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K-State Today

March 6, 2017

Industrial engineering seminar March 8 to focus on controlling invasive species

Submitted by Lacey Brummer

Esra Büyüktahtakin Toy, Wichita State University, will present "Stochastic Mixed-Integer Programming Approaches to the Optimal Surveillance and Control of Biological Invasions" for an industrial and manufacturing systems engineering department graduate seminar at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, in 2078 Rathbone Hall.

Büyüktahtakin Toy's research focuses on controlling invasive species, such as the infestation of emerald ash borer, which has killed more than 20 million ash trees in North America since 2002. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, emerald ash borer infestation poses a risk of a $60 billion loss to the U.S. economy; therefore, its rapid control is a national priority.

In her talk, Büyüktahtakin Toy will present a novel, multistage stochastic mixed-integer programming model and cutting-plane solution approach, which enables the optimal allocation of limited resources for surveillance, treatment and removal of ash trees to control the emerald ash borer invasion. Results offer insights into surveillance and control policies, and provide an optimal strategy to mitigate the impacts of emerald ash borer infestation under various infestation scenarios. The proposed modeling framework can be adopted to study other invasive species problems and provide insight into management policies for controlling biological invasions over large spatial and temporal scales.

Büyüktahtakιn Toy is an assistant professor in the industrial, systems and manufacturing engineering department at Wichita State University. Her research expertise includes optimization, mixed integer programming and dynamic programming, with applications in environment, sustainability and healthcare. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her integrated education and research activities in the area of mathematical optimization for protecting ecological systems from invasive species.

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