WPI researcher developing tool to analyze asylum cases

Photo | Grant Welker Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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By Sam Bonacci

A researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has received a National Science Foundation grant to fund the creation of an analytical tool to analyze asylum case needs at the U.S. southern border.

Andrew Trapp, associate professor of operations and industrial engineering at the Foisie Business School at WPI, has received a $63,730 supplemental grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the research. He is developing analytical tools to estimate capacities for holding sites, judges and other resources needed to humanely process migrant asylum cases at the U.S. southern border.

Would-be immigrants to the U.S., particularly at the border with Mexico, can seek entry into America by requesting asylum, saying they fear persecution in their homelands based on their race, political preferences or any number of other fears. Under the new immigration policies instituted by the Trump Administration, there is a significant backlog of people trying to enter the U.S. using this method.

The research uses queueing science allowing organizations such as banks and fast-food restaurants to manage lines of customers, but it can also be used to benefit society, said Trapp.

“A business may have servers and lines and a desire to serve 95% of its customers within a certain time period,” Trapp said. “Similarly, at the southern border, we have judges and queues of asylum seekers. The goal is to develop a tool that decision makers could use when managing those queues.”

Trapp is working with Geri-Louise Dimas, a Ph.D. student in data science at WPI, and five WPI undergraduates on the project.