I-Corps: IDecideFast - A web-based application for effective decision making for the layperson

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed work will advance the field of decision making under uncertainty in several directions. (1) It will provide the first application of a variety of new research algorithms for utility and probability elicitation. (2) Chat rooms will identify common decisions faced by a broad range of individuals, and will provide direction for targeted research. (3) The information gathering phase of the platform will provide a unique forum for collecting information from different sources, and will be used for research on aggregating expert opinion and research on verifying the quality of real-life experts. (4) The collection of statistics, such as records of success rates in courts and medical surgery, will provide basis for research on aggregating expert opinion with data, and a database of conditional probabilities to be used by researchers. The proposal will enable widespread use of decision analysis and will incorporate it into daily lives of individuals. Anyone who is interested in making a decision (personal, financial, medical and bidding) will have the ability to log on to the web system and receive up to date methods for preference and belief elicitation, and interact with other decision makers facing similar decisions. The decision platform will also provide a unifying framework for experienced decision modelers to upload their templates for dissemination. Bayesian Networks will be created from users and various historic records and will be of use in a wide range of future decisions. Users will also have access to more representative models of multi-attribute utility functions for improved medical and environmental decisions. People who have faced a traumatic decision and would like to share their experience to help others will have a suitable forum.