History

Multicriteria Decision Aid has been among the most rapidly growing areas of Operation Research for the last thirty years, both from the point of view of theoretical developments and of practical applications. This evolution is explained by the fact that scientists and practitioners have realised that most real world decision-making problems inevitably require the presence of multiple points of view (criteria), conflicting in nature, in order to achieve a correct formulation which corresponds better to the real world. Problem resolution is not linked anymore to an optimal solution but to several criterion satisfactory solutions to be negociated through compromises and trade-offs.

Several models and algorithms have been proposed by researchers on both sides of the Atlantic, as an approach to various types of multicriteria problems. In North America, the multi-attribute approach based on utility theory has been developed which postulate a single aggregation criterion. In Europe, the non compensatory outranking approach has been developed. Simultaneously, the development of computer technology, particularly in microcomputers, has made possible the implementation and extension of multiple criteria methods, which has resulted in increasingly widespread practical applications in private and public organizations, in industry and commerce, in planning and management, in banking and agriculture, in regional and environmental planning, etc.

With the purpose of promoting the diffusion of the potentialities of multicriteria models as valuable supporting instruments in decision-making, a group of well known North American and European scientists decided to promote, gradually, the International Summer School on Multicriteria Decision Aid: Methods, Applications and Software.

Summer Schools were successively organized by universities having an international visibility:

  • 2010 Ecole Centrale Paris, France (V. Mousseau)
  • 2006, Taiwan, Taiwan (Po-Lung Yu)
  • 2003, Québec city, Canada (J.Ph. Waubb)
  • 2000, Catania, Italy (B. Matarazzo and S. Greco)
  • 1997, in Turku, Finland (M. Brännback)
  • 1994, in Chania, Crete (J. Siskos)
  • 1991, in Québec City, Canada (J.-M. Martel)
  • 1988, in Lisbon, Portugal (Bana E. Costa)
  • 1985, in Namur, Belgium (J.Fichevet and Ph. Vincke)
  • 1983, in Catania, Sicily, Italy (B. Matarazzo and J. Spronk)