NSF award funds new research on decision-making in engineering design

With the help of a research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Ali Abbas hopes to advance the theory and practice of engineering design by introducing several new theoretical foundations for normative decision making within the design process.

“Improving the decision making within design enterprises is a cornerstone of the U.S. economy,” explained Abbas, an associate professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering (ISE) and the recipient of a grant from the NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation. “The research objective of this Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research award is to derive a multidisciplinary theory of normative decision making for design and manufacturing organizations. By appropriately identifying the processes needed for consistent decision making, individuals, design engineers, and various business enterprises will produce better products.”

According to Abbas, the theory will provide new axioms for normative decision making for two types of enterprises: profit maximizing firms (such as John Deere) and federal/governmental design enterprises (such as NASA Langley Research Center). The theory will align design requirements with the value function for the firm, align incentive structures with expected utility maximizing behavior, provide axioms needed for consistent decision making within a design firm.

“The theory will translate the axioms into mathematical formulations for consistent decision making for the ultimate purpose of improving the design and manufacturing decisions within the United States,” Abbas added. “The research will illustrate how to assess a corporate utility function and will explore the decision making behavior that results from common incentive structures within design firms. The work will also derive unique incentive structures that align incentivized behavior with expected utility maximizing behavior.”

Behavioral experiments will be used to verify whether the incentive structures are feasible and match the desired expected utility framework. Verification of the results will also be achieved through industry collaborators. A new Bayesian framework for demand estimation will also be explored and will be used in maximizing the expected utility of profit.

“The research will include a significant educational component with NASA Langley, John Deere, and the engineering design community,” remarked Abbas, who joined the ISE faculty in 2004. As the Art Davis Faculty Scholar and director of the Information Systems and Decision Analysis Lab, his research interests include all aspects of decision making under uncertainty broadly defined. This includes behavioral and theoretical aspects of decision making, as well as research on the practice and teaching of decision analysis.

Besides the theoretical and experimental work, this award will enable the investigators to conduct two workshops in collaboration with NASA Langley, John Deere, and other members of the design and manufacturing community: the first will be on “Setting Value-Based Requirements for Engineering Design” and the second will be on “Aligning Incentive Structures with Expected Utility Maximization.” The research will be disseminated broadly and the award will enable the investigators to continue a joint collaboration the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) spreading decision skills to troubled teens.
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Contact: Ali Abbas, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, 217/265-7578.

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