Webinar on ‘Heuristic and Biases’ organised

KATHMANDU, July 6: Advanced College of Engineering and Management (acem) organized a webinar on ‘Cognitive Biases in Decision Making’ in collaboration with Professor Dr Ori Orhof, an Industrial and Management Engineer, Project Manager, and Professor of Technion University, Israel. 

On the occasion, Ambassador of Israel to Nepal, Mr Honan Goder expressed his gratitude to the acem family and also voiced hope with the declining cases regarding the second wave of pandemic in Nepal. He stated that the topic of ‘Heuristic and Biases’ is indeed very useful for any individual to solve the errors of daily practice in order to avoid indecisiveness or a more severe cases.

Nepali Ambassador to Israel, Dr Anjan Shakya, said that informative events of this kind help to enlighten not just the students but also the overall participants. Moreover, she also highlighted the bilateral relationship between Israel and Nepal. “We are proud to announce that Israel and Nepal have successfully signed several Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) including the one to establish an Agricultural Center of Excellence in Nepal. Certainly the bond of these two nations will strengthen in the coming days as well,” Dr Shakya stated.

Professor Dr Ori Orhof was the main speaker of the webinar. He emphasized the different categories of Cognitive Biases, focusing on how an individual is trapped due to their own calculation on decision making. He claimed that the first step toward overcoming cognitive biases is to acknowledge that we have them. 

According to Professor Dr Ori, sometimes, even the most sophisticated thinkers fall prey to their own cognitive biases, so every individual should be careful in this regard. 
"Hence, a person should utilize a right manner of thoughts that can help balance out our own irrational tendencies," he reminded. In order to clarify more on this topic, Professor Dr Ori added istructive videos and lectures of diverse scholars of Israel like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Nathan Tversky who researched on anomalies and contradictions of human behaviours especially on decision making. Daniel Kanheman was also awarded with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002.

Executive Director of acem, Kapil Dev Regmi welcomed the speaker, special guests, and acem family with warm regards for their contribution in this webinar. He expressed his delight as well as cherished the flourishing ties of Nepal and Israel. Regmi also invited Professor Dr Ori for his next visit to Nepal. “Professor Dr. Ori Orhof’s session never fails to leave an impact upon us. Looking forward to another enlightening session,” he shared.

Principal of acem, Er Lochan Lal Amatya concluded the webinar with admiring remarks of Professor Dr. Ori’s session. He asserted this educational webinar of Cognitive Bias will undoubtedly help the students from making any faulty decisions and also understand the results of human actions especially in engineering. Er. Amatya also shared his experience on learning Cognitive Biases in Engineering. “Hopefully, we will all learn on how to make the right decisions at the right time,” Principal Amatya expressed. 

The webinar witnessed an enthusiastic participation of acem’s faculties, staff, and students.