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HS-Airport Security

A simulation optimization approach to allocate resources in airport checkpoints

Goal: The simulation based optimization strategy aims to improve any airport’s SSCP operations by providing a flexible modeling approach to decide optimal checkpoint configurations and their corresponding workforce allocations.

Funded by: Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Eduardo Pérez

Collaborators: Dr. Francis Méndez Mediavilla (Texas State University), Dr. Jorge Sefair (Arizona State University)

Students: Palaniappan Subramanian (master student)

Simulation model

General animation of simulation model in SIMIO

Texas State University, Ingram School of Engineeri uses Simio simulation software under a grant from Simio LLC (www.simio.com).

Simulation optimization framework

  • Simulation based optimization is a suitable technique for problems involving data uncertainties that evolve over time, requiring important system decisions to be made prior to observing the entire data stream.
  • This is indeed the case in airport security checkpoints, where the passenger arrival times are difficult to predict and requirements for equipment and human resources must be scheduled in advance
Simulation optimization framework

Simulation optimization framework

Research publications

  1. Pérez, E., L. Taunton, and J.A. Sefair, “A Simulation Based Optimization Approach to Improve the Allocation of Airport Security Screening Resources in Airport Terminal Checkpoints”, Proceedings of the 2021 Winter Simulation Conference, accepted.