Dr. Palmer received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982, his M.S. in Applied Statistics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1990, and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998.  Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Dr. Palmer was employed by the Eastman Kodak Company as a Manufacturing Engineer and owned Quality Management Consulting in Rochester, NY.

Courses Taught

• ISE 225 Engineering Statistics I
    parameter estimation, statistical inference, intro to regression and experiment planning
• ISE 426 Statistical Quality Control
    acceptance sampling, control charts, quality management principles
• ISE 435 Discrete Systems Simulation
    system description, random number generation, model creation and validation, computer experiments
• ISE 525 Design of Experiments
    response surface methodology, robust engineering design
• ISE 527 Quality Management for Engineers
    management philosophies (Deming, Juran, Crosby, etc.), management system models (Malcom Baldrige Award criteria, ISO 9000)

Research Interests

• Engineering statistics
• Engineering design optimization
• Response surface methodology
• Data collection for computer experiments
• Empirical model building techniques
• Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis
• Cluster analysis

Dr. Palmer's area of research is broadly described as engineering statistics.  More specifically, his research interests lie in data collection planning, empirical model building, and quality improvement of manufacturing and service processes.  He is currently developing methods that are intended to improve the efficiency of engineering design studies conducted on design simulators.

Selected Publications

"A Minimum Bias Latin Hypercube Design",
    IIE Transactions , vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 793-808, September 2001 (with K.-L. Tsui)
    Abstract

"Metamodeling Approach to Optimization of
   Steady-State Flowsheet Simulations: Model Generation",
    Trans. IChemE, Part A: Chemical Engineering Research and Design ,
    vol. 80, no. 7, pp. 760-772, October 2002 (with M. Realff)
    Abstract

"Optimization and Validation of
   Steady-State Flowsheet Simulation Metamodels",
    Trans. IChemE, Part A: Chemical Engineering Research and Design ,
    vol. 80, no. 7, pp. 773-782, October 2002 (with M. Realff)
    Abstract

"Impacts of Management Practices and Advanced Technologies
   on Demand Responsive Transit Systems",
    Transportation Research, Part A: Policy and Practice ,
    vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 495-509, August 2004 (with M. Dessouky and T. Abdelmaguid)
    Abstract

"Development of a Rapid Prototyping System
   Using Response Surface Methodology",
    Quality and Reliability Engineering International ,
    vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 919-937, December 2006 (with B. Asiabanpour and B. Khoshnevis)
    Abstract