Jeremy J. Michalek, Hamerschlag Hall B129

The Design Decisions Laboratory develops theories and tools to understand and assist decision-making in design and product development. The group is interested in the preferences and economics that drive design tradeoff decisions as well as the impact of those decisions on public and private stakeholders. Drawing upon research in economics, marketing, psychology, and public policy as well as engineering and design optimization, the lab pursues three primary thrust areas:

1. Provide designers with a better understanding of how diverse consumer preferences and economics affect their decisions so that designs can be optimized with business objectives, such as profitability, in mind;

2. Provide policymakers with methods to identify and predict probable market design responses to regulation and identify potential impacts on producers, users, society, and the environment; and

3. Develop fundamental theory and mathematical algorithms with application to systems, design, and the above objectives

Direct link to the lab homepage is at http://www.cmu.edu/me/ddl/.