Decision methods and models (A.A. 2024/25)

Schedule and classroom


The lessons take place

  • on Tuesday, from 15.30 to 18.30, in classroom V4 (Venezian)
  • on Friday, from 13.30 to 16.30, in classroom Beta (Computer Science department)

Exam


The exam is written and composed of 8 parts dealing with the main topics of the course. Each part consists of theoretical questions and numerical exercises.

Lessons

Please check the prerequisites to understand whether you have the sufficient background to take the course (foreign students in particular).

Lecture notes in Italian and lecture notes in English are available. Thank you for pointing out errors or unclear statements in either version. Notice that some exercises have not been revised, and provide only the numerical solutions. The students can send their solutions for a check.

The lecture notes include sections marked by an asterisk with a footnote stating that they provide advanced material not required for the exam. To put it as clearly as I can, they provide advanced material not required for the exam.

Additional lecture notes, exercises and solved exams have been provided by a former student. Other students who are keen to take part in this effort are encouraged to contact him. They have not been revised, but there is a partial list of mistakes pointed out by students.

A tentative calendar of the course is:

  • 23th September: Introduction to complicated decision problems (slides)
  • 23-26th September: Case studies
  • 26th September: Formal definitions (slides)
  • 30th September: Weak-order models of preference (slides)
  • 30th September-3rd October: Multi-attribute utility theory (1) (slides)
  • 3rd October: Multi-attribute utility theory (2) (slides)
  • 7th October: Mathematical programming (1) (slides)
  • 7-10th October: Mathematical programming (2) (slides)
  • 10th October: Mathematical programming (exercises and applications: see the lecture notes)
  • 14th October: The Paretian preference (1) (slides)
  • 14-17th October: The Paretian preference (2) (slides)
  • 17th October: The Paretian preference (exercises: see the lecture notes and the slides)
  • 21st October: Weak rationality approaches (Analytic Hierarchy Process) (slides)
  • 21st-24th October: Weak rationality approaches (ELECTRE Methods) (slides)
    The Italian Republic official gazette introducing legal methods to decide a competitive bid
  • 24th October: Decision-making under uncertainty (slides)
  • 28th October: Decision-making under ignorance (slides)
  • 28th-31st October: Decision-making under risk (1) (slides)
  • 31st October: Decision-making under risk (2) (slides)
  • 4th November: Decision theory (slides)
  • 4-7th November: Game theory (generalities) (slides)
  • 7th November: Zero-sum games (slides)
  • 11th November: Symmetric games (slides)
  • 11-14th November: Group decisions (1) (slides)
  • 14th November: Group decisions (2) (slides)