Projects

I am involved, in projects that educate or help improve the ability to predict what will happen based on past decisions. Here is a running list of such projects.

  • The first step was to create a deterministic theory of dynamic decision processes as an extension of the Theory of Games (Von Neumann and Morgenstern). This was (volume 1 of) Geometry, Language and Strategy, Thomas, 2006, World Scientific (New York). This project was created with the support of the Wolfram Technology Team.
  • The next step was to create a text-book for decision processes which started as a series of white papers on this site.  The published version is Geometry, Language and Strategy–Vol. 2, Dynamics of Decision Processes, (World Scientific, 2017). This project was done with the support of the Wolfram Technology Author Program.
  • To publicize these ideas, an introductory talk on decision process theory was given in 2011 to graduate students in math at the University of Illinois. An updated version was given in the 2011 Wolfram Technology Conference Talk at Champagne, Urbana.
  • A comprehensive summary of progress made was given at the 2012 Wolfram Technology Conference.
  • During 2013, I investigated chaotic behaviors in decision-making. The results of the investigations were presented at the 2013 Wolfram Technology Conference. I also taught a course at MSOE on a quantitative approach to artificial intelligence that presented some of the core ideas of decision process theory using the Wolfram Language.
  • I focused on visual characteristics of decision process theory in 2014, summarizing the results at the 2014 Wolfram Technology Conference. I made great progress in understanding the connection of stationary harmonic solutions in decision process theory and their connection to AC circuits in electrical engineering.
  • In 2015, I gave an invited lecture at North Western on Systems Dynamics.
  • In 2015, I gave an invited lecture to graduate students at the “Quantum Topology Seminar” at the University of Illinois on visualizing behaviors in differential geometry. A version of this talk was given at the 2015 Wolfram Technology Conference.
  • I presented a course on Computational Engineering at MSOE in the Spring Quarter of 2016. I have had help and advice from Stephen Wolfram. Computational Engineering is a general construct that is an essential ingredient to an engineering approach to decision-making. As such, it is an essential ingredient for any student of decision process theory.
  • At the Wolfram Mathematica Conference at Carthage College, August 17, 2016, led a breakout session on Computer Science, Engineering and Physics. This was facilitated by my experiences teaching the Computational Engineering course in the Spring quarter at MSOE. Attached is an outline for the session as a Mathematica notebook.
  • At the 2016 Wolfram Technology Conference, I presented the attached talk on “Experiences teaching computational engineering with applications to advanced decision-making“. The talk is in two parts, the second part of which is also attached. Both are CDF files.
  • The next major step was a two-volume book issued by Wolfram Media, A Field Theory of Games: Introduction to Decision Process Engineering, Vols. 1-2, (2021 and 2023) along with notebooks for each chapter. The main advance was to create a toolkit that can be used for the field theory of games computations. I am currently working on a WolframU course based on these books (2024).