Jonathan Gabbai

I have been converting my thesis into HTML. I’ll be uploading the chapters one-by-one over the next few months. Chapter One is now online. This is the introduction:

Think of an ant – tiny and rather insignificant on its own. Now think of an ant colony and all of a sudden you have ant path planning, brood sorting and nest climate controls. All this is decentralised; emergent. Now look at man-made systems and organisations; interconnected networks, global connectivity, systems-of-systems thinking. These ideas and implementations are emerging out of typically hierarchical, unresponsive, difficult to maintain legacy approaches grounded in an increasingly fast moving, mass customised and dynamic environment. Given this, the understanding and subsequent exploitation of complex and emergent organisations will have an important role to play in man-made organisations; logistics, manufacturing, co-operation and connectivity. Whilst physicists and to some extent computer scientists have embraced the ideas of emergence and complexity to varying degrees, it will be the engineers and managers that will have to understand and implement them in real life situations. Very little has been undertaken to explore and explain the importance, implications and even benefits of emergent and complex systems in industry. Hence, within the context of the aerospace industry, this thesis is written with the aim of explaining the situation with the engineer and manager thoroughly in mind.

Abstract. We begin by describing the importance of emergence in industry and the need, in certain situations, to move away from a reduction mind-set to a more holist approach. We define the term emergence in context of self-organizing systems, autopoiesis and chaotic systems. We then examine a field that is commonly used to explore emergence and selforganization, namely agent and multi-agent systems. After an overview of this field, we highlight the most appropriate aspects of agent research used in aiding the understanding of emergence. We conclude with an example of our recent research where we measure agent emergent performance and flexibility and relate it to the make-up of the agent organization.

Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., Yin, H., Wright, W. A., and Allinson, N. M., “Self-Organization, Emergence and Multi-Agent Systems,??? in IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks and Brain, Wang, S., et al., Eds. Berlin: Springer Verlag Heidelberg, Beijing, China: IEEE, 2005, pp. TBC.

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Engineering Doctorate Thesis Abstract. The aerospace industry is at the forefront of technological innovation, both at product level and manufacturing and support levels. Not only are new manufacturing systems computer controlled, they are controlled by networked computers, which, increasingly, are globally connected by public or private internets. Such advances in communication and information systems technology are causing global changes to market places. Drawing upon experience and research in this sector, the increasing challenges faced by large scale complex organisations, exemplified by this sector, are highlighted. I discuss why traditional methodologies are no longer globally appropriate as issues of emergence and complexity come to the fore.

Complex distributed systems often can exhibit behaviour that is not easily predictable when looking at the individual components of the system. The exhibited behaviours are sometimes beneficial and sometimes not. Such behaviour is observable in many natural systems from the swirling patterns of bird flocks to the purposeful social activities of insect colonies. Man-made systems, products and the organisations for their creation and maintenance, can also display such emergent behaviour – often unintended and detrimental. Conversely, benefits can be had when simple systems interact to produce desired complex behaviours where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is particularly evident in biological systems. A study of flocking is presented where novel predator avoidance is developed and explained.

Examining and contrasting the trends and requirements of the aerospace industry in relation to research trends in emergence and multi-agent systems leads to the observation that more research into organisational structure and its quantifiable relationship with organisational behaviour is required. A full set of generic organisational structural metrics are therefore developed, along with charting and agent interaction recording methodologies.

In order to test these metrics a multi-agent system simulation approximating a simple unmanned air vehicle group task is developed. Organisational behaviour such as performance, cost and robustness to failure are recorded alongside organisational structural metrics. These metrics are used to successfully explain key organisational traits in a quantitative manner.

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Abstract. The structure and performance of organisations – natural or man-made – are intricately linked, and these multifaceted interactions are increas-ingly being investigated using Multi Agent System concepts. This paper shows how a selection of generic structural metrics for organisations can be explored using a combination of Pareto Frontier exemplars, from extensive simulations of simple goal-orientated Multi Agent Systems, and exposé of organisational types through Self-Organising Map clusters can provide insights into desirable structures for such objectives as robustness and efficiency.

Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., Wright, W. A., and Allinson, N. M., “Visualisation of Multi- Agent System Organisations using a Self-Organising Map of Pareto Solutions,??? in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning (IDEAL 04), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Yang, Z. R., et al., Eds. Exeter, UK: Springer, 2004, pp. 841-847.

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Abstract. The Aerospace Industry is at the forefront of technological innovation, both at product level and manufac-turing and support levels. We draw upon our experience in this sector to illustrate the increasing challenges that large scale complex organizations, exemplified by this sector, are facing. We examine why traditional methodologies are no longer globally appropriate and discuss how work on multi agent systems and emergence is promising the means to overcome the limitations of traditional approaches. Furthermore, we draw upon our research on relating organizational struc-ture to performance to illustrate how such potential solutions can be applied to organizational complexity. Finally, we conclude by looking at the future of this industry and the technological solutions that may play a part in its evolution.

Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., Wright, W. A., and Allinson, N. M., “Trends, Implications and Overview of Complex Organizations with a Focus on the Aerospace Industry (invited paper),??? in IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN 04), Schoop, R., et al., Eds. Berlin, Germany: IEEE, 2004, pp. 385-390.

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Abstract. Within a Multi Agent System (MAS) environment, principled metrics are developed that encapsulate the structure and performance of organizations. From extensive simulation work, we can explore performance/cost/structure trade-offs; and, by incorporating data visualization techniques, we can observe the emergence of organization classes and begin to identify optimum organizational structures to meet specified constraints and tasks. We illustrate our approach through specific examples and suggest future directions.

Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., Wright, W. A., and Allinson, N. M., “Measuring and Visualizing Organizations by Relating Structure to Performance,??? in IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN 03), Unland, R., et al., Eds. Banff, Alberta, Canada: IEEE, 2003, pp. 154-161.

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Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., “Engineering Doctorates,??? in The Aerospace Professional, May 2003, pp. 18.

After graduating you either go into industry or stay at university as a postgraduate, right? I thought that was the case when I completed my Aerospace Engineering degree at the University of Manchester. But as someone who enjoyed both the academic and industrial aspects of the degree, I looked for another route, and was ultimately drawn towards the Engineering Doctorate (EngD) with its strong industrial bias.

Each EngD has the backing of an industrial company that you’ll be working with, undertaking a commercially relevant research topic. The main part of my research, for example, is examining the issues of having large scale complex systems in organisations; as systems increase in complexity the design and prediction of their performance becomes a real challenge. BAE SYSTEMS, my industrial sponsor, faces issues from logistics through to manufacturing and my research is just one part of how the company is exploring this challenge. Working with a company requires a considerable appreciation of its market, and an understanding of how the research fits into the greater scheme of things. This, I found, made the research feel much more relevant than a conventional PhD and involved a lot of interaction with people working on different areas at BAE SYSTEMS.

As well as having all the benefits of an industrial sponsor, the EngD is complimented by a structured personal development program. At UMIST, where I undertook my EngD, this involves a set of courses covering diverse topics such as industrial law, project management, effective report writing, negotiation, team-building and stress management. Another major part of the Engineering Doctorate is a formally examined Management Diploma. This is carried out during the first two years, and has a strong focus on industrially relevant management topics, ranging from operational management to accountancy and total quality management to marketing. The personal development course coupled with hands on experience gained from industry places EngD research engineers in a favourable position if applying for full Chartered Engineering status by the end of the four-year scheme.

From my personal experience, it is a very varied and challenging experience that continually develops and tests many different skills over a relatively short period. Furthermore, as each Engineering Doctorate year group has around a dozen students who come from very different research areas and career backgrounds there is an opportunity to discuss common problems and share experiences. This definitely adds to the scheme and is a further step away from the more traditional PhD experience.

Abstract. This paper will focus on relating organisational structure with organisational performance. We first outline the motivation behind this research, from both industrial and academic perspectives. After defining the problem and the research aim, an outline of organisational performance metrics is provided, followed by a detailed look at the centralisation metric. Finally, using our testbed simulation, the metric is applied and compared against the simulation’s performance output, namely speed and robustness. We show that while the centralisation metric is a sufficient measure of performance, the implementation of further metrics should produce further promising results.

Citation. Gabbai, J. M. E., Wright, W. A., and Allinson, N. M., “Relating Organisational Structure to Performance: An Initial Look at Centralisation,??? presented at NET.Object Day, Erfurt, Germany, 2002

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Introduction

This report concentrates on the way BAE SYSTEMS (formally British Aerospace after its recent acquisition of GEC Marconi) deals with the inherently long lead times that occur between contract with customer to the actual commercial production and provision of the product/solution.

This report will describe the overall operational situation faced by BAE SYSTEMS, and then concentrate on the more challenging military market. A brief description of a typical classic aircraft design cycle will be provided, followed by a discussion as to why this is unsuitable for most current and future projects due to the unique situation that defence systems companies face. Finally, an appraisal on current practices and a look into the future concludes the report. Read the rest of this entry »

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Abstract

Simulation is an established technique used in the man-machine systems area for training, evaluation of performance and research. The principal task of flight simulation is the creation of a dynamic representation of an aircraft’s behaviour while allowing one or more human operators to interact with the simulation.

Personal experience within the simulation industry gave a small insight into what is a largely closed and highly specialised industry where several technical disciplines are combined to form a highly accurate representation of flight.

Such disciplines include computer graphics, hardware and software engineering, man-machine systems and mathematical systems modelling. One can thus conclude that the true art of simulation is the successful integration of very specific areas to form an accurate representation of an aircraft, and it is hoped that the broad technical spectrum that simulation encapsulates is reflected in this text. Read the rest of this entry »