CDSID - Centro de Desenvolvimento Sistemas de Informação e Decisão | Center for Decision Systems and Information Development

Research Areas

Develops models and methods of Group Decision and Negotiation. Some models use multicriteria methodology, and consider the preferences of each decision maker involved. The models are developed depending on the extent of divergence among the decision-makers involved in the decision process. Other models are developed by voting procedures in order to establish a collective preference from different individual ones. Also develops models that aggregate of expertise. In addition, develops studies on problem structuring methods as applied to several sectors of activity. It develops procedures to ensure fair division in distributive and integrative negotiation processes and studies of coalition analysis. Besides these issues, contributes studies on e-negotiation.

This line of research deals with developing new multicriteria methods and models and decision support. Methodological developments have been proposed concerning real life applications and include contributions on compensatory and non-compensatory methods, ordinal methods, as well integration of known methods, such as outranking approach and utility theory.

Development of studies about rationality and decision making process, focusing on modeling preferences, through mechanisms involving multicriteria methods and group decision and negotiation methods, with the support of cognitive neuroscience and neuroeconomics, evaluating how functions psychological and cognitive are produced, focusing on the neural substrates of mental processes and their behavioral manifestations.

Develops methods and models for managing Project Portfolio, selection of portfolio, given multiple objectives and the probabilistic dynamic behavior of the environment. Research and Development (R&D) projects have been the main focus of this line.

Contributes to designing and developing interactive systems, which include in its architecture: decision model base and data base to support the organizations in decision making involving multiple objectives (criteria) in dynamic environment, including non-structured process.

Contributes with methodologies for planning and management information systems incorporating the vision to set up or remodel an information system in an organization, including its strategic assessment and business processes, and methods of multicriteria decision support for prioritizing actions. Such research aims to provide adequate organizational solutions, by taking into consideration, inter alia, the great impact of Information Systems on the productivity and quality of companies and the importance of Planning and Management Information Systems appropriately.

Develops models and methods for multidimensional risk management, with the emphasis on industrial and technological risk, but this also involves risks and financial risks in projects. This includes MCDM methods integrated with stochastic models which often use subjective probability evaluation.

Develops models and methods for Managing and Maintaining Engineering Systems. Reliability, Maintenance, Safety and Decision Support Systems together constitute one of the most newest research approaches currently being developed. According to some important authors in this area, analyzing reliability and risk analysis pertains to quantified measures of uncertainty about certain adverse events. However, since quantified measures of uncertainty are only an intermediate step in the process of decision making, authors advocate, in a broader view, that the analysis of reliability and risk is simply a set of tools to support the process of structuring problems of decision making under uncertainty. Thus, this perspective makes the analysis of risk and reliability one of the most prominent research areas amongst the different areas studied by this research group. It is worth noting that it is as a result of CDSID studies that consideration of multiple risk dimensions has become mainstream practice even in groups whose views on analyzing risk and reliability are more conservative.

Contributes with methods and models to monitor and control socio-technical systems to support decision-making processes so as to maintain performance in accordance with availability requirements (reliability and maintainability), intrinsic quality, cost and other relevant goals.

Develops methods of decision support for project management and risk assessment in project management. In addition, two research fields can be highlight: (1) To investigate the influence of culture, with regard to team behavior, the organizational approach, tools and methodologies, for the success or failure of a project; (2) to contribute with methods and models for planning, controlling and monitoring projects, with a view to supporting organizations in the decision-making process involving multiple objectives.

Develops analysis, methods and models related to SC performance, selection of suppliers, routing problems, performance evaluation, etc. The studies include subjects related to supplier selection models using multicriteria decision aid and group decision, identifying tools and techniques in order to select suppliers and evaluation in food industry, analysing the performance of the Supply Chain, and analyzing collaborative relationships.

contributes with methods and models associated with the Business Competitiveness Management which incorporates assessing the impacts of models for the competitive process, project management, and knowledge management with a view to prospective analysis and strategic systems, including prioritizing multicriteria decision models.

This is very often an important point of discussion with regard to global concerns. This line of research develops studies and models for Information and Decision systems to aid in a structured way the decision process regarding conflicts arising from multiple uses of water, the availability of water, controlling water losses, strategies for conserving water in urban areas, and other decisions problems related to hydrographic basins. The center develops techniques and processes of group decision and negotiation in order to improve the participation of civil society in decision processes, by generating a participatory multicriteria group decision model to make the process more efficient.