Abstract: It is election year; but, do we elect whom we really want ? Is it possible that our choice of an election procedure is distorting the outcome ? (As shown, our standard election procedure is one of the worst offenders.) Similarly, while it is natural to assume that a bad engineering decision is caused by faulty data, experimental error, the uncertainity inherent in engineering problems, and so forth, could the error be caused by our choice of a decision procedure ? It will be shown that the choice of an election and a decision procedure can be a likely source of distorted outcomes. Indeed, it will be shown that (and why) almost all decision procedures almost always partially distort the outcome. Then, it is shown how (and why) one particular decision approach avoids the kinds of problems described here.

Biography: Dr. Saari is the Pancoe Professor of Mathematics as well as a Professor of Economics and a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Engineering Science at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He also serves as the Chief Editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society and and as a member of several professional society committees such as the National Committee of Mathematics and the Council of the American Mathematical Society. His research interests are based on dynamical systems and their applications. His earlier work concentrated on the Newtonian N-body problem with an emphasis on the evolution of Newton's Universe, properties of collisions, and so forth. His more recent work emphasis come from economics and, in particular, the decision sciences. While his later work centers around voting and problems from engineering, it extends to concerns from probability, statistics, and other aggregation procedures.

Time:April 28, 2000 @ 2:30 P.M
Place:Room 1202, Martin Hall
Hosts: Professors Linda Schmidt and Shapour Azarm, Department of Mechanical Engineering