On June 10th, the 18th International Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation，GDN2018, hosted by Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), opened at the Marriott Jiangning Jingfeng Hotel in Nanjing. The conference was hosted by the International Association for Operation Research and Management Sciences and was held in Asia for the first time this year. The conference was co-organized by Institute of group decision-making branch of Operation Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) and NUAA, and hosted by the College of Economics and Management of NUAA.
 

     Professor Xu Haiyan from the College of Economics and Management of NUAA, as the chairman of the program committee of this conference, presided over the opening ceremony. Nie Hong, President of NUAA attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. President Nie first introduced the development of NUAA in recent years. On behalf of NUAA, he extended a warm welcome to the participating scholars and expressed congratulations on the opening of the GDN2018 International Conference.

President Nie Hong delivers a speech.

Prof. Xu Haiyan of the College of Economics and Management of NUAA presides over the opening ceremony.

      
     Prof. Gregory e. Kersten, President of GDN2018 International Conference, attends the opening ceremony and delivers a welcome speech. Prof. Kersten introduces the basic situation of the conference by combining the development status of operation research and management sciences in China and Nanjing, he expresses his warm welcome to all the experts and scholars attending the conference and wishes the conference a smooth start.

Prof. Gregory e. Kersten delivers a speech

     At the opening ceremony, Keith Hipel – an academician and the former president of the Canadian Royal Academy of Sciences, a foreign academician of the National Academy of Engineering, a professor of the University of Waterloo, Professor Gregory E. Kersten – the president of the GDN2018 International Conference, and Professor Shi Daning – the vice president of NUAA, respectively, presided over the lectures of Academician Zhang Jie -- the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Roman Slowinski -- the chief editor of EJOR, and Professor Huang Haijun -- the vice president of BUAA.

Prof. Keith Hipel (a professor of University of Waterloo) & ZhangJie (an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Prof. Gregory E. Kersten (the Chairman of GDN2018 International Conference) & Academician Roman Slowinski (the chief editor of EJOR)

Prof. Shi Daning (Vice President of NUAA) & Prof. Huang Haijun (Vice President of BUAA)

      
     Zhang Jie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced the achievements and prospects of China's scientific and technological innovation in recent years to the Chinese and foreign scholars. He also said that in the new era of China's development, the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity requires a scientific decision support system. Group decision and negotiation and related disciplines have highlighted an increasingly important supporting role. In addition, in the future, in the face of major global economic and social challenges such as climate warming and environmental protection, group decision and negotiation organizations will show broader application prospects. “GDN is held in China. On the one hand, it is very important for China. On the other hand, it is also an excellent opportunity to enhance understanding and promote cooperation.”

ZhangJie (academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) makes a speech

      
     Prof. Roman Slowinski introduced how to use constructive preference learning for related research in multi-attribute decision-making assistance. Starting from the challenge of the problem, he described the role of decision support, the dimensions of decision support, and the refinement of decision information, and elaborates robust ordinal regression and random ordinal regression for solving group decision problems effectively.

Prof. Roman Słowiński (the chief editor of EJOR) makes a speech

      
     Huang Haijun, Vice President of BUAA, gave a keynote report on the group decision of commuter path in the transportation network. Ordinary people will go through the path selection problem every day when they go to work; each traveler will selfishly choose the path that is optimal for him. By modeling analysis, the relationship between Nash equilibrium and system optimality is discussed. And Huang further introduced the relevant research under the circumstances that travelers have different preferences and dynamic randomness.

Prof. Huang Haijun (Vice President of BUAA) makes a speech

    “Group decision is a kind of decision-making that concentrates the wisdom of members of the group and coordinates the interests of the individual in the group. The content of this meeting involves the group decision and negotiation of many subjects such as society and environmental system, and how to make group decision and form a reasonable action strategy.” Prof. Keith Hipel said. He has deep roots with China. Since the 1980s, he has maintained frequent contacts with many famous scholars of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has made many contributions to the Chinese scientific community. As the main initiator and important member of the GDN conference, he hopes to see more Chinese research results in the Nanjing GDN conference and build a more multilateral platform for academic exchanges.

 Prof. Keith Hipel makes a speech

      
     The conference lasted five days and opened 23 topics, including conflict analysis, complex system design, fuzzy decision making, grey systems, energy evaluation and financial investment decisions. The discussion at venues invited leading experts and scholars from the fields at home and abroad to co-chair. The guests present at the conference have many authoritative experts from the academic fields at home and abroad, and also invited the former chairman and current chairman of GDN. The domestic scholars included the Party Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Zhang Jie, Cheung Kong Scholar, the winner of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Professor Chen Jian of Tsinghua University, and the vice president of BUAA, Professor Huang Haijun, and other well-known experts and scholars. They all brought academic innovations and academic frontier information to showcase a highly international, academic, and Chinese-inspired academic feast.

     With the development of management science engineering, the deepening of decision theory, intelligent decision-making and behavioral decision-making research, as well as the continuous expansion of decision-making applications, the demands of international cooperation, communication and interaction have become stronger and stronger. This international conference tried to solve the main problems of group decision theory and related application fields, and further demonstrated the research results of management science and engineering and decision theory to the international academic community, in order to expand China's international influence, and build a communication platform for the academic community.

Group photo taken by participants of the 18th International Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation