Research Interests
Operational research, optimisation
Mr D Whitaker (David) BSc Wales MA Lanc
Room: G2.28
Phone +64 7 838 4154
Fax +64 7 838 4155
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Research InterestsOperational research, optimisation Mr D Whitaker (David) BSc Wales MA Lanc Room: G2.28 Phone +64 7 838 4154 Fax +64 7 838 4155 |
A Brief History of my Working Life
I joined the University of Waikato in 1991, at first as a joint senior lecturer and senior consultant in the Waikato Centre for Applied Statistics and, from 1995, as senior lecturer in the newly formed Department of Statistics. Previously I have worked in New Zealand at the now defunct DSIR in the Applied Mathematics Division and Victoria University in Wellington. Before coming to New Zealand (which is the best country in the world by the way) - I was a lecturer at the University of Reading.
Teaching Areas
For several years I have been introducing first year students from the management school to statistics. Together with Professor Nye John we have tried to present a course which is relevant to their management interests. The course focuses on quality improvement through the use of statistics and process management. Operational research is my major interest, so my teaching on third and fourth year courses is in this area.
Research interests
My major research achievement over the past few years has been the development of a modified simulated annealing algorithm which has been applied to the statistical design package CycDesigN (Whitaker, Williams and John) which is available through the University of Waikato and CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, Australia. Nye John and myself have spent the last several years developing this windows based system which is mainly based around an adaptation of the simulated annealing algorithm which optimises the design efficiency factors. Details of this algorithm can been seen in Whitaker (1995) below. We are continuing to improve the optimisation methods behind CycDesigN and extend its capabilities. In conjunction with this latter research I have been collaborating with Professor Eccleston, University of Queensland, to extend my nested simulated annealing algorithm to deal with several objectives. Long term this theory may be included in CycDesigN.
I am also interested in the application of my adaptation of simulated annealing to the generation of good timetables. Recently, Joan Wood completed her DPhil entitled, Student Centred Timetabling for Secondary Schools, under my supervision, and I am looking at how some of her ideas can be extended into other areas of timetabling, such as the university sector. If you are interested in studying for a DPhil in this area please contact me at the email address above.
Recent Publications
Journals
Butcher, P.A., Williams, E.R., Whitaker, D., Ling, S., Speed, T.P. and Moran, G.F. (2002). Improving linkage analysis in outcrossed forest trees -an example from Acacia mangium. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 104, 1185-1191.
John, J.A., Whitaker, D. and Johnson, D. (2001) Statistical Thinking for Managers, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Whitaker, D. (2001) Branch and Bound Algorithm Encyclopaedia of Environmetrics, VAB031, (Eds. El-Shaarawi, A.H. and PieGorsch, W.W.), Chichester: Wiley.
Whitaker, D. (2001) Dynamic Programming Encyclopaedia of Environmetrics, VAD044, (Eds. El-Shaarawi, A.H. and PieGorsch, W.W.), Chichester: Wiley.
John, J.A. and Whitaker, D. (2000) Recursive formulae for the average efficiency factor in block and row-column designs. J. R. Statist. Soc. B, 62 (3), 575-583.
Eccleston, J. and Whitaker, D. (1999) On the design of optimal change-over experiments through multi objective simulated annealing, Statistics and Computing, 9:1, pp37-42.
Williams, E.R. John, J. A. and Whitaker, D. (1999) Block designs for plant and tree breeding trials, Austral. & NZ J. Statist., 41, pp277-284.
John, J.A., Russell, K.G., Williams, E.R. and Whitaker, D. (1999) Resolvable designs with unequal block sizes, Austral. & NZ J. Statist., 41, pp111-116.
Wood, J. and Whitaker, D. (1998) Student centred school timetabling, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 49, pp1146-1152.
Littler, R.A. and Whitaker, D. (1997) Estimating staffing requirements at an airport terminal, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 48, pp124-131.
Whitaker, D. (1995) A nested simulated annealing algorithm, J. Statist. Comp. Simul., 53, pp233-241.
Eccleston, J., John, J.A. and Whitaker, D. (1993) Some row-column designs with adjusted orthogonality, J of Statist Planning and Inference, 1993, 36.
John, J.A. and Whitaker, D. (1993) Construction of resolvable row-column designs using simulated annealing. Australian J Statist, 35, 237-245
John, J.A., Whitaker, D. and Triggs, C.M. (1993) Construction of cyclic designs using integer programming. J Statist Planning and Inference, 36, 357-366
Whitaker, D. and Brown, S.M. (1991) Linear programming modelling with databases, Computers and Operations Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp33-41.
Whitaker, D. and Cammell, S. (1990) A partitioned cutting-stock problem applied in the Meat Industry, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 41, No. 9, pp801-807.
Whitaker, D., Triggs, C.M. and John, J.A. (1990) Construction of block designs using mathematical programming, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, B, 52, No. 3, pp497-503.
Software
Whitaker D, Williams E M and John J A, CycDesigN, A statistical package to construct near optimal designs. Available from CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, Canberra, Australia.
Sports and other interests
I used to be a keen runner. Although I still keep running at a progressively slower pace each year, I’ve become a "born again" cyclist. It’s much easier on the joints. Currently I own two and half road bikes and a whole tandem ($NZ15,000 of tandem below, but not owned by me).
Another activity I have taken up recently is river kayaking (not whitewater), mainly on the Waikato river which flows through Hamilton on its way from Lake Taupo to the sea, just south of Auckland.
