Research Experiences For Undergraduates (REU)

REU 2000 Projects

Analysis of a Laying Head

Sponsor: Morgan Construction
Advisor: Bogdan Vernescu


Garth Johnson		Brook Andersen		Sandor Swartz		Rebecca Wasyk

This project is sponsored by Morgan Construction Company. Morgan specializes in the production of steel rolling mills. Part of this process involves a laying pipe which shapes the flexible steel rod into a coil. This project focuses on the path the rod follows in the pipe. All current knowledge about the laying pipe assumes the rod follows the centerline of the pipe. This year's project dismisses this assumption in an effort to find a more realistic path of the rod. With this knowledge, we hope to improve on previous calculations of the wear profile, with an end toward finding an optimal design of the laying pipe. In conjunction with this, the effect of changing the diameter of the pipe will be studied.

Moral Hazard

Sponsor: Premier Insurance
Advisor: Arthur Heinricher


Micahel Escovitz		Edward De Guzman		Barbara Hess


Wendy Kooiman		Douglas Mitarotonda		Katherine Tranbarger

The goal of the project is to develop a tool to identify agents or agencies whose loss experience is significantly different from the expected loss experience for the group. Statistical tests will use company policy and claims data for 1997, 1998, and 1999 and focus on loss ratio, claims frequency, and claims size as measures of loss experience. The data will be grouped and analyzed according to what quality factors best model the loss experience of agents. The software tool will flag agents for an unusual loss experience based on the distribution of their book of business.

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Last modified: Jun 20, 2010, 19:39 UTC