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Congratulations to Tim Clarkin, who defended his MS thesis and graduated in Spring 2016. After graduation, Tim will begin working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program.

Tim’s thesis explored how user-defined constraints affect the effectiveness, efficiency and consistency of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) optimization in water resources. Constraints in MOEA optimization commonly represent limits on acceptable performance, but their effect on MOEA performance had not been extensively researched. His study considered two water resources case studies: a water supply portfolio planning model and an economic development and environmental water quality model. These models were optimized in two different cases: one with constraints – as the models were originally formulated – and one without constraints. The original set of constraints were then applied a posteriori to all solutions, representing a typical decision making process. For each model, the effectiveness and efficiency of search on the constrained and unconstrained problems were compared.  This work was done in collaboration with  and Kasprzyk group student Billy Raseman.

With his work for the Army Corps, he is assigned to the Galveston District in Texas, which provides and maintains coastal storm risk management (CSRM) and navigation channels along the Texas coast. Possible projects include the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Feasibility Study and the Texas Coastal Planning Study — two ongoing CSRM studies for the Texas Coast.

We wish Tim the best of luck!