My Labadmin2021-01-26T09:05:29+00:00
My “lab” is a wonderful group of students and researchers that I work with, some of whom I’m an advisor for. And although economists don’t usually have labs in the way that a neuroscientist does, we still try to promote a sense of group camaraderie – for example through lab dinners!
Interested in Joining the Lab
-Skills that make an applicant stronger include:
- Interest in innovation
- Knowledge of machine learning, computer science, electrical engineering
- Empirical analysis skills (statistics or econometrics)
- Facility with programming (e.g. R, SQL, Python, etc.)
I am currently looking for graduate students interested in working on the following topics:
- Trends in Computing: Analysis of where computer progress has come from and how it can be provided in the future (e.g. analysis of computer hardware, algorithms, alternate types of computing (quantum, optical))
- Economics of Machine Learning: Which techniques are important and why? What impacts will machine learning have for industry? Public policy? Sustainability?
Interested applicants should send me an email at neil_t@mit.edu.
Previous Lab Events
Spring 2016 – Movie characters: Michael Wahlen, Sam Zyontz, Daniel Rock, Caroline Fry, Guillaume St. Jacques, Neil Thompson
Fall 2015 – Back to the 80s: Neil Thompson, Ankur Chavda, Sam Zyontz, and Caroline Fry
Spring 2015: Jeff Kuhn, Sam Zyontz, Neil Thompson, Caroline Fry and Amn Rahman
Current Students:
Asya works as a researcher for AI Impacts. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT
Bhoomi Thakkar is a Computer Science undergraduate, currently working as Quantitative Researcher at Citigroup. Prior to this, she was a research associate at the Indian School of Business. Her research interests broadly lies in the applications of computational tools in business, policy, economics and social science, at large.
Emily is a Masters of Engineering student at MIT, where she was also an undergrad, and is completing a concentration in theoretical computer science. She is working on tracking algorithm optimality over time, as part of an effort to quantify progress in the field of computer science. Her non-academic interests include playing music with others, reading, and baking.
Fangwen is a second-year student at Wellesley College, majoring in data science.
Gabriel is a Software Engineering undergraduate at University of Brasília , Brazil. In partnership with the Ministry of Planning, he participated on research projects focused on public services digitization with the ITRAC group. He also works voluntarily during one year as a production and quality management tutor at University of Brasília. His research interests center around machine learning challenges and data analysis.
Nicholas is a Ph.D. student in political science at UCLA. His research focuses on the political economy of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, including measuring research progress and the geopolitical implications of international competition in AI development. He has also done work on the political economy of development in the postcommunist region. He received a BA in economics and Russian from the University of Pennsylvania.
Nur Ahmed is a strategy PhD candidate at Ivey Business School. He is broadly interested in innovation and industry evolution. Nur’s current work includes economics of innovation in AI, which explores the role of compute in AI research. In his dissertation, he is examining how firms are responding to the technological change known as deep learning by changing their R&D collaboration and research disclosure strategies. He tends to use the latest methods (e.g., synthetic control method) from the causal inference and NLP literature to test his hypotheses.
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Nur has a master’s degree in public policy from Central European University and an engineering degree in Computer Science from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Raghav is a Computer Science Grad Student at The University of Texas at Dallas. At Present, he is working as an Algorithms Research Intern at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab focusing on Analysis of different Algorithms’ families, and their implementations in different Programