Term of Award

Spring 2017

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mathematics (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Committee Chair

Stephen Carden

Committee Member 1

Arpita Chatterjee

Committee Member 2

Tharanga Wickramarachchi

Committee Member 3

Emil Iacob

Committee Member 3 Email

ieiacob@georgiasouthern.edu

Abstract

In the field of survey methodology, optimizing contact strategies helps organizations increase response rates using their allocated budget. Markov Decision Processes (MDP) are widely used to model decision-making strategies in situations where the outcomes have a random component. In this research, we use MDPs and adaptive sampling techniques to construct a strategy that, based on target audience characteristics, suggests the best contact policy. The data we use comes from the First Destination Survey conducted by the Office of Career Services at Georgia Southern University. The constructed model is quite flexible and can be used by other organizations to optimize their contact strategies.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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