About the Course:

As we move into the next century healthcare, manufacturing, and engineering technologies will become more complex and competition fiercer, increasing the need for the need for some type of assistance to stay competitive.

Intelligent Decision Support Systems (DSSs) offer a way of assisting people to “work smarter.” They are an important class of computer tools, which will become increasingly critical in helping businesses stay competitive in the 21st century. DSSs are intelligent computer tools which assist people such as designers, process planners, and analysts in making decisions better or faster. An important aspect of DSSs is that they do not make decisions for people, they leave control of the decision making in their hands. People make the decisions.DSSs come in many forms. They may present information in a way that makes it easier for people to see the relevant parts of the situation, act as critics which assist in identify errors in solutions that people have created, automatically generate solution options to help speed problem solving, or assist in evaluation and comparing alternative solutions.

Course Goals:

Students will be expected to complete a class project in which they design and/or implement a DSS to address a problem in their own area of experience, or workplace. This class will cover techniques for identifying areas in which DSSs may be most beneficial, discuss underlying technologies that can be used in building them, and methods for assessing their effectiveness. Examples will demonstrate how DSSs are used in engineering, health care, aviation and other areas.