The Center for Decision Sciences has dual educational and research purposes: to provide cross-training to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in aspects of decision sciences that they are not exposed to in their home disciplines; and to bring together researchers from different departments and schools to work on research issues that require cross-disciplinary expertise.
The interests of the CDS core organizers have grown and continue to grow over time. Much like a puzzle, the interests come together to build a bigger picture.
Foci extend well beyond the interests of the core organizers, including but not limited to statistical decision theory, the micro-foundations of comparative justice systems, rational expectations in economics and political science, technological change and the restructuring of decision processes, and the impact of probabilistic forecasts (for example, climate variability) on decision algorithms. CDS will provide assistance of various sorts to researchers, including advice on research design, data acquisition, and data analysis.
The influence of the research conducted at CDS has extended beyond the academic community to have real world impact.
The Center for Decision Sciences sister lab, The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions researches how people make decisions which are environmental in nature. For instance they research how consumers respond to engergy efficiency and the impacts of choice architecture on vehicle purchasing.