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