Intelligent Decision Support - Intelligente Entscheidungsunterstützung

For several decades research on intelligent techniques for decision-making has represented a particular challenge, originally taken up using modest hardware equipment, which we today would consider to be extremely weak. From earliest times onwards research which was concerned with the theory and practical concerns of decisions was advanced simultaneously in the fields of information technology, mathematics, operations research and business studies. The decision-oriented research streams within these d- ciplines only grew together as the years passed. Cross-discipline work from the field of business information technology, which served as a 'me- ing pot', especially contributed to this development. For more than three decades Hermann Gehring has worked in this field, both as a scientist and as a teacher, in order to advance, research and develop methods for the solution of problem situations which require intelligent techniques to s- port decision-making. He was particularly open as an interdisciplinary researcher towards modern methods which merged from various fields, actively working on the trend towards hybrid approaches for techniques in decision-making. On the methodical level Hermann Gehring was one of the first to see the potential of parallel processing and, long before the technological conditions were fulfilled, propagated its use for the solution of business decision problems. Two areas of application important for the scientific work of Hermann Gehring should be mentioned in particular. These are cutting and packing problems and transport planning.