The picture across the top of this site is of the aircraft I flew in the Marines, a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion, refueling in flight from a C-130 Hercules. In-flight refueling in a helicopter is a delicate operation. More than a few pilots have earned new call signs by cutting off the refueling probe. There’s a picture here that shows just how close the two aircraft are during the refueling process.
I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern for a month or so. I met with one of my committee members to discuss how to select an optimal service composition from among those available. As it turns out, that selection of this type is an NP-complete problem. Given that this committee member specializes in decision guidance systems, asking him for help on this task is a good idea.
I met with him and explained the sort of problem to him. I don’t think he realized how far along in my research I am (having an operating prototype and all), but after bringing my advisor into the discussion he seemed to get the idea that I was a little beyond the planning stages. Ultimately he asked for some formal definitions of the problem space (e.g., how I define a “business process”). So I produced those definitions and ran them by my advisor, who liked them.
Unfortunately, the decision guidance expert has been very busy lately. Heck, it seems like he’s always busy. He’s the committee chair for a friend, and she has a bear of a time cornering him and getting substantive feedback.
After a month of trying, I finally managed to get on his schedule for this Friday (he’s been out of the country for almost two weeks, so I can understand some of the delay). Hopefully, it being the summertime, he won’t have any other students clobbering his time when I get there for my 11 AM appointment. More importantly, hopefully he’ll have more for me that “refine these definitions blah blah blah.” I need some concrete direction so I can get this show on the road.