Abstract Student teams in a mathematical modeling course have carried out several projects for the City of Bloomington. IL, a small municipality with a population of 50,000. The first project was a water meter replacement model. Since water meters lose accuracy with age, older meters are a source of lost revenues. The team attempted to determine the optimal meter replacement age. The second project was a police patrol car workload model. This multi-dimensional queueing model involves police call arrival rates, service times, and overall patrol car workloads. The third and fourth projects were carried out for the Bloomington Fire Department. The third project applied various queueing models to the behavior of their three fire stations. The city planned to add a fourth station, and the final project applied a parametric allocation model to the question of where the additional station should be located. Experiences relevant to these projects, as well as the philosophy of student projects in general are discussed.
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