Dr. Alexander Yemelyanov Receives U.S. Patent for Express Decision Application

by Jackson Carlstrom, Editor-In-Chief

Since the 90’s, Dr. Alexander Yemelyanov, computer science professor at Georgia Southwestern State University, has been working on creating his own web application entitled Express Decision, a tool designed to assist with decision making. This year, Dr. Yemelyanov reached an important milestone with Express Decision: he was awarded a U.S. Patent from the government. This makes Dr. Yemelyanov the first GSW employee to receive a U.S. patent, and one of less than 60 people from Americus to receive a U.S. patent.

“Express Decision is a web app designed to support an individual in quickly making difficult decisions under uncertainty,” Dr. Yemelyanov said, talking about the purpose of his web application. “These difficult decisions are emotionally driven and typically solved by using rational intuition. Express Decision implements the Performance Evaluation Process, which uses the self-regulation model of thinking activity. This makes Express Decision behaviorally comparable to its user, which increases the likelihood that its decision advice will be accepted by the user.”

Since taking on this project in the 90’s, Dr. Yemelyanov has published more than 20 research publications and has presented his work at several different research conferences. “My main inspiration behind starting this project was my father, Mihhail Kotik, Tartu University professor and one of the leading engineering psychologists in the field of activity safety,” Dr. Yemelyanov said. “He was a teacher and adviser to me. Together we collaborated on three monographs, as well as several research publications.”

Dr. Alexander Yemelyanov with his U.S. Patent Certificate.

Photo by University Relations.

Dr. Yemelyanov has implemented Express Decision into several of the computer science courses that he teaches. “So far, Express Decision has been integrated into GSW’s curriculum through various undergraduate assignments and several graduate research projects in the courses Decision Support Systems, Intelligent Systems, and Human-Computer Interaction,” Dr. Yemelyanov said. Three of my graduate students also wrote their theses on the topic, and two of those students collaborated on three different academic journal publications with me.”

Now that Express Decision is patented by the government, Dr. Yemelyanov’s ownership of his invention is legally protected. “The biggest advantage of this patent is that it protects my invention from any infringement,” Dr. Yemelyanov said. “Currently, I have no concrete plans to commercialize my invention, but at the same time, I do find it valuable that my idea will be protected through licensing for all future use. I also think this provides me more flexibility and opportunity to potentially expand upon my project in the future.”

Gaynor Cheokas, dean of the College of Business and Computing, recently talked about Dr. Yemelyanov’s patent on Georgia Southwestern’s website. “We are extremely proud of Dr. Yemelyanov’s accomplishment,” Cheokas said. “His work inspires others, students and faculty alike, to become better members of our community. In the words of John Quincy Adams, ‘to dream more, learn more, do more and become more…’ is key to our mission in the College of Business and Computing.”

Express Decision is still currently in a prototype phase. Once it is fully complete, it will be accessible through both desktop and mobile platforms, including smartphones and tablets.