It is estimated that an average adult makes about 35,000 decisions each day. The goal of this course is to provide students the tools to think rigorously about decision-making in different contexts:

(i) Decision under objective uncertainties – in the first module we will introduce the frameworks and techniques of probabilistic & statistical thinking, which can effectively assist students making decisions in a world full of uncertainties. There will be a specific emphasis on the Bayesian techniques.

(ii) Decision under subjective cognitive biases – modern research, however, shows that people do not always behave rationally. The second module will survey some of the common cognitive biases that may cause individuals to make suboptimal decisions.

(iii) Decision with multiple players – the last module will be an introduction to game theory, the study of strategic interaction when there are multiple decision makers. Classical game types and the corresponding real-life case studies will be discussed.