Topic 1: Analytics and Data Science. Examine theory and methods to draw inferences from data and apply these insights to support decision making in uncertain environments. Additional prerequisite: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390R (Topic 1).

Topic 2: Decision Analysis. Examine the theory and principles required to make good decisions in the face of uncertainty. Discuss expected utility theory, families of utility functions, Bayesian inference, value of information, probability elicitation, scoring rules, and the verification of probabilistic forecasts. Explore how these apply to areas including engineering, business, public policy, healthcare, and sports. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390D (Topic 2) and 390R (Topic 17) may not both be counted. Additional prerequisite: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390R (Topic 1).

Topic 3: Decision Engineering. Examine the tools, methods, and processes required to apply decision analysis to applied problems. Explore creativity, framing, ideation, modeling, approximations, and decision biases that can degrade decision making. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390D (Topic 3) and 390R (Topic 18) may not both be counted. Additional prerequisite: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390R (Topic 1) and 390D (Topic 2).

Topic 4: Decision Theory. Explore the fundamental axioms supporting decision analysis and challenges to this approach. Examine behavioral decision making, subjective probability, alternative approaches to decision making, and advanced decision analytic tools. Additional prerequisite: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390D (Topic 2).

Topic 5: Markov Decision Processes. Discuss the theory and application of Markov decision processes. Examine finite horizon models, average-cost and discounted-cost infinite horizon problems, discrete-time and continuous-time frameworks. Explore approximate dynamic programming, reinforcement learning, and stochastic bandit problems. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390D (Topic 5) and 390R (Topic 16) may not both be counted. Additional prerequisite: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390R (Topic 5) or consent of instructor.

Topic 6: Systems Modeling and Decision Making. Explore the application of operations research, decision analysis, economics, and management science tools and concepts to the modeling of human-designed and natural systems with the goal of improving decisions that involve these systems. Examine models that integrate engineering, economics, natural science, and policy. Only one of the following may be counted: Operations Research and Industrial Engineering 390D (Topic 6), 390Q (Topic 8), 397 (Topic: Systems Modeling). Additional prerequisite: A course in optimization, or consent of instructor. Prior coursework in microeconomics is helpful but not required.