Date of Graduation

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

Committee Chair

Alan R., Jr. McKendall

Abstract

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) is a 9th to 12th grade mathematics and sciences program established in 1994, at the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center. The main purpose of this program is to increase the number of underrepresented students (i.e., African Americans, financially disadvantaged, first generation attending college, and environmentally disadvantaged- -rural) from West Virginia to pursue degrees in the health sciences fields in the state of West Virginia. An important component of HSTAís program is the field site coordinators (FSCs) whose main function is to recruit students. In order for HSTA to achieve its goal, they must logistically select the counties that the program will cover with respect to maximizing the number of potential underrepresented students who can participate in the program. This problem is defined as a multiple set packing problem (MSPP). Also, the locations of the FSCs need to be determined such that the total weighted distance is minimized. This problem is defined as the FSC location problem (FLP). Therefore, in this thesis, mathematical models are developed for HSTAís problems (the MSPP and the FLP). These problems are solved individually in a sequential manner, using exact and heuristic techniques, and simultaneously, by integrating both models (problems) and solving the resulting model (or problem) optimally and heuristically. The sequential and integrated techniques are compared showing that the integrated techniques give better results. Also, sensitivity analysis was performed on the integrated mathematical model with respect to the weights given for each objective and the maximum number of counties that can be covered by the FSCs. The results show that the model is sensitive to changes in these problem parameters.

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