Management Science and Engineering

October 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to 2024-25

The new academic year is here! Students are finding their first classes of the quarter, and campus is reinvigorated with the spirit of inquiry and wonder. In this newsletter, you'll get to meet some of the people who make up the vibrant MS&E community and learn what our researchers have been working on.

In this issue: Community & research

• Meet our students
• Where our graduates go
• The latest research

Explore articles, podcasts, and more in this issue of the MS&E Newsletter.

Our lead story: New beginnings

portrait photos of faculty, students, and alums

Six graduates share their stories on MS&E's podcast (left to right: Yeganeh Ali Mohammadi, Josh Grossman, Daniela Rendon, Belle Battistoni, Nathan Lam, Shreyas Lakhtakia) | Image by GradImages

As they prepared to leave MS&E and begin a new phase in their careers, we caught up with six graduates to chat about their experiences at Stanford and where they'll go after graduation. In true MS&E fashion, each interview is unique and tailored to the student, and each person connects their story to MS&E in their own way. Listen to the interviews on our podcast, Stanford MS&E: Stories & Voices ( Spotify, Apple, YouTube).

Meet our incoming students

Incoming PhD students share their stories as they begin their MS&E careers | Images submitted by the students

Another group experiencing new beginnings is our incoming students. MS&E extends a warm welcome to all of our students, and we chatted with some of our newest PhD students as they arrived on campus. We asked about their backgrounds, research interests, and favorite hobbies (quite a few musicians!). Get to know them here.

We also welcome two new fellows to MS&E: April Burrage joins us as part of the IDEAL Provostial Fellows program, and Cong Chen joins the Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship program as a co-advisee of professor Itai Ashlagi.

NEW EMPLOYMENT DATA

Where our graduates go

Over the past few years, faculty have noticed our students are hungry to learn more about financial engineering, and the updated MS&E employment report reflects that interest. Learn where our grads go after Stanford and where they interned along the way.

EVENT UPDATES

Alumni engaged in discussions at a past MS&E Reunion event | Image by Jennifer Sitter

Reunion Homecoming

As part of Reunion Homecoming, MS&E will host a table at the Stanford Engineering alumni reception event. Come chat with fellow alums from MS&E, our legacy departments, and SOE while enjoying some refreshments. Open to those registered for Reunion Homecoming.

Friday, October 25, 4:30-6:00pm.
Huang Engineering Center lower level foyer, outside NVIDIA Auditorium.
Registration required.

2024 GSB Asian Leadership Conference

MS&E alums are invited to the conference, which features speakers and panelists centered on the theme "Building Momentum Together" to capture the current rise in solidarity and prominence of Asians across global society.

Saturday, November 16, 8:00am-7:00pm.
Graduate School of Business Knight Management Center.
Registration required.

MS&E's 25th Anniversary

Save the date for May 1-2, 2025! To celebrate the 25th anniversary of MS&E's formation, we're planning a two-day event for our alumni. You'll be able to reminisce about the department's history, learn about the cutting-edge research happening now, and discuss the future of the department. More details to come soon, but for now, mark your calendars!

Thursday-Friday, May 1-2, 2025.
Stanford campus.

SPONSOR AN MS&E SENIOR PROJECT

A group of four students represents a senior project team

Sponsors needed

Each year, students get valuable experience solving real-world problems as part of their senior projects, and their sponsor organizations get free access to our students' consulting work, with help from faculty advisors.

Does your organization have a project that might benefit from our students' help? Contact Prof. Riitta Katila by the end of November to learn more.

LIVES LIVED

Bob Maxfield

Known as the "M" in ROLM Corporation and as a dedicated Consulting Professor in MS&E and EES-OR from 1991-2007, Bob Maxfield passed away in August at the age of 82. He served as a mentor to many of our PhD students, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Harvard Business School in 1980.

Read professor Maxfield's obituary here.

THE LATEST MS&E RESEARCH

The 2024 REU cohort | Image by Angela Lee

During the last week of summer quarter, participants in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program presented their work on campus. Learn about REU, including details about two of this year's research projects.

AI & Data Science

AI is increasing productivity, but it's also challenging traditional power structures at work, says professor Arvind Karunakaran on an episode of Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything.
How are the latest iterations of AI changing trading in capital markets? Professor Markus Pelger says AI can generate large investment gains if used right, but to do so requires industry knowledge.
Struggling to lead AI adoption in your organization? New research by alum Rebecca Hinds (PhD '22, MS '14, BS '13) finds that pre-existing beliefs about AI can be changed, but only under certain circumstances.

Informing Policy Decisions

Do investors favor or shy away from pitches that signal a startup's sustainability efforts? And, if you want to get the most out of your climate activism, where should you focus your efforts? MS&E researchers investigate the answers.
In 2022, adjunct professor David Scheinker joined the Relentless Health Value podcast to discuss how to cut healthcare administrative costs in half. Two years later, his episode is featured as an encore, because (spoiler alert) the industry hasn't been taking his advice.
Cyber attackers have developed tools to automatically scan the global public cloud infrastructure to look for hacking opportunities. To combat these threats, alum Greg Heon (PhD '18) offers practical suggestions on how to reduce your attack surface.

The Future of Organizing

Pamela Hinds is the first faculty member featured on our podcast, Stanford MS&E: Stories & Voices, and it seems only fitting to start with a leader in the department. Professor Hinds shares stories from her journey to Stanford, and how her research in management informs her role as the Fortinet Founders Chair of MS&E.
In order for entrepreneurs to thrive on the African continent, entrepreneurial support organizations must offer long-term services. Former postdoctoral scholar Tim Weiss introduced the concept of "pacers" to help, based on work he started with help from Stanford SEED.

Please support MS&E here

Connect with the MS&E community

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

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