailed specifications until tradeoffs are
more fully understood.
From the end of 2007 to the end of 2009 Dr. Singer had the privilege of becoming a
team member of the Navy’s Ship-to-Shore connector program. The Ship-to-Shore
Connector (SSC) is the US Navy’s replacement for the aging Landing Craft Air
Cushion (LCAC) vessel. Until the SSC Preliminary design, SBD was an academic
promise. Dr. Singer's efforts in successfully applying SBD to the SSC proved that
SBD works in practice, not just in an academic environment. Dr. Singer’s role in the
SSC program was two fold. Dr. Singer was responsible for the education of the
design team in the theory of SBD as well as the actual execution of the SBD process
within the SSC development program. This was the first execution of SBD for a
Naval design acquisition program and the preliminary design was complete on
32
schedule, less than 10% over the original budget and with none of the traditional
design margins used.
In the past, the Navy has had difficulty using classic point-based spiral design
methods to produce optimal, converged designs during the amount of time allocated
for each stage of design. The result has been large growth in non-recurring
engineering and schedule slippage. The SSC program demonstrated that SBD is a
viable alternative design process that can achieve considerable savings in time and
resources.
Since the SSC program Dr. Singer has help institutionalized SBD by its incorporation
into the Navy's Ship Design Manager (SDM) and Ship Integration Manager (SIM)
Manual. The Navy's early stage ship design tool environment has also embraced
SBD and is actively implementing Dr. Singer's work into tools for the Navy's future
ship designs.
c.7.7 Industry interactions (consulting arrangements, board memberships, etc.)
1. Expert Witness for the Department of Justice (2015)
Dr. Singer is an expert witness for the case United Staves v. Bollinger, et al.:
(2:12-cv-00920-SSV-ALC), E. D. La.
2. Michigan Engineering Services, Ann Arbor, MI (2006 – Present)
Dr. Singer has several active projects with MES
3. Science Applications International Corporation, Washington, D.C. (2010)
Dr. Singer provided SBD consulting services for the DARPA funded Anti-
submarine warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV)
4. Washington State Auditor’s Office, Seattle, Washington (2012)
Dr. Singer provided ship production support in a performance audit report titled.
Washington State Ferries: Vessel Construction Costs
5. Naval Sea Systems Command (2007-2009)
From the end of 2007 to the end of 2009 Dr. Singer had the privilege of
becoming a team member of the Navy’s Ship-to-Shore connector program.
c.8 Outreach Directly Related to Research
None
33
c.9 Other
None
d. Service
d.1 Major committee assignments in the Department, College, and/or University
(Name of committee, dates, member or chair status)
Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Faculty Search Committee,
September 2015 - present, member
d.2 Administrative duties at U of M
Faculty responsible for the new Minor in Naval Engineering (2014 -present)
Member of the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Math Ph.D. Qualifying exam
committee (2013 - Present)
Member of the University of Michigan College of Engineering Library Advisory
Committee (2014 - Present)
Faculty Advisor to Quarterdeck Society (Naval Architecture Department Student Honor
Society) (2006 - present)
Co-Director of the NEEC (2010 - 2015)
Faculty Advisor to M.Eng. (Concurrent Marine Design) Program (2006 - 2013)
The Master of Engineering in Concurrent Marine Design is a 30 minimum credit-hour
product development professional degree program that provides the background
demanded by a marine design environment capable of integrating basic engineering
principles with manufacturing agility and life cycle cost. M.Eng. students must complete
NA 579 (Concurrent Marine Design Team Project) which is an industrial related team
project for Master's of Engineering Concurrent Marine Design degree program. Dr.
Singer was not only responsible for advising students in the M.Eng program but finding
sponsors for the NA 579 projects.
d.3 Service to government or professional organizations, and service on review board/study
panels
Editorial Activities
• Editor, Journal of Ship Production and Design (October 2010 – January 2016)
Member, Editorial Board (January 2016 – present)
The Journal of Ship Production and Design is one of the journals published by the
Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. It publishes original and timely
technical papers addressing problems of shipyard techniques and the design and
34
production of merchant and naval ships. Since its inception, the Journal of Ship
Production and Design (formerly the Journal of Ship Production) has been a forum for
peer-reviewed, professionally edited papers from academic and industry sources. As
such it has influenced the worldwide development of ship production engineering as a
fully qualified professional discipline. The expanded scope seeks papers in additional
areas, specifically ship design, including design for production, plus other marine
technology topics, such as ship operations, shipping economics, and safety.
JSPD uses conventional, single-blind peer review. Two reviews are required per paper,
reviewers can be suggested by the authors (or reviewers to be excluded), however, one
of the journal editors makes the final determination. The review standard is consistent
with top-quality academic journals (Ocean Engineering, JSR etc.), namely that the
content be original and have archival value (e.g. not direct applications or a repeat of
already-available data).
Conference Appointments
• Member of the International Marine Design Conference Executive Committee (2013 -
present)
• Session Chair 11th International Marine Design Conference, Glasgow, Scotland (June
2012)
• Session Chair NATO Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) Applied Vehicle
Technology (AVT) Panel Workshop Entitled “Virtual Prototyping of Affordable Military
Vehicles Using Advanced MDO”, Sofia, Bulgaria (May 2011)
Professional Society
• Member, Awards Committee, SNAME (2015)
• Faculty Advisor to Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Student Section
(2006 - present)
• Member of the Ship Design Committee, a joint committee between the Society of Naval
Architects and Marine Engineers and the American Society of Naval Engineers (2006 -
present)
Government and Industry
• Participant in the Shipbuilding Engineering Education Consortium (SEEC) Workshop.
