DEPARTMENT

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Policy, Planning and Governance

Summer School on Decision-Making in Systems Engineering and Design

Funded by the National Science Foundation
PI: Ali Abbas

Venue: Viterbi School of Engineering, Price School of Public Policy

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Date: June 24th – 29h, 2018

The University of Southern California, with funding support from the National Science
Foundation, will be hosting a six-day Summer School in June 2018 that will introduce
graduate students to the foundations of decision making in systems engineering and design.

This summer school is developed in direct response to needs expressed through various
NSF-sponsored workshops. The school will provide an intensive and interactive educational
experience to graduate students who are interested in studying decision making in the
context of engineering design and systems engineering. It is specifically intended to provide
educational opportunities for students from graduate programs that do not have appropriate
coursework in this area. The summer school will cover theoretical and practical issues. It will
provide students with foundational understanding about how to conduct research in
decision making in design and systems engineering; create a network of peers who are
studying these issues, and advance community research standards.

It is anticipated that the summer school will have a broad impact in the research community,
including other NSF-supported research projects, by advancing training and standards in this
area of research. Through the National Science Foundation support, full (and partial)
scholarships will be made available to 20 students to cover travel, housing, and program
costs. The full scholarship provides students with funding for travel, accommodation, food
and program costs. The partial scholarship covers food, accommodation and program costs
only. Travel and participation scholarships will serve to ensure a broad participation that
maximizes community impact. Limited spaces are also available for students who do not
receive scholarship support.

Objectives of the Summer School

1. To provide graduate students with the foundations needed to enable them to conduct
formal research in decision making in systems engineering design.

2. To provide online resources through a web site that will compile a list of papers,
references, and lecture material for graduate students around the nation.

3. To develop a cohort and a network of graduate students exposed to formal decision

University of Southern California
1234 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, California 90089-1234 • Tel: 213 740 1234 • Fax: 213 740 1234
 making methods in systems engineering and design.

4. To provide graduate students with the opportunity to meet with other academics and
industry experts.

To apply for the summer school and scholarships, please email the following documents
to aliabbas@usc.edu by December 30th, 2017:

 A letter of application (two-page limit) explaining

o How the workshop would benefit you in your research,
o Your plans for sharing the material with your colleagues.
o A topic related to decision making in systems engineering and design that you
would like to discuss.
o Request for financial support if needed.
 A letter of support from your academic advisor
 Current C.V.

Topics covered include

 Characterizing uncertainty in a systems engineering and design environment

 Building Preference – Value – Utility models for systems engineering and design
 Introducing the basic axioms of decision making, and methods to analyze flawed
methods of decision making
 Research methodologies for decision making in systems engineering and design
 Future research directions
 Practical applications of decision making in systems engineering featuring guest
speakers from industry and academia

Ali E. Abbas, Ph.D.,

Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Professor of Public Policy

Director, Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making, at the
Viterbi School of Engineering, Price School of Public Policy, Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California

Contact Information:
e-mail: aliabbas@usc.edu
decide.usc.edu
https://priceschool.usc.edu/ali-e-abbas/
http://ise.usc.edu/directory/ali-abbas.htm

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation Award CMMI 1751340. The views in this
document and workshop are those of the authors and lecturers present. They do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Federal Government.