Title of presentation: Decision Science Inspired by Nature

Brief bio of the speaker:
ALICE E. SMITH is the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Auburn University, where she served as Department Chair from 1999-2011. She also has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh from 1991-99, which she joined after industrial experience with Southwestern Bell Corporation. Dr. Smith has degrees from Rice University, Saint Louis University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

This talk will put forth several straightforward but successful implementations of analytical approaches inspired by natural systems. These nature-based paradigms range in fidelity with their natural systems origins but all seek to leverage the structures and operations of nature doing what it does best – novelty detection, system optimization, adaptability to dynamic environments, robustness, and flexibility. More specifically, the well-known, but often misunderstood and misused, natural system computational paradigms of artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary algorithms will be considered for use in decision science. Used judiciously and knowledgeably these approaches can offer significant advantages in diverse decision environments. A curated selection of diverse applications from the speaker’s more than 25 years of experience in this field will be explained and objectively analyzed. The applications are (1) quality and process improvement of large-scale ceramic casting, (2) real-time placement of drones for ad hoc network connectivity, (3) continuous monitoring of vehicles for predictive maintenance, (4) the location of semi-obnoxious facilities in municipalities considering transport costs and social costs, and (5) the design of large order picking warehouses considering travel distance.

Professor W. Robert Knechel is the Frederick E. Fisher Eminent Scholar at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business and Director of the International Accounting and Auditing Center. He will present his paper "The Effect of Client Industry Agglomerations on Auditor Industry Specialization."

For the Annual Marketing Ph.D. Speaker Series we are honored to host Peter Golder, Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Peter will be presenting his research titled "Real-Time Emotions in Customer Service Encounters: How do they impact satisfaction and how long do they persist?".