WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY  at SPOKANE

Sample Syllabus only.  COURSE SYLLABUS

Decision Analysis for Engineering Managers

EM 545 

Fall 2001

 Faculty:            Dr. Hal Rumsey
                       
Washington State University at Spokane
                       
West 601 First Avenue
                       
Spokane, WA 99201-3899
                       
(509) 358-7936  FAX  7899

                        E-Mail:  rumsey@wsu.edu

                        Home Phone:  (509) 448-7968
                       
Office Hours:  Monday through Thursday
                       
10 a.m. - 3 p.m., or by appointment.

You may contact me at the office, or at home during any reasonable hour. 

Hal A. Rumsey, Ph.D., P.E., is Associate Professor of Engineering Management at Washington State University Spokane.  Prior to joining WSU, he served as Director of the Graduate Engineering Management Program and Director of Graduate Programs at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.  Dr. Rumsey is active in numerous professional organizations and serves as Associate Editor for Quality for the Engineering Management Journal.  His educational accomplishments include a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an M.S. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

TEXTS AND SOFTWARE
(Updated 8/8/01--with apologies to those who checked earlier.)
Making Hard Decisions With DecisionTools Suite, by Robert T. Clemen, Terry Reilly, (June 23, 2000), Duxbury Pr; ISBN 0534365973.

DATA Mac & Windows, $379 Mac-$450 Windows,(50% academic discount, student versions are available for $40) TreeAge Software, Inc., Phone (800) 254-1911, Fax (413) 458-0105, Email info@treeage.com.

Expert Choice Windows ~$55 Expert Choice, Inc., (800)447-0506 Ext 15 (Michael Jones), Fax (412)682-7008, E-mail info@expertchoice.com.

COURSE DESCRIPTION 

Individuals and organizations make decisions every day.  Almost all decisions involve some uncertainty about the outcomes of the decisions and future conditions.  Most people handle this uncertainty in intuitive ways.  Research has confirmed that intuition is miserably unreliable in assessing the influence of this uncertainty on the outcomes of current decisions.  Decision analysis provides a structured discipline for describing, analyzing, and finalizing decisions involving uncertainty.

Student Projects:  Each student will complete an individual or group project related to the course.  As a minimum, each student or group will attempt to apply the tools and techniques of decision analysis to their work place and report on the outcome of the effort.  The level of effort should be commensurate with the academic credit earned.   

BASIS OF EVALUATION

Mid-Term Examinations            35%
Student Project                         25%
Instructor Discretion                    5%
Final Examination                      35% 

Homework will be assigned and discussed, but it will not be collected on a routine basis.

SCHEDULE

 

Session

 

Topics

Requirements

1

1.  Introduction to Decision Analysis

2.  Elements of Decision Problems

All

All

2

3.  Structuring Decisions

11,12,20,24 Kuniang

3

4.   Making Choices

Spokane—Even,GPC, Boeing—Odd,S.E.

4-2,6,7,14,15,18

GPC, Southern E.

4

5.  Sensitivity Analysis

Eagle (Fig. 5.8, 5.9, 5.13) 9,10,11, Dumond

5

6.  Creativity and Decision Structuring

What alternatives are available to burning grass fields?  How do you promote creativity?

6

7.  Probability Basics

8.  Subjective Probability

7-18,19,2,28,29  DA Monthly, Screening

8-12,13,16  Challenger

7

9.  Theoretical Probability Models

10.  Using Data

9- Review 1-10, Overbooking

10-9 thru 17, Overbooking

8

11.  Monte Carlo Simulation

Overbooking

9

12.  Value of Information

12-23,4,5,7

10

13.  Risk Attitudes

13-7,12,13,24  Texaco

11

14.  Utility Axioms, Paradoxes, and Implications

14-4,6,7,8,1`2,17  Nuclear Power

12

15.  Conflicting Objectives I:  Some Basic Techniques

15-3,13,4,27

Use Expert Choice

13

16.  Conflicting Objectives II:  Multiattribute Utility Models

The Analytical Hierarchy Process

16-7

 

Do

14

17.  Conclusion and Further Reading

FINAL EXAMINATION HANDOUT

 

15

Work on Final Exam

NO CLASS

16

Review of Final Exam

Turn in examination and portfolio.

 

1)          Decision portfolio. Each student will create a portfolio of homework assignments completed for the class.  Each individual will not do every homework problem in the book.  Collectively we will cover most of the problems available in the text.  Part of the insight required to successfully apply more rigor to decisions in the real world is to examine many approaches and problems which have been treated with these approaches.