Open Forum Discussion:
This is a summary of the question and answer session between the audience and panelists at the 16th meeting. As always, the discussion was intriguing and too short. This summary cannot compare to being there in person.
Q: What are the challenges/barriers of DBD in industry?
- ZM: The paradigm shift from deterministic to non-deterministic thinking. People are uncomfortable with probability theory.
- DT: The time necessary to help people make better decisions. This includes overcoming an engineers fear of being inconsistent with regards to decision making. We need to spend sufficient time so that engineers better understand what is occurring in the decision process.
Q: Are there any texts using design problems for teaching probability theory?
- ZM: You should try to approach the subject from different perspectives and develop your own philosophy for problems involving probability theory.
Q: Aren't there a pool of examples?
- DT: There isn't an existing pool right now but there should be some agreement among the research community on problems to utilize.
Q: How soon will there be a software for undergraduate students to "play" with regarding DBD?
- ZM: We need to be careful using software without understanding the philosophy and theory. We want to avoid misuse.
- DT: There is probability software out there but DBD specific software won't really happen until decision analysis appears in the undergraduate curriculum.
Q: Why is there so much trouble teaching decision theory to undergraduate when it is no more difficult than other engineering theories?
- AUD: It is more difficult than you think because probability theory is the basis. There also isn't a general understanding among faculty.
- DT: I agree that it is difficulty but not as difficult as some engineering theories that are in the curriculum.
Q: Is there a profession that is good at making decisions that we can look to? Where does the problem come in to play, in gathering information or using the information?
- ZM: If it is a rational decision then it is a good decision.
- DT: There is also difficulty because of the subjective elements inherent to decision making.
- AUD: Problem comes in the form of the decision process. You can't prove that it's a bad process with data, only with math. Also, rationality is not about the outcome but the process.
Q: 3 main challenges given in question form: How can DBD be accepted? How can DBD theory be applied? Should we be expanding DBD theory or not?
- ZM: To be accepted we need to show the value of applying DBD to industry.
- DT: The difficulty now lies in implementation. We need to integrate DBD into design from the beginning of the process, not the end.
- AUD: DBD community can be the litmus test for all other engineering disciplines. You need to take DBD theory to design problems.
Q: What's more challenging, collecting information or presenting it?
- ZM: Need to determine what information to collect and how much of it is necessary.
- DT: Gathering information is difficult. What to gather and when to stop is a big challenge.
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