Multiobjective optimization and decision making in engineering sciences

Abstract

Real-world decision making problems in various fields including engineering sciences are becoming ever more challenging to address. The consideration of various competing criteria related to, for example, business, technical, workforce, safety and environmental aspects increases the complexity of decision making and leads to problems that feature multiple competing criteria. A key challenge in such problems is the identification of the most preferred trade-off solution(s) with respect to the competing criteria. Therefore, the effective combination of data, skills, and advanced engineering and management technologies is becoming a key asset to a company urging the need to rethink how to tackle modern decision making problems. This special issue focuses on the intersection between engineering, multiple criteria decision making, multiobjective optimization, and data science. The development of new models and algorithmic methods to solve such problems is in the focus as much as the application of these concepts to real problems. This special issue was motivated by the 25th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM2019) held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2019.