Information Sciences Students Poster Session

Students "Think Outside the Box" Using Tools of Modern Decision Making

On the afternoon of December 10th, 21 Smith School students waited nervously in a large classroom, standing in groups of three before displays that illustrated their team's application of the most widely used decision support methodology in the world, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The poster session is part of the final project in the graduate course, Applications of Management Science. Bruce Golden, professor and holder of the France-Merrick Chair in Management Science, has taught the course for two years.

Instead of taking a cursory look at a wide variety of management science applications, Golden chooses to have the class examine in great detail two important areas: AHP and data mining. The final project requires students to identify the best solution to a real or hypothetical business problem using the AHP technique. The deliverables are a poster, presented today before a group of judges, classmates, and Smith faculty, and a paper, due the last day of class. "Working on a project is a better learning experience than anything else," Golden states. "Students have to be more creative, to 'think outside the box'."

The business dilemmas the teams have chosen to solve using Expert Choice, group decision support software based on the AHP technique, range from selecting a target winter market for a travel club, to identifying the best response to an oil spill, to determining the stability of Taiwan for business investment. Ernest Forman, professor of management science at George Washington University and developer of the Expert Choice software, is judging the poster session, along with Mary Ann Selly of Expert Choice, Inc.; Saul Gass and Lawrence Bodin, professors emeriti of management science; and Golden.

The judges travel separately or in groups of two or three around the classroom, examining each of the seven posters and quizzing team members on their methodology and results. Other faculty members and graduate students drop in for a look.

After an hour and a half, all of the posters have been seen and the judges huddle at the front of the classroom to compare notes. Taking the top honor in a competitive field is the poster, "Selecting an Integrated Web System." Team members Kevin Chang, Richard Yishu Wang, and James Mott step forward to receive their prizes: individual copies of the Expert Choice software. But the experience itself is reward enough for the students.

"The poster experience enabled me to appreciate the value of teamwork once again," says Richard Yishu Wang, an M.S. (Master of Science) student with concentrations in information systems and finance. "From selecting a topic to organizing the poster structure, we were highly motivated and fully contributed our knowledge and experience."

"The poster session was a valuable exercise," states M.S. student James B. Mott, an Air Force medical logistics officer. "Our project, albeit hypothetical, allowed us to explore the intricacies of a widely-used software product and take a journey through the complete Analytic Hierarchy Process."

Golden notes that students come away from the course with knowledge of two very powerful software tools and hands-on experience in applying management science techniques. "They'll be able to utilize these skills in their other coursework, and later, in their careers."

Poster session judges and members of the winning student team: Lawrence Bodin, James B. Mott, Mary Ann Selly, Kevin Chang, Richard Yishu Wang, Bruce Golden, Ernest Forman, and Saul Gass.