CBDMENG 6005: Cognitive Bias and Applied Decision Making Strategies in ENGINEERING

This Course is offered by: The Center for Cognitive Bias, Heuristics, and Human Behavior in Decision Making

Brief Description: Course identifies, explains, analyzes, evaluates, & manages cognitive bias/heuristic behaviors associated with innovation, manufacturing, infrastructure, warehouse management, architecture, research and design, robotics, construction, assembly line, Inspection, supply chain & tech management decision making

Catalogue Description: In this CBDMENG course specific comprehensive skills to recognize and manage cognitive bias, heuristics, ethical dilemmas, and human behavior involved in decision making related to engineering: manufacturing, research, innovation, technology, ethics, and robotics will be taught. The skills gained in this course will provide an understanding of the psychological processes (biases) and shortcuts (heuristics) involved in framing decisions and model preferences under risk. You will learn how to critically evaluate the assumptions and limitations of decision-making approaches under uncertainty and how to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to design across engineering, economics, and social sciences. The course will cover the role of decision making in engineering systems design, limitations of some popular decision making methods, unique decision making challenges with robotics and nanotechnology, tradeoffs and decision making under certainty, intuition and decision making, and decision making deviations from rationality. At course’s completion you will have the skills to properly frame an engineering decision situation, more quickly make decisions and risk-assessments, learn how to break complex decisions into smaller tasks, learn the role and application of group decision making, evaluate the value of information, and manage the flow of information between different decision makers who have different roles and objectives.

Roles: Automation, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Robotics, Industrial, Safety, Electrical, Chemical, Petroleum, Sound, Lighting, Construction, Computer, Transportation, and Human Factors Engineers.  Innovation Specialists, Lead and Production Engineers, Research Engineer, Inspection Manager, Bioengineer, Surveyor, Architect