The Gralla Lab studies decision-making in real-world contexts. We use methods from systems engineering, operations research, and management to develop better decision-making tools and strategies. We aim to work closely with organizations, bringing sophisticated techniques to bear on real-world problems, and developing solutions that can be deployed in practice.
To that end, we develop models and decision support tools that account for challenging contexts like disaster response and global health. Theoretically, our work investigates the interplay between system operations, system structure, and the people and organizations that make up the system.
Our key research topics include:
- Supply chain, operations, and information management
- System modeling and system mapping
- Humans, organizations, and decision-making
Our main application areas are:
- Disaster response and humanitarian aid
- International development
- Global health
- System design and operation
The lab is directed by Erica Gralla, Associate Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at the George Washington University. To learn more about our work, please read about a selection of our projects, skim our publications, or check out our recent news.