Combined Multi-criteria Selection of Laptops for Distant Education: Criteria Weighting with AHP and Entropy/Hierarchy in TOPSIS

This paper presents a combined approach based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the objective weighting of criteria with Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) for selecting laptop computers. The grouping of evaluation criteria allows decomposing the subjective professional opinions of experts. Effective data-driven methods based on novel hierarchy concepts are introduced as a supplement to the traditional entropy. The case study is based on a real and recent dataset for 11 criteria and 12 alternatives from 4 major manufacturers of personal computers (PC) with a simulation of mass users' preferences.