Extreme Engineer of the Month

Education: B.Eng. Industrial Engineering, Southeast University, China, July 2002 M.S. Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, August 2004 M.S. Industrial Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 2006 Ph.D. Industrial Engineering, University Wisconsin-Madison, summer 2008 (expected) Major/Minor: Decision Science & Operations Research/Mathematics Dissertation: Modeling Secrecy and Deception in Homeland Security Resource Allocation Favorite Class: Math modeling; decision analysis; game theory; stochastic process. Best Skills: Modeling real-world problems. Hobbies: Travel, swimming, and spending time with family. Role Models: Prof. Vicki M. Bier, professor of University of Wisconsin-Madison, his advisor and co-author for the last four years, who helped teach him how to learn, teach, research, and mentor students. Advice: There are really no limits to engineering (except your imagination). Carefully plan the milestones of your education and life as soon as possible, and then relax to enjoy the details. Time flies so fast.

Jun was born and raised in Nanjing, China. In school he enjoyed math, physics, and chemistry. He found these subjects stimulating, and won a few national awards in high school competitions. When it came time to pick a major for college, he decided on industrial engineering, because he didn't want to be fixed on a specialized technology. Jun describes industrial engineering as "the most flexible engineering." He says he chose it because you don't need to focus on just one area of engineering, and you get to work with many different engineering specialists. As a senior in college at Southeast University in China, Jun was contacted by a U.S. professor who wanted him to conduct a Chinese consumer survey, and provided him a research assistant position at the University of Kentucky. There, Jun received a full scholarship to get a masters degree in agricultural economics.

While this may seem like a big departure from his industrial engineering degree, it's not. Jun's research was building economic models to analyze different agricultural engineering problems, and conducting a cost-benefit analysis of new technologies being developed. He worked with specialists in biochemistry, animal science, and plant mycology, and published three papers on those subjects.

Jun Zhuang presented his work "Game Theory and Homeland Security Resource Allocation," at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Annual University Network Summit on Research and Education in Washington, DC, in March of 2007.

He enjoyed this work, and decided he needed a Ph.D. to continue. His next step was to pursue a master's degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a top 10 program in the field. Here he met Professor Vicki M. Bier, who had just started an exciting project of applying industrial engineering and mathematical modeling to homeland security—a new area of research. Professor Bier is a principal of CREATE, the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, the first university center of excellence funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Professor Bier was interested in adding Jun to her research team to build mathematical models for how best to use resources to maximize homeland security in the United States. This work requires researchers to go beyond optimization models to apply game theory because terrorists, unlike hurricanes and earthquakes, change their strategies in response to security and defense measures. Thus, Jun's game-theoretical models can be applied to security issues in areas such as:

• computers and the Internet;
• airports; and
• supply chains (the supply networks that move products and services from suppliers to customers).

This approach—applying game theory, essentially games between an attacker and a defender—to security considerations is relatively new. Both natural disasters and terrorists kill people and cause economic loss. The difference is that terrorists are intelligent and adaptive. In homeland security, "if you protect DC, the terrorist could simply switch to New York or LA," Jun says. Terrorists adapt their strategies. To create a cost-effective defense, you must take their likely responses into account. You need to ask, "If we do this, what would they do?" In this part of his research, Jun lets the hypothetical attackers and defenders make certain decisions such as how many resources to spend on each target, with the defender moving first. "We let the attackers know what is being defended," he says. "Then the attackers pick their best response."

Another component of his research deals with determining to what extent information should be disclosed to the public and, therefore, to attackers. For example, should the allocation of Department of Homeland Security money be completely disclosed? "There could be both positive and negative effects. Disclosure might help to deter attacks, but may reveal our vulnerability as well." Jun is working to understand under which conditions it is most appropriate to disclose the truth, and when secrecy or deception is more appropriate. This is a novel area of research, which he finds exciting.

Jun is scheduled to receive his Ph.D. this summer. After that, he hopes to work as a professor, and will seek funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security to continue his research in this area.

"There is no limit to what you can do with a degree in industrial engineering," Jun says. Best of all, Jun likes the creativity, and knowing that his work could provide insights into decision-making on topics of critical importance. Eventually, Jun believes, this type of work will change how decisions are made and affect policy. In addition to continuing his research as a professor, Jun also looks forward to teaching operations research, optimization, and simulation.

Jun Zhuang and Prof. Vicki Bier presented their work on risk analysis for Homeland Security and Defense in New Mexico, in 2007.