Management Science and Engineering

Autumn 2022 Newsletter

Our lead story: Togetherness on campus

Reunion events return to campus | Image by Jessica Meno

MS&E Reunion returns Saturday, October 22

As the fresh academic year begins, Stanford is once again filled with a sense of togetherness. Students bike to and from classes, instructors hold lectures and discussions, and the Stanford community mingles in iconic campus spaces. And, in a few short weeks, thousands of former classmates will return to campus for Reunion Homecoming weekend.

MS&E welcomes graduates from all class years—and all legacy departments—to the MS&E Reunion event on October 22, 2022. The event will feature lectures and Q&A with MS&E faculty, a panel session moderated by Fortinet Founders Chair Pamela Hinds, and a networking brunch to follow. We can hardly wait to welcome you back to campus— get your tickets today!

For those far from Stanford who cannot attend in person, the lectures and panel session will be livestreamed, and a recording will be made available for a short time after the event. If you won’t make it in person, register for the live Zoom webinar here.

We welcome new faces

MS&E added five new faculty members this year: Arvind Karunakaran, Ellen Vitercik, Madeleine Udell, and Vasilis Syrgkanis start teaching this fall, and Alicia Sheares will start in fall 2023 after completing a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA. We asked the 2022 cohort about their current work and why MS&E is the right fit for what they hope to accomplish.

Five new faculty members join MS&E this year | Images courtesy of MS&E

We also had the opportunity to catch up with some of our incoming PhD students as they arrived on campus. They shared what brought them to MS&E and what they hope to achieve through their work. Get to know them here.

Incoming PhD students come from a diverse array of backgrounds | Images courtesy of MS&E

And say bittersweet goodbyes

Welcoming new students also means saying farewell to recent graduates. As part of our podcast series, Stanford MS&E: Stories & Voices, we chatted with five grads as the 2021-22 academic year came to a close. Hear what MS&E meant to them and where they’re going after graduation.

Graduates begin a wide variety of impactful careers | Images courtesy of MS&E

EMPLOYMENT REPORT

THE LATEST IN MS&E

The MS&E Undergraduate Diversity in Research program completed its second year | Images courtesy of MS&E

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I)

• Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to encourage interest in STEM graduate programs and careers. We chatted with three participants in the MS&E Undergraduate Diversity in Research program to learn about its impact on students.
  
  
• The MS&E DE&I committee published its annual report on progress toward making MS&E an inclusive place where students, faculty, and staff of any background can feel like they belong.

Ideas that inspire

• The Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders speaker series returns Wednesdays starting 10/5 with Microsoft Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie. Check out the lineup and mark your calendars for the upcoming fall series.
  
  
• Prof. Robert Sutton, along with longtime collaborator and Stanford Graduate School of Business Prof. Huggy Rao, explores how change-makers are changing their organizations for the better. Learn more and register for the free monthly webinar series. Separately, Prof. Sutton makes a case for subtraction as a leadership strategy in The Wall Street Journal.
  

Student work

• Computer scientists can now solve a decades-old problem in practically the time it takes to write it down. Yang Liu, a Stanford PhD student advised by MS&E Prof. Aaron Sidford, co-authored the pioneering paper.
  
  
• From frustrated students to startup co-founders: Two Stanford undergraduates share how their experience in an MS&E course inspired them to connect startup founders with a peer network.

AWARDS AND HONORS

MS&E faculty

• Prof. Arvind Karunakaran won multiple awards from the Industry Studies Association and American Sociological Association.
  
  
• Profs. Irene Lo and Itai Ashlagi are among principal investigators on the Equitable Education Access in San Francisco research project sponsored by Stanford Impact Labs.
  
  
• Prof. Aaron Sidford received the Best Paper Award at the 2022 Conference on Learning Theory.
  
  
• Prof. Johan Ugander will pursue better machine learning algorithms with an NSF CAREER award.
  
  
• Profs. Ramesh Johari and Johan Ugander are among principal investigators on several new research projects sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
  
  
• Prof. Riitta Katila was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management. She also was named to the 2022 Tau Beta Pi Teaching Honor Roll.
  
  
• Prof. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell received a 2022 Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology Leadership in Technology Management Award.
  
  
• Prof. Benjamin Van Roy and alumnus Daniel Russo (PhD ’15) won the Lanchester Prize from INFORMS.

MS&E students and alumni

• PhD alumni recently received several academic awards and accolades; one was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management.
  
  
• Michael Fairley (PhD ’21), Prof. Margaret Brandeau, and collaborators from across Stanford and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System received the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Paper of the Year Award from the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center.
  
  
• PhD student Ryan Stice-Lusvardi, along with Profs. Pamela Hinds and Melissa Valentine, received the 2022 Best Paper Award in the Communication, Digital Technology, and Organization Division of the Academy of Management.
  
  
• Master’s student Temiloluwa Bolodeoku was selected as Stanford’s 2022 Baccalaureate speaker. Video of his speech is included in this article.
  
  
• Master’s student Patrick Fields was one of 22 football players named to the national 2022 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team for community service.
  
  
• Master’s student Adam Nayak won Stanford’s J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for his leadership and volunteer activities.
  
  
• Master’s student Claire L. Rosenfeld won Stanford’s Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for her distinctive and exceptional contributions to undergraduate education.
  
  
• Master’s student Julia Heymach and senior Devin Hart earned All-Academic honors from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
  
  
• Master’s student Morgan Hoang and senior Eve Micco were named 2021-22 Scholastic All-Americans by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association.
  
  
• Senior Chinemere Uche was among the speakers at this year's Convocation. Read a transcript of his speech.
  
  
• Junior Megan Peterson earned All-Academic honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches.

Management Science & Engineering
Stanford School of Engineering
475 Via Ortega MC 4026
Stanford, California 94305
[email protected]