West Virginia University masters graduate Tomasz Kosalka was recently named one of the winners of the Innovative Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Award in an international competition presented by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), a consortium of over 200 universities worldwide.
Kosalka, who came to WVU as an international student from Poland, is a 2006 graduate of WVU s College of College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering.
Kosalka developed a multimedia thesis which includes data sets and simulation models. The electronic thesis will allow other scholars to follow in his footsteps using the same software and methodology he developed.
The award includes an $800 cash prize (sponsored by Adobe, Inc.) and an honorable mention at the ETD 2007 Symposium, to be held this year at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, June 13-16.
We are very proud that a WVU alum has again received this considerable recognition,said John H. Hagen, WVU ETD &Institutional Repository program coordinator and NDLTD board member.This award recognizes innovative use of software to create cutting-edge ETDs.
Electronic theses and dissertations submitted for the award represent student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of ETDs, Hagen noted. Use of renderings, photos and other multimedia objects that are included in the document were considered as part of the innovation of the work.
Kosalkas thesis,Decision Making Through the Simulation of Centralized and Decentralized Distribution Storage Systems,explores various models for storage system efficiency for businesses. Kosalkas research presented a methodology for identifying data needs, building an analytical database, creating simulation models with Arena software, optimizing the models with OptQuest software and performing sensitivity analysis. Access to Kosalka’s electronic thesis is available online at https://eidr.wvu.edu/etd/documentdata.eTD?documentid=4527.
WVU became the second institution in the world to require ETD submission in 1998. WVU graduate research is now are accessed on the Web millions of times per year by academia, industry, government and the public from over 100 countries worldwide.
ETDs are part of a growing trend of technological development that is transforming economies by providing access to research results to the world while bringing reciprocal investment back to the local level.
For more information, contact Hagen at 304-293-4040, ext. 4025 or visithttp://www.wvu.edu/~thesis.