First, we present an overview of Zadeh’s fuzzy sets theory, notably the concepts of a fuzzy set, fuzzy relation, etc. We mention basic set theoretic, algebraic, etc. operations. We present an overview of Zadeh’s linguistic approach to the analysis of systems that includes linguistic variables, fuzzy conditional statements, the conditional rule of inference, and fuzzy algorithms. Then, we outline Zadeh’s paradigm of computing with words and perceptions assuming both a logical and systems analytic perspective. We mention relations to some elements of natural language, notably modalities. Our discussion will be illustrated with examples of applications in decision analysis, data analysis and data mining.

Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk:

Janis Kacprzyk has received the M.Sc. in computer science and automatic control, the Ph.D. in systems analysis, and the D.Sc. in computer science. He is Full Professor since 1997 and Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences since 2002. He has been since 1970 with the Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, currently as Professor and Vice-chaorman of the Scientific Council.
Professor Kacprzyk has been Visiting professor at University of North Carolina, University of Tennessee, Iona College, University of Trento, and Nottingham Trent University, and is. Honorary Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Yli Normal University, Chengdu, China. His research interests include soft computing, fuzzy logic and computing with words, notably for data analysis and data mining, decision making, optimization, control, database querying, information retrieval.
From June, 2007 he is President of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA). Professor Kacprzyk is Fellow of IEEE and IFSA. He has received of numerous awards, notably the 2005 IEEE CIS Pioneer Award for seminal works on multistage fuzzy control, notably fuzzy dynamic programming, and The 6th Kaufamann Award and Gold Medal for pioneering works on fuzzy logic in economics and management.
He is the editor in chief of three Springer’s book series: “Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing”, “Advances in Soft Computing”, “Studies in Computational Intelligence”, and a co-editor of Springer’s Complexity series, and is on editorial boards of 20 journals. He has been a member of the International Program Committees at more than 200 conferences.
Professor Kacprzyk is the author of 5 books, (co)editor of more than 30 volumes, (co)author of 300 papers.