After winning the Gold Medal of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in 2017, professor José Rui Figueira (Department of Engineering and Management/DEG-IST) was elected president of the International Society on MCDM. “This new position requires a lot of responsibility”, says the DEG professor. “At the same time this is very important for Técnico and for the Portuguese research community in general”, he adds. The Técnico professor will join the Executive Committee for 12 years, first as President Elected and then as Past President.
The International Society on MCDM’s aims to “develop, test, evaluate and apply methodologies for solving multiple criteria decision making problems, to foster interaction and research in the scientific field of multiple criteria decision making, and to cooperate with other organisations in the study of management from a quantitative perspective”, as underlined by professor José Rui Figueira.
In order to achieve these goals, society must promote the exchange of information between members and non-members, through the development and implementation of new techniques, methods and software, which can be achieved in different ways: international conferences, publication of scientific articles, etc. “In addition, the International Society on MCDM organises ad co-organises workshops, Summer schools and other similar activities where appropriate”, recalls the DEG professor.
Professor José Rui Figueira’s goals as president include the fulfillment of tasks defined in the statutes of the International Society on MCDM , namely “academic support whenever necessary; international conferences sponsorship for the dissemination of results; encourage special purpose workshops and student exchanges; publish the e-newsletter and encourage a friendly environment in our community around the world”.
Multicriteria decision support is an area of knowledge that uses analytic tools to support decision makers throughout the decision-making process. “Usually, the process includes four stages when we approach a real decision situation: context characterization; problem definition; using analytical tools and building robust conclusions, which includes the elaboration of a recommendation report”, explains professor José Rui Figueira. “The formulation of the problem contains three elements: the set of alternatives, the points of view, which will allow us to observe and analyse these alternatives, and the expected result,” says the professor. So, the expected result may be much more than simply choosing the best alternative. There might be “an ordering of the total set of alternatives, from best to worst, or a classification into different categories”, says the Técnico professor.
Professor José Rui Figueira devoted part of his research work to the choice problem and to the design and experimentation of algorithms for combinatorial and multicriteria problems. “Another part of my research work has been devoted to develop new methods (or to improve the existing ones) and new methodologies for ordering the total set of problems. Finally, the third part of my research, the most important, has been focused on the development of new methodologies, methods and algorithms for classification problems, including artificial intelligence and machine learning”, says the Técnico professor. Economics and management, medicine and health, energy, water resources, agriculture, urban planning and nanotechnologies were some methodologies developed by the research group led by professor José Rui Figueira.
