Social and Decision Sciences

Social and Decision Sciences, informally known as SDS, is an academic department within the Carnegie Mellon College of Humanities and Social Sciences headquartered in Porter Hall and led by John H. Miller.

Education

The department runs highly regarded undergraduate bachelor of science programs in Decision Science and Policy and Management as well as a minor in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development. SDS is also a partner in various interdisciplinary programs at Carnegie Mellon such as the Global and International Relations program, Sociology minor, Environmental Studies program, and the Engineering Technology Innovation Management program. The graduate PhD program allows doctoral students options in Social and Decision Sciences, Behavioral Decision Research (BDR), and Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Technological Change (SETchange). All students are trained in policy analysis and research methods. The information systems program at Carnegie Mellon is closely associated with the SDS department due to the program being spun-off from the department in the late 1990s.

Research

The department's primary strength lies in interdisciplinary research, particularly in the intersection of politics and sociology with economics, psychology and human decision making. Statistics, microeconomics, rational decision theory and game theory are among the many areas of specialization. SDS faculty are very involved in interdisciplinary research throughout the university, and are drawn from fields as diverse as economics, psychology, sociology, history, management science, and political science. SDS is affiliated with several research centers:

*Center for Risk Perception and Communication
*Dynamic Decision Making Laboratory
*The Center for Behavioral Decision Research
*Social Cognition and Judgment Lab

Rankings

In 2004, the Decision Analysis Society (a division of INFORMS) gave four of five stars to the graduate program in prescriptive decision making and five stars in descriptive decision making. These two ratings tied the department for first place among decision science programs in the United States with Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Faculty

SDS is home to some of the world's top faculty in the fields of decision science, decision support systems, behavioral economics, organizational behavior, and risk analysis. Some notable faculty members have included Baruch Fischhoff, Paul Fischbeck, Robyn Dawes, George Loewenstein, Jennifer Lerner, Kathleen Carley, Steven Klepper, William Keech, Mark Kamlet, Herbert Simon, and Otto Davis. In addition the department works closely and many faculty have joint appointments with the Departments of Engineering and Public Policy, Tepper School of Business, Psychology, Heinz School, Statistics, and the Information Systems program.

External links

* [http://www.hss.cmu.edu/departments/sds/ Department of Social and Decision Sciences]
* [http://decision-analysis.society.informs.org/Activities/ActivitiesAppraisal.html Decision Science program rankings]
* [http://www.cmu.edu/esg-cat/pdf/HSS/sds.pdf Undergraduate programs and courses]