The result of this workshop was the catalyst that created the NEEC BAA (May 2009)
• ONR Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) seminar war-game participant (November 2006)
35
d.4 Contribution to diversity and climate
Commencement Marshal (Spring 2012, Winter 2012)
Ms. Rebecca Piks Rackham Merit Fellowship (RMF) Award (September 2012). Dr.
Singer successfully recruited and nominated Ms. Piks for a RMF. Ms. Piks is also a
Federal Pell Grant recipient.
The Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship
Panel Member (January 2009)
d.5 Outreach that is not part of research or teaching, or entrepreneurship
None
d.6 Mentoring activities involving junior faculty members or post-doctoral scholars
1. Austin Kana, Post-Doctoral Scholar, 2016
2. Joshua Knight, Post-Doctoral Scholar, 2014
3. Fang Dong, Post-Doctoral Scholar, 2013
4. Nathan Niese, Post-Doctoral Scholar, 2012
5. Alexander Gray, Post-Doctoral Scholar, 2011
d.7 Other
e. Summary of contributions to teaching, research, service and major impact
Major Impact
Dr. David Singer is an Assistant Professor in the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
department at University of Michigan College of Engineering. He is the director of the Advanced
Naval Concepts Research Laboratory, director of the NAVSEA Ship Production Science Program,
and was co-director of the Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC). He conducts research in
the areas of ship design theory, design optimization, and ship production. To date Dr. Singer:
Has been selected for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program
(YIP) award;
Working with Professor Steve Ceccio created and Co-Directing the $50 million Naval
Engineering Education Center;
Received over $9 million of research funding;
Secured a $5 million sole source level of effort contract with the U.S. Navy;
Graduated 11 PhD students since 2011;
Institutionalized SBD within the U.S. Navy; and
Was Editor of The Journal of Ship Production and Design.
36
Research
Set-Based Design in Naval Ship Design
Dr. Singer has expertise in Set Based Design (SBD) as applied to ship design. As a critical member
of the Navy's Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) program during its preliminary design, he educated
the design team on SBD theory and managed the SBD process within the overall design effort.
This was the first time SBD was employed in a Navy design acquisition program and Dr. Singer
has been involved with the introduction and use of SBD in the Navy’s Ohio replacement program,
CGx program and DDG 51 Flight III programs.
Since the successful implementation of SBD on SSC, Dr. Singer has significantly advanced SBD
methods. Drawing off his previous work in applying fuzzy logic agents to SBD, he extended the
method by introducing Type-2 Fuzzy Logic to add consideration for uncertainty in the evaluation of
the set range. Most recently, Dr. Singer applied design space mapping methods and Markov
Decision Process methods to SBD. The combination of these two approaches improves a designer's
ability to understand how a decision to narrow the design space impacts the relationships among
design variables and performance metrics.
Ship Arrangements
The University of Michigan Intelligent Ship Arrangements (ISA) system has been delivered and
will become part of the U.S. Navy’s Rapid Ship Design Environment which is the main ship design
and analysis software used by the Navy.
Dr. Singer’s current ship arrangement research has shifted away from the current trajectory toward
higher-fidelity 3-D layout models and re-vector toward a perspective that focuses on understanding
and inherently respects the fundamental underlying relationships among elements within those
models. This is being achieved through the use of network science to re-envision the layout
problem from a new perspective. In this view, design relationships are information inputs into
layout-related analyses rather than only post-processors for evaluating layouts. This is consistent
with existing design processes where human designers attempt to keep relevant relationships in the
back of their mind at all times to inform decisions.
Design Decision Frameworks
As stated earlier, Dr. Singer’s research is focused on one primary goal; “how can the design of
complex Naval combatants be improved?” This has been achieved by focusing on how complex
design teams interact and evolve a design as well as developing methods that bring traditional late
stage design activities into early stage design. These goals are being achieved through the
development of early stage design decisions frameworks. The current novel design evaluation
frameworks are:
Network Theoretic Approach Design Framework
Ship-Centric Markov Decision Process Framework
Utility-Based Real Option Framework
Multidisciplinary Decision Making Heuristic Framework
Dynamic Control of Flexible Ship Production Framework
Service
Dr. Singer’s service contributions span across the professional marine industry, university and
national STEM initiatives. Within the marine industry professional societies, Dr. Singer has been a
member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) Ship Design
Committee, member of the SNAME awards committee and is the Faculty Advisor for the SNAME
37
student section. From 2010 – 2016 Dr. Singer was the editor of SNAME’s Journal of Ship
Production and Design (JSPD). JSPD is the leading peer reviewed journal focused on ship
production and ship design.
In the spring of 2012 it was announced that Dr. Singer had been nominated to serve as an
international committee member for the 2015 International Marine Design Conference (IMDC).
IMDC is one of the premiere peer reviewed conferences in the marine field. It is held every three
years and for the marine industry it is a very large conference with an average of over 100 peer-
reviewed papers presented.
Within the university and department Dr. Singer has served as a faculty advisor for the
department’s honors society and co-faculty advisor for the two-time champion AUVSI team.
In 2007, 2009 and then again in 2013 Dr. Singer’s service to the students was honored by the
students awarding him the Outstanding Faculty Member in Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering by the Quarterdeck Society.
Lastly Dr. Singer has served the University by serving on or assisted in over eleven PhD
committees.
Teaching
Dr. Singer is the sole faculty within the department responsible for teaching the required ship
production portion of naval architecture and marine engineering curriculum. He teaches both a
required undergraduate (NA 260) and graduate (NA 562) courses in ship production. In 2006 Dr.
Singer completed a major revision of NA 562. NA 562 was transformed from a low quality
shipyard operations course to a true graduate course that goes through the systematic description of
the underlying behavior of manufacturing systems put into the context of shipbuilding. The course
addresses shipyard and boat yard business and product strategy definition, operations planning and
scheduling, performance measurement, process control and improvement strategies.