The Energy-Environment -Economy (E3) System In our energy-environment-economy (E3) work, the economy is a novel multi-agent model made-up of interacting firms. This model is the centerpiece of Ventana’s research agenda and in its present form well explains several hallmark features of the behavior of the US economy over the last 200 years, as well as
In partnership with the Sustainability Institute and MIT, Ventana Systems has developed “C-ROADS” (formerly called “Pangaea”), a decision-maker-oriented international climate simulator. C-ROADS helps users understand the long term climate impacts of various futures for fossil fuel emissions, other emissions, sequestration, and various uncertainties.C-ROADS stands for “Climate Rapid Overview and Decision-support Simulator.” As opposed to most
Our nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources, our impact on the environment, and our economic recession are interrelated problems. No one knows how to solve these problems, so we experiment with trial and error: “…what you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate, is not always getting it right, but … a
Typically, Ventana’s analytical methods employ large amounts of both quantitative and qualitative date. This is because most assignments involve serious attempts to validate the cause-and-effect represented in a given model – as well as the ranges of uncertainty that devolve from errors in both the input data and the model formulation. Historically, survey data has
The Electronic Systems Division (ESD) of the United States Air Force hired Ventana to create a model for contract management and control. The objective was to make accurate forecasts of project outcomes using only the limited contract data provided to the Government by private contractors. In its first application, the Ventana model accurately predicted that
Starting in 1997 and continuing over more than a decade, Ventana built a number of different models for one of the world’s best known pharmaceuticals companies. These models were designed to make contingent predictions of drug sales using inputs such as the attributes of products and the mix of promotion alternatives available. Several of the
For a worldwide supplier of computer peripherals, Ventana predicted the effects of alternative price-package options on costs and sales. Starting with a detailed understanding of dozens of ways consumers use the products, the model was used to find the optimal product design and pricing, to meet market share and profitability targets.
Because of the importance to spares management to the Flexible Sustainment program being proposed by Boeing to the US Air Force for the C-17 program (see Making the Case for Privatizing a Government Function), the task of creating an information and analysis system was put out for competitive procurement and the industry leader in logistics
For a business unit of a large chemical company, Ventana built a model-based decision support system to help managers and scientists decide what integrated testing to perform. Testing issues were particularly important because testing represented over half of the business unit’s controllable costs. The initial Ventana decision-support system coupled business and scientific issues, and it
An aircraft manufacturer hired Ventana to discover why the firm appeared to lose production control whenever it had its greatest marketing successes. Ventana approached the problem by constructing a simulation model of the company based on discussions with managers and engineers as well as company operating plans and reports. When Ventana tested the model against
