MIME 4100
Final Exam: Prospectus
Spring 2011
This will be a take-home exam. The exam problems will be posted on the course web
page by 5 PM on Sunday, 5/1/2011. You should submit your solution by email it to me
by 5:00 PM on Friday, 5/6/2011. This will be an open-book exam and you can work as
long as you want on it until the time it is due. You cannot collaborate in this exam.
The material for the exam is as follows:
Introduction (Chapter 1)
General ideas about simulation
Good and bad things about simulation
Types of simulation: static vs. dynamic, deterministic vs. random
Software for simulation
History of simulation
Study homework 1
Review of Probability and Statistics (Appendix C)
Probability: basic ideas and terminology
What probability is and why we learn about it
Experiments, sample space, events, probability of an event, properties of
probability
Conditional probability
Random variables
Definition of a random variable
Discrete random variables: Probability mass function, cumulative
probability mass function, mean value, variance
Continuous random variables: Probability density function, cumulative
probability distribution function
Joint probability distributions
Independent random variables, uncorrelated random variables,
covariance, correlation
Statistics
Sample statistics: sample mean, variance, proportion
Unbiased, consistent and efficient estimators
Confidence intervals for mean value and probability
Hypothesis tests: null hypothesis, decision rule, p-value, errors in
hypothesis testing, selecting a probability distribution for a given dataset,
chi-square test
Study homework assignments 2-5
Fundamental Simulation Concepts (Chapter 2)
Example: Drilling Center
Analysis options: Guessing, queuing theory, mechanistic simulation
Components of a simulation model: entities, attributes, global variables,
resources, queues, statistical accumulators, events, state variables
Event-driven simulation: Drill center example
Process-and event-driven simulation: Drill center example
Randomness in simulation
Comparing alternative system configurations
Example of single-server simulation using spreadsheets
Study homework 6
Computer simulation software ARENA (Chapter 3)
Example: Drill center
Structure and components of ARENA
Demonstration of ARENA on drill center example
Study homework 7
Modeling basic operations and inputs (Chapter 4)
Example: Electronic Assembly and Test System
Building and running a model
Debugging and verification
Developing inputs
Enhanced electronic assembly model
Study homework 8
Modeling detailed operations (Chapter 5)
Call Center: System description
New modeling issues
Outline of modeling approach
Building and running the model and interpreting the results
Study homework 9