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service desks at the airport, or the number of agents ready to take care of our people or the actual functions they perform and when - all must be as reactive to the world around them as the customer. And people never act the same way in the same setting. Their behavior is influenced by their surroundings. We've tried through computer simulation to convert customer insights about our service into living things, so to speak, things that have memories that we can quantify into costs. Those things, those insights, must survive on their own, too."
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having to sit out there until another aircraft leaves." "Each pilot or plane acts like an ant searching for the best airport gate. "The pilot learns from his experience what's the best for him, and it turns out that that's the best solution for the airline," Lawson explained. As a result, the "colony" of pilots always go to gates from which they can arrive and depart quickly. The program can even alert a pilot of plane back-ups before they happen. "We can anticipate that it's going to happen, so we'll have a gate available," Lawson says.
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little computational effort. These were significant insights since the standard community matrix did capture the detailed community structure needed for studying evolving systems, and since ecosystems that extend over millions of years can involve many tens of species complete loop analysis (based upon
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Additionally, Lawson has used ant-based routing in assigning aircraft arrivals to airport gates. At
Southwest Airlines a software program uses swarm theory, or swarm intelligence — the idea that a colony of ants works better than one alone. "People don't like being only 500 yards away from a gate and
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Lawson also demonstrated that since the coefficients of the characteristic equation represented the principal minor of the network matrix and loop analysis was essentially the calculation of all possible principal minors, the extraction of the eigenvectors provided the same stability analysis with
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Working for
Philips, Arco, and as a consultant, Lawson mapped out the ancient environments of marine invertebrates. "To me it was mapping out the movement of habitats," says Lawson. "To the oil industry it was reservoir characterization," a process that helps geologists locate oil and gas. While
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At
Southwest Airlines, Lawson has described his work in terms of customer service. "I'm a living systems engineer. I try to improve the service experience for our customers by using living systems principles. The components that make up our customer service experience, like the actual number of
122:, Lawson used evolutionary computation methods to evaluate alternate means of having passengers board aircraft. Based upon the behavior of ants, Lawson determined whether assigned seating would be faster than Southwest's "festival seating" by creating an
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While at the
University of California, Lawson continued his synecological studies emphasizing the stability analysis of evolving trophic networks. Lawson incorporated biogeographic information in the standard
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by producing a symmetrical matrix from the correlation coefficient matrix of the spatial distribution of individual species members. This augmented community matrix provided a probabilistic trophic network.
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Lawson, D. A., and M. J. Novacek. 1981. Structure and change in three Eocene invertebrate (primarily molluscan) communities from nearshore marine environments. In A. Boucot and W. B. N. Berry (eds.),
71:. However, Lawson responded by demonstrating that while inconsistent with those of modern-day birds, his estimates were consistent with extrapolations of other pterosaurs, such as
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Mabley, K. 2010. Changing the World: Stories celebrating 100 years of graduate education at The
University of Texas at Austin. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press.
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Lawson, D.A., 1977, Change in marine-mollusk communities during the Middle Eocene in the
Pacific Coast. Dissertation (University of California, Berkeley.)
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Science Daily. 2008 (April 1). "Planes, Trains and Ant Hills: Computer scientists simulate activity of ants to reduce airline delays." World Wide Web:
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was the largest flying creature known to have lived. A fellow researcher challenged Lawson's estimates of the dimensions of the wing architecture of
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continuing his study of habitat evolution as an oil industry consultant, he invented a patentable method for 3-dimensional mapping habitat facies.
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Mabley, K. (ed.) 2010. Changing the World: Stories celebrating 100 years of graduate education. Austin, Texas: The
University of Texas Press.
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Lawson, Douglas A. 1975. "Pterosaur from the Latest
Cretaceous of West Texas: Discovery of the Largest Flying Creature." Science, 187: 947–948.
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Lawson, D. A. 1972. Paleoecology of the
Tornillo Formation, Big Bend National Park, Brewster County, Texas : Austin, University of Texas, 182p.
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The Smart Swarm: How understanding flocks, schools, and colonies can make us better at communicating, decision making, and getting things done
181:, Texas. During his study of this Late Cretaceous intermontane basin community, he discovered the fossil remains of the giant pterosaur,
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Lawson, Douglas A. 1975. "Pterosaur from the Latest
Cretaceous of West Texas: Discovery of the Largest Flying Creature."
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Pilette, R., Sigal, R., and J. Blamire. 1987. "The Potential for Community Level Evaluations Based on Loop Analysis."
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Lawson, D. A. 1976. Tyrannosaurus and Torosaurus: Maestrichtian dinosaurs from Trans-Pecos, Texas.
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of the University of Texas at Austin. Lawson was at Big Bend searching for the bones of
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Mark, Robert. 2008. "Smart Swarming at Southwest Airlines." JetWhine. World Wide Web:
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266:. ed. Lake, L. W., Carroll, H. B., and Wesson, T. C. New York: Academic Press, Inc.
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Change in marine-mollusk communities during the Middle Eocene in the Pacific Coast
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computer simulation of passengers boarding a plane, and then trying each pattern.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0406-planes_trains_and_ant_hills.htm
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BS in Geological Sciences, 1969, Texas A&M University (College Station)
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Miller, Peter. 2007. "Swarm Theory." National Geographic 212:1, 129-147.
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CBSNews. 2011. "Small Wonders: What ants can teach us. World Wide Web:
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Lawson, Douglas A. 1975. "Could Pterosaurs Fly?" Science 188: 676–677.
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http://www.jetwhine.com/2008/12/smart-swarming-at-southwest-airlines/
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/small-wonders-what-ants-can-teach-us/
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Lawson, D. A. 1991. Interwell Geology from Geophysical Data. In
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PhD in paleontology, 1977, University of California (Berkeley)
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MS in Geological Sciences, 1972, University of Texas (Austin)
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led him to develop as a computer scientist. While working at
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and how estimates of that wingspan have changed over time.
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In 1971 Lawson discovered wing bone fossils from a giant
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Greenwalt, Crawford H. 1975. "Could Pterosaurs Fly?".
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When the discovery of the fossils was reported in 1975,
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as the world's second-largest known flying creature.
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and the habitats of giant fliers. Lawson appears in
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173:research during his master's degree studying the
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103:(2010), discussing the impressive wingspan of
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135:Celebrating 100 Years: 1910-2010
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139:University of Texas at Austin
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217:Louisiana State University
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350:Quetzalcoatlus Northropi
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285:"The Miracle of Flight"
247:Journal of Paleontology
362:Miller, Peter. 2010.
179:Big Bend National Park
95:Sir David Attenborough
40:Big Bend National Park
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91:evolution of flight
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50:sauropods, such as
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100:Flying Monsters 3D
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