Pitt Business: Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business & College of Business Administration

Luis Vargas

Professor of Business Administration

Office: 314 Mervis Hall
Phone: 412-648-1575
E-mail: lgvargas@pitt.edu, vargas@katz.pitt.edu

Degrees

PhD in Mathematics, University of Sevilla (Spain)
PhD in Social Systems Sciences, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Courses Recently Taught

PhD: Stochastic Processes, Graph Theory, Advanced Topics in AI
MBA: Statistical Analysis, Uncertainty, Prediction and Quality Control, Decision Technologies, Expert and Knowledge Based Systems

Interest Groups

Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management

Profile

Luis Vargas was the recipient of the Juan March Foundation Scholarship, Madrid, Spain, to the University of Pennsylvania in 1976–78. He won the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business in 1984. He was the coordinator of the Quantitative Interest Group from 1987 to 1991; the coordinator of the Artificial Intelligence Interest Group from 1991 to 1994; and chair of the Second International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, held in Pittsburgh August 11–14, 1991, at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business.

Luis Vargas has focused his research on decision theory, practical applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), artificial intelligence in manufacturing, the use of artificial intelligence techniques for scheduling, measurement of resource utilization, group decision making, Bayesian networks, and forecasting.

Recent Publications

Books

Economic, Political, Social & Technological Applications Of The Analytic Network Process (ANP): Benefits, Opportunities, Costs And Risks, with Thomas L. Saaty. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006.

Models, Methods, Concepts and Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, with Thomas L. Saaty. Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.

Articles

"An Optimization-based Approach for the Design of Bayesian Networks," with A.M. Martinez-Rodriguez and J.H. May, Mathematical and Computer Modeling doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2008.01.007.

"Euclidean Centers: Computation and a MOLP Application," with A. Arbel. Mathematical and Computer Modeling (2007), doi: 10.1016/j.mcm.2007.07.009.

"The Consistency Index in Reciprocal Matrices: Comparison of Deterministic and Statistical Approaches." European Journal of Operational Research (2007), doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2007.06.054.

"Conflict Identification And Reconciliation In A Collaborative Manufacturing Scheduling Task," with C. Abreu, J.H. May and W. Spangler. Int'l J'l of Information Technology and Decision Making 7, 1 (2008) 183-197.

"Interval Judgments and Euclidean Centers," with A. Arbel. Mathematical and Computer Modeling 46, 7-8 (2007) 976-984.

"Dispersion of Group Judgments," with TL Saaty. . Mathematical and Computer Modeling 46, 7-8 (2007) 918-925.

"The Analytic Hierarchy Process: Can Wash Criteria be Ignored?" with T.L. Saaty Int'l J'l of Management and Decision Making Vol. 7, 2/3 (2006) 180-188.

"An Outpatient Segmentation Model: Estimation of Stakeholder Costs," with DP Strum. Journal of Clinical Investigative Medicine 26, 6(2005) 364-367.

"The Possibility of Group Welfare Functions," with T.L. Saaty. Int'l J'l of Information Technology and Decision Making, Vol. 4, 2 (2005) 1-10.

"Estimating Procedure Times for Surgeries by Determining Location Parameters for the Lognormal Model." Health Care Management Science 7 (2004), 97–104 (with Spangler WE, Strum DP, and May JH).

"The Allocation of Intangible Resources: The Analytic Hierarchy Process and Linear Programming," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 37, 3 (2003), 169–184 (with T.L. Saaty and K. Dellmann).

"Organizational Models of Telemedicine and Regional Telemedicine Networks," Telemedicine Journal and e-Health 8, Spring (2002), 71–79.

"Dual procedure surgeries are well modeled by the lognormal distribution." Anesthesiology, 96: A1150, 2002 (with Strum DP, May JH and Sampson AR).

"Dual procedure surgeries: factors affecting the variability of time estimates for dual procedure surgeries." Anesth Analg 96: S107, 2003 (with Strum DP and May JH).

"Coding permutations may be reduced prior to modeling of dual procedure surgeries." Anesth Analg 96: S106, 2003 (with Strum DP and May JH).

"Estimating Times of Surgeries with Two Component Procedures: Comparison of the LogNormal and Normal Modes," accepted in Anesthesiology 98, 1 (2003), 232–240 (with D.P. Strum, J.H. May, A.R. Sampson, and W.E. Spangler).

"A Data Mining Approach to Characterizing Medical Code Usage Patters," Journal of Medical Systems 26, 3 (June 2002), 255–275 (with J.H. May, W.E. Spangler, and D.P. Strum).

"Computer-based operational and decision support for surgical services," International Journal of Healthcare Technology Management, Vol. 2, Nos. 1/2/3/4 (2000), 15–36 (with May JH, Spangler W and Strum DP).

"A Minimal Cost Analysis Model for Utilization and Capacity Planning in Surgical Services," International Journal of Healthcare Technology Management, Vol. 2, Nos. 1/2/3/4 (2000), 56–70 (with J.H. May, W.E. Spangler, and D.P. Strum).

"Surgeon and Type of Anesthesia Predicts Surgical Variability and Affects the Scheduling of Surgery," Anesthesiology 92(5):1454–66, 2000 (with J.H. May, A.R. Sampson, and D.P. Strum).

"Fitting the Lognormal Distribution to Surgical Procedure Times," Decision Sciences 31, 1 (Winter 2000), 129–148 (with J.H. May and D.P. Strum).

"Computer Assisted Operational and Decision Support for Surgical Services," International Journal of Healthcare Technology Management, Vol. 1, No. 1/2, 1999 (with W.E. Spangler, D.P. Strum, L.G. Vargas).

"Individual Surgeon Variability Is a Multiplicative Function of Surgical Time," Anesthesia & Analgesia 88(2S) Supplement:48S, February 1999 (with D.P. Strum, A.R. Sampson, and J.H. May).

"Type of Anesthesia Affects the Duration and Scheduling of Surgical Procedures," Anesthesia & Analgesia 88(2S) Supplement:47S, February 1999 (with D.P. Strum, A.R. Sampson, and J.H. May).

"A Data Mining Approach to Multiple Classification," Journal of MIS, 16:1 (Summer 1999), (with J.H. May, W.E. Spangler, and D.P. Strum).

"Surgical Subspecialty Block Utilization and Capacity Planning: A Minimal Cost Analysis Model," Anesthesiology 90, 4 (1999), 1176–85 (with J.H. May and D.P. Strum).

External Service and Assignments

Elected member of the board of the Multicriteria Decision Making Society

Associate Editor, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences.

Board Member, International Journal of Mathematic and Computer Modelling.

Former Associate Editor of Operations Research.

Personal Interest

Tennis, music, and chess