IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks :: Browsing by Author "Koo, Dan"

Browsing by Author "Koo, Dan"

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An Analysis of Financial Performance Indicators based on Three Types of Water Utility Ownership in the State of Indiana
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Nafziger, Matt; Koo, Dan
The United States is facing a crisis in which less financial resources are available to maintain the quality and to meet increasing demand of our water infrastructure system. The total estimated 20-year need for drinking water is $384.2 billion (EPA 2013), creating urgency among utilities to utilize the best financial management practices for reaching funding goals. There are approximately 813 community water systems in the state of Indiana; 69% are municipally owned, 17% are nonprofits, and 11% are private investor owned. Much of the debate over which utility ownership type can provide the best financial performance will need to be done on a case by case basis, since conditions are not one size fits all, and vary greatly even across Indiana. Examining financial differences among Indiana drinking water utilities, however, may provide insight into which ownership group utilizes the most beneficial practices. There are several measures that can be used when analyzing drinking water utilities. Financial performance indicators can be used to measure the overall financial condition of utilities. The indicators include the current ratio and debt-to-capital ratio, which measure the ability to pay off debt, and total debt in relation to invested capital, respectively. Measures of profitability, such as return on equity, can be used to determine the ability to turn capital into profitable investments. These indicators are beneficial when analyzing drinking water utilities, and their ability to function sustainably while continuing to provide for future generations. Research utilizing annual financial reports should highlight differences in financial characteristics between the three main utility ownership groups. Any differences discovered will prove insightful by helping to recognizing strengths and weaknesses of any one group, and might provide potential new areas of research aimed at furthering and explaining the findings, including collaboration via project delivery methods such as Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
A Case Study of Safe and Cost-Effective Hospital HVAC Strategies
(2022-08-02) Caesar, Jeffrey; Ray, Matthew Veto; Koo, Dan; Dalir, Hamid
The pressures of healthcare facilities to keep patients safe while also maintaining financial viability have been felt in recent years amongst industry leaders. The impacts COVID has had on patient safety and planning has in any way fast-tracked patient safety progress, but certainly at a financial cost. As hospital leaders and facility leaders attempt to grapple with these realities, a facility's operating strategy that addresses both safety and cost should be employed. The below study aims to solve two issues facing hospital facility leadership in regards to the facilities’ HVAC system. The first issue is how to decrease energy consumption and operating expenses in light of industry pressures to improve the financial outlook and secondly, how to increase patient safety as a direct result of COVID-19 realities. Increasing safety and ultimately flexibility can many times increase costs, so utilizing the most appropriate and tested techniques that follow patient safety protocols will be necessary. The importance of this study cannot be understated. As with any healthcare system, improving patient outcomes are at the heart of the industry and especially in light of our recent pandemic. The fundamental question as to how facilities can keep patients safer while simultaneously reducing energy consumption is a tough question to answer, but manageable due to both recent industry experience and up-to-date research on the topic. The methodology will be to conduct a straightforward cost benefit analysis that takes into account both patient safety and energy consumption. The first step will be to gather baseline data for Lutheran Hospital’s HVAC system to gauge current system performance vs. benchmarked performance. Next, the data will inform us as to what strategies to implement to both curb costs and increase patient safety. The third step will be to implement those strategies where possible and measure their benefits. Lastly, a conclusion will be made as to what long-term solutions will be most useful to both this hospital and the other hospitals within Lutheran Health Network.
Case Study – Solar Panel Installation in Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine America Plant – Feasibility Study
(2022-08-02) Bajgoric, Kenan; Ray, Veto; Koo, Dan; Dalir, Hamid
Data collected from the MTEA site as well as contractor-provided information was analyzed and reviewed to show how solar power can contribute to MTEA's overarching strategic plan of reducing CO2 emissions and lowering operating costs. This study is significant because the results will demonstrate that harnessing solar energy is financially and technologically feasible for MTEA.
Constraint Elimination through Water Reuse
(2021-12-04) Blalock, James; Ray, Veto Matthew; Koo, Dan; Dalir, Hamid
Facility managers are tasked with maintaining the very systems that create much of plant overhead. Careful management of maintenance and operations can keep plant overhead costs low and ensure optimum performance of systems and equipment. A thorough understanding of plant systems and equipment can also assist in producing creative solutions to plant problems in the most affordable manner. Zimmer Biomet, Inc. is faced with adding additional cleaning equipment that will further overwhelm a wastewater processing operation that is already nearing 85% capacity. The obvious resolution of this problem is to increase the capacity of wastewater processing by adding a third processing station. Due to the expense of adding another processing station, the facilities department was contacted and asked to investigate alternative solutions. Fundamentally, the facilities department was asked to resolve a process constraint. They leveraged their understanding of plant systems, a review of industry best practices, and the appropriate continuous improvement tools in order identify a more cost effective solution to eliminating the constraint. This project documents the process followed by the facilities department that resulted in identifying a water reuse opportunity that not only eliminated the constraint, but also resulted in a financial savings, a reduction in water usage, a reduction in energy cost, reduced stress on the environment, and a demonstration of the plants commitment to social responsibility through carefully managing natural resources.
Development of an Automated Visibility Analysis Framework for Pavement Markings Based on the Deep Learning Approach
(MDPI, 2020-11) Kang, Kyubyung; Chen, Donghui; Peng, Cheng; Koo, Dan; Kang, Taewook; Kim, Jonghoon; Computer and Information Science, School of Science
Pavement markings play a critical role in reducing crashes and improving safety on public roads. As road pavements age, maintenance work for safety purposes becomes critical. However, inspecting all pavement markings at the right time is very challenging due to the lack of available human resources. This study was conducted to develop an automated condition analysis framework for pavement markings using machine learning technology. The proposed framework consists of three modules: a data processing module, a pavement marking detection module, and a visibility analysis module. The framework was validated through a case study of pavement markings training data sets in the U.S. It was found that the detection model of the framework was very precise, which means most of the identified pavement markings were correctly classified. In addition, in the proposed framework, visibility was confirmed as an important factor of driver safety and maintenance, and visibility standards for pavement markings were defined.
Development of Renovation Techniques for Medium and Large Diameter Water Transmission Pipes
(Elsevier, 2014) Bae, C.; Kim, J.; Choi, D.; Koo, Dan; Kim, J.; Department of Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Smart lining System was developed to restore and improve water quality, hydraulic, and structural function of water large transmission pipes through the construction of the high quality lining in the study. Smart lining System consists of smart cleaning, smart spray-on lining, and smart CIPP2+. Smart cleaning is the pre-process of lining process, and could ensure SSPC SP-10 and surface roughness 50 μm(Rz) as the quality of surface preparation for the lining by removing effectively deposited slime, residual lining, tuberculation, graphitization of pipe wall with the high pressure water jet, mechanical scraper, and air spin-head blasting equipment step by step.
Emergency Evacuation Assistance
(IEEE, 2020-01) Lee, John J.; Koo, Dan; Tadesse, Dinaol; Jain, Atharv; Shettar, Sushmitha; Kim, Dongsoo; Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
There have been more than necessary casualties due to a lack of intelligence in emergency evacuation mechanisms such as exit signs. Although large or complex buildings and facilities have many exit doors, in case of emergency, people may not be able to escape quickly enough due to sudden loss of directions and difficulty in finding safe routes to exit doors. If you were ever in such a situation, you would wish that if there were ever smart escape route assistance mechanisms available or at least smart exit signs available that safely and quickly guide you to a safe haven. It is what we try to make such a wish come true. In this paper, we propose a graph mapping scheme and a new safe evacuation route algorithm for safe emergency evacuation assistance, with the aid of recent technology called Internet of Things (IoT). The gist of our approach is that people are not allowed to pass through or even go towards any area where fire or toxic gas is detected by controlling the direction signals installed on exit signs. The experiments performed with our methodology shows that the proposed technology may be able to save more lives.
