Decision Sciences (DESC)
School of Management
If a student takes noncore, upper-level business courses before acceptance to the School of Management (SOM), those courses will not count on an undergraduate degree application for any major in SOM, except as general elective credit. A grade of C or higher must be presented on the graduation application for each upper-level course in the major. Prerequisites are strictly enforced. Degree status is defined as formal admission to SOM.
210 Statistical Analysis for Management (4:4:0) Prerequisites: C or better in MATH 108 or 113. Corequisite: MIS 102, or IT 103. Introduces application of statistical methods to support quantitative decision analysis in resolving business problems. Lecture, recitation format; requires attendance in weekly lecture and weekly recitation.
301 Operations Management (3:3:0) Prerequisite: DESC 210, and sophomore standing. Examines principal aspects of organization’s operations in various settings. Emphasizes planning and decision-making activities associated with managing operations, with focus on service operations. Uses analytical models to describe key planning and control activities.
320 Supply Chain Management and E-Business (3:3:0)Prerequisites: DESC 301, MKTG 301, and degree status. Introduces design, development, and management of supply chain systems, including production and inventory management, distribution channels, and information systems that support them. Emphasizes impact of e-business on companies and industries, including Internet’s impact on the way goods and services flow through value chain from providers to customers.
352 Methods and Models of Management Science (3:3:0)Prerequisites: DESC 301; degree status. Operation research for business management. Modeling through mathematical programming and probabilistic methods. Specific topics include linear programming, integer programming, transportation problems, goal programming, network flow models, decision theory of games, Markov processes, queuing models, and Monte Carlo simulation.
435 Simulation for Business Decision Making (3:3:0)Prerequisites: DESC 301; degree status. Introduces computer simulation of complex business systems. Topics include Monte Carlo methods, discrete-event modeling, simulation experiment design, simulation output analysis, simulation validation, and specialized simulation languages. Examples from all types of business operations. Methods demonstrated and used through computer software.
452 Business Forecasting (3:3:0) Prerequisites: DESC 301; degree status. Introduces methods for producing predictions of future business operations as aids for making planning decisions. Specific topics include judgmental forecasting, forecast accuracy, correlation analysis, smoothing methods, regression models, decomposition, and autoregressive and ARIMA models. Methods demonstrated and used through computer software.
456 Quality Management (3:3:0) Prerequisites: DESC 301, and degree status. Provides understanding of multifaceted nature of quality management by emphasizing issues such as quality philosophies, total quality management, design quality, process quality, and managing quality in information systems development. Discusses ISO 9000 and Capability Maturity Model. Uses software, case studies.
493 Management of Technology Projects (3:3:0) Prerequisites: DESC 301, and degree status. Focuses on managerial problems associated with meeting technical, cost, and time constraints of technology projects. Discusses project management areas including organization, teams, scheduling, cost control, earned value analysis, risk management, and quality. Discusses software cost estimation models. Software and case studies.
499 Independent Study in Operations Management (1-3:0:0) Prerequisites: DESC 301; degree status. By special arrangement with instructor, and approval from associate dean for undergraduate programs. Investigates business problem according to interest, using state-of-the-art decision science methodology.