On April 28, 2025, Professor Jian-Bo Yang, Chair Professor of Decision Science and Systems at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, delivered the 214th Yangtze Forum Lecture at Wuhan University. Titled "MAKER-Principled Data Analysis, Reasoning, Learning and Decisioning", the event was hosted by Wuhan University and organized by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Economics and Management. Attendees included faculty members (Professors Xu Minghui, Li Yongquan, Yang Yongge) and students, with opening remarks by Vice Dean Huang Minxue and moderation by Professor Wang Xianjia.

Key Lecture Insights

1. MAKER Framework Introduction:

• Critiqued limitations of Bayesian inference (e.g., prior probability challenges, multi-source evidence integration) and proposed MAKER (MAximum Likelihood Evidential Reasoning) as a novel solution.

• Demonstrated MAKER's superiority in financial risk assessment, medical diagnosis, and engineering optimization through real-world cases.

2. Technical Demonstration:

• Illustrated MAKER's implementation steps, showcasing its application in medical diagnostics to improve accuracy via multi-source data fusion.

3. Interactive Discussion:

• Addressed audience questions on technical nuances, comparative advantages over traditional methods, and cross-disciplinary applications.

Speaker Profile: Professor Jian-Bo Yang

• Position: Chair Professor, Decision and System Science, Alliance Manchester Business School

• Research Focus:

• Theoretical: Evidence Reasoning (ER), explainable AI (XAI), hybrid decision-making systems

• Applied: Finance, healthcare, consumer behavior, risk modeling (70+ projects, 280+ publications)

• Impact: Developed widely-used decision-support software packages with global adoption.

(Correspondent: Yanzhang Lu | Reviewer: Minxue Huang)