Amy Thompson

Associate Professor in Residence

Systems Engineering

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Dr. Amy Thompson joined UConn in August 2017 as an Associate Professor-In-Residence of Systems Engineering and as the Associate Director for the Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering (IASE) at the University of Connecticut (https://iase.engr.uconn.edu/). She currently teaches graduate-level engineering courses in model-based systems engineering and systems engineering fundamentals, and coordinates the online graduate programs in Advanced Systems Engineering for the UConn IASE. Prior to joining UConn, she received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering, M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering, and Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems from the University of Rhode Island and she taught Systems Engineering to undergraduate and graduate students for six years at the University of New Haven. Prior to entering graduate school, she worked in industry as a manufacturing engineer, process engineer, and production maintenance supervisor, and led efforts to develop and scale-up new production facilities and production lines. Her current research portfolio includes the application of model-based systems engineering for the design and optimization of complex systems, model-based fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) for HVAC-R systems; design of smart manufacturing systems, facilities, and buildings; supply chain design; and undergraduate, graduate, and online systems engineering education development and assessment. In 2018, she started the SmartBuildings CT program at UConn with funding from Eversource and the United Illuminating Company (https://iase.engr.uconn.edu/smartbuildings-ct/). She is part of the leadership team at the University of Connecticut and the University of New Haven that will lead the newly awarded US Department of Energy’s Southern New England Industrial Assessment Center and that will offer no-charge energy audits to 20 manufacturing facilities in CT each year to help them lower their energy usage and costs. Dr. Thompson was the recipient of the US EPA Environment Merit Award, Region 1 (2017).

Systems Engineering Focus

Key Skills & Capabilities

• Model-based systems engineering for design and optimization of systems
• Designing and assessing systems for the system lifecycle and environmental sustainability
• Multi-attribute and multi-objective decision making in system design
• Requirements development and analysis for systems
• Verification and validation of systems
• Fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) for HVAC-R systems
• Modeling and simulation of manufacturing systems and facilities

Key Active Research Projects

• US Department of Energy, “Bringing Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) Tools into the Mainstream: Retro Commissioning and Continuous Commissioning of HVAC and Refrigeration Systems,” 2017-2020. UConn UTC-IASE: $210,000 of $1.2M grant: DE-FOA-0001518.

Recent Publications

• Hacker, A., R. Gorthala, and A. Thompson. 2019. An Approach to Bringing Automated Fault Detection and Diagnosis (AFDD) Tools for HVAC&R into the Mainstream. Proceedings of the ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition IMECE2019 November 11-14, 2019, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

 

• Thompson, A., S. Borrelli (United Illuminating), and L. Darveau (EPA). 2017. HOW Green is Connecticut. EUEC Energy, Utility, and Environment Conference 2017, 20th Annual Conference & Expo.

 

• Bozack, A. and A. Thompson. August 2014. Why Applying Engineering Design Principles and Methods to Improve Teacher Evaluation Systems May Not Produce Desired or Expected Results: A Response to Kersting’s Engineering Teacher Evaluation Commentary. Teachers College Record Online.

 

• Abdulaal, A. and A. Thompson. 2012. Solving a Facility Layout Problem for a Manufacturer Applying a Meta-Heuristic and Lean Objectives. INFORMS Annual Conference, October 2012, Pheonix, AZ.

 

• Ciston, S., A. Koutsospyros, A. Thompson, W. Norton, A. Rodriguez, and R. Zajac. 2011. Sustainability Studies at the University of New Haven. International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering, January 12, 2011. Tucson, AZ

 

• Altonji, M. and A. Thompson. 2011. Validation of a University Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for 2008-2009. Proceedings of the 2011 Industrial Engineering Research Conference, T. Doolen and E.Van Aken, eds. 2011.

 

• White, C, S. Sreebhashyam, and A. Thompson. 2011. Evaluation of the Performance and Capability of a 3-Dimensional Part Printer and its Fused Deposition Modeling Process. Proceedings of the 2011 Industrial Engineering Research Conference, T. Doolen and E. Van Aken, eds. 2011.