Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Ali Abbas.
Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Ali Abbas has been recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as a Systems Council Distinguished Lecturer for 2024 – 2026.
IEEE distinguished lecturers in systems engineering are selected as subject matter experts who promote the field of systems engineering to the scientific community and the public at large. Distinguished lecturers present their work to IEEE and Systems Council chapters, sections and other venues such as universities and companies.
An international expert whose work spans ethical decision analysis, risk analysis, multiattribute utility theory, and data-based decision-making, Abbas was recognized with the distinguished lectureship for his work, “Ethical Decision Quality: Building an Ethical Decision Culture in Systems Enterprises.”
The lecture presented by Abbas has been divided into four parts:
- How do you assess the ethical quality of a decision?
- What are the common impediments to ethical decision quality in an organization?
- What are the common managerial actions that impede ethical decision quality?
- How do you build an organization’s ethical decision culture?
The lecture addresses these questions by examining ethical collapses in systems engineering enterprises including Enron, Theranos, FTX, VW, and others, outlining the common patterns that were compromised before a collapse
A professor in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Abbas also holds a joint appointment in the USC Price School of Public Policy. He has served as the Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision-Making, and the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE).
Before joining USC in 2014, Abbas was the Art Davis Faculty Scholar in the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to his time at the University of Illinois, Abbas was a lecturer in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering, Ph.D. minor in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Engineering Economic Systems and Operations Research, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering.
Abbas has authored numerous books including “Foundations of Multiattribute Utility” by Cambridge University Press, Co-author of “Foundations of Decision Analysis” with Ronald Howard at Stanford University, and “Ethical Decision Quality: Building an Ethical Decision Culture”. He is also editor of numerous books including Books “Improving Homeland Security Decisions” and “Next-Generation Ethics” by Cambridge University Press.
Published on February 7th, 2025
Last updated on February 7th, 2025