Empirical Analysis of Water-Main Failure Consequences
(Elsevier, 2015) Piratla, Kalyan R.; Yerri, Sreeganesh R.; Yazdekhasti, Sepideh; Cho, Jinsung; Koo, Dan; Matthews, John C.; Department of Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Modern urban societies depend greatly on critical lifeline systems such as drinking water supply. Water supply systems in the United States comprise about one million mile length of interconnected pipelines that transport water from sources to consumption points with the support of treatment plants, pumping stations, storage tanks and valves. While depleting freshwater sources in some regions is an alarming concern, supply infrastructure woes exacerbate the problem of meeting supply reliability targets. Evidenced by the “D” or lower grade it has been receiving over the past few ASCE infrastructure report cards, the quality of water supply infrastructure has degraded to an extent where 240,000 water mains fail annually in the U.S. A majority of these failures result in significant economic, environmental and societal consequences. Pro-active rehabilitation of deteriorated infrastructure will avoid these unwarranted failure consequences. This paper employs empirical analysis of the economic, environmental and societal consequences of large-diameter water main failures to estimate their overall impact cost. Data on the impacts of 11 large-diameter water main failures has been gathered and synthesized. The results of this paper will aid in predicting the future water main failure consequences to enable risk-based, long-term capital improvement planning of water supply systems.
Importance of Emergency Preparedness for Cultural Museums
(2023-04) Howell, LaQuita A.; Ray, Veto M.; Koo, Dan; Dalir, Hamid
The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center (DuSable) in Chicago, Illinois, has received threats in person and via mail from individuals and groups who disagree with the museum's mission. The museum's mission is "dedicated to the collection, documentation, preservation, study and the dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and African Americans" (The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, n.d., Our Mission). The threats received have directly implied that the sender planned to cause harm to the facility and the museum's occupants, which poses a risk to the museum's day-to-day operations. Knowing these threats, the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center must have the appropriate Emergency Preparedness measures, including security management, fire protection, and an emergency response plan to mitigate risk to its facility, collections, and occupants. Studying cultural museum emergency preparedness aims to identify and assess the various threats to the safety and security of museum collections, the facility, visitors, and staff. By understanding the emergency preparedness needs of museums, specifically cultural museums, appropriate measures can be implemented to prevent and deter physical harm. The emergency preparedness plan must include physical security measures, including security staff, access controls, surveillance, and fire protection systems. The minimum safety measures for a museum include a fire protection system equipped with smoke alarms, sprinklers, and fire extinguishers. Access control should consist of a security system controlling access to restricted areas, including physical guards and electronic surveillance, depending on the access needs. A surveillance system should include closed-circuit or wireless cameras to monitor the interior and exterior of the building. Security personnel is needed in the security system and serve as in-person deterrents in the case of an incident. An emergency response plan is also necessary to plan for and mitigate risks in an organized manner.
New Standard of Pharmaceutical Procurement after COVID-19
(2022-12-16) Mook, Kayla; Ray, Veto M.; Koo, Dan; Dalir, Hamid
Coronavirus, also known as, COVID-19, formed the new standard of pharmaceutical procurement today. Since the pandemic's start, the pharmaceutical industry has changed from purchasing scientific materials for daily lab use to purchasing in bulk in fear of manufacturers running out. The pandemic is still affecting production delays two years later. These product delays stem from a lack of raw materials for production, shipping delays, and increased demand. Therefore, Avantor and Johnson & Johnson have to find a solution to purchasing and obtaining products for lab services. If not, then the company will lose the contract. With the lab services that Avantor provides for Johnson & Johnson, lab products must be delivered on time to meet scientists' deadlines for their studies. To meet these deadlines, Avantor is testing new approaches to procurement business. One solution so far in motion is keeping purchased products off-site at a designated location. Another goal of this study is to find local vendors that will be an improvement in finding more resources to keep up with inventory demand. In addition to large orders, having three approved alternatives on stand-by is necessary. Utilizing the barcodes that show approved alternatives when checking inventory will be beneficial. Financially, this complicates business with scientists. If Avantor does not deliver material on time for a study, the customer (Johnson & Johnson) will go elsewhere to find the products and potentially contact a competitor company. It is imperative to have supplies on hand ready to be used to maintain good standing with the customer.

Browsing by Author "Koo, Dan"

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