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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Nonlinear Optimization under Uncertainty<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> for Sustainable Energy Informatics Problems</span></b><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mohammad H. Poursaeidi<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Friday, February 15<sup>th</sup>, 2013, 10:00 A.M. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Industrial Engineering Conference Room (E214), Engineering Bldg 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.5in;text-indent:-1.5in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Committee Members: Dr. Erhun Kundakcioglu, Dr. Qianmei Feng, Dr. Bora Gencturk, Dr. Gino Lim and Dr. Shishir Shah</span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sustainable energy has less environmental impact yet has a tremendous potential to meet consumers' demand. In 2010, United States invested nearly $243 billion on developing sustainable energy technologies. The analysis, design, implementation, and use of computer science models for developing appropriate management plans that increase the energy efficiency while protecting the environment are referred to as <i>sustainable energy informatics</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In this dissertation, three optimization and data mining approaches are proposed that are to be used in sustainable energy applications. These problems deal with analyzing data under uncertainty to make a robust and reliable decision. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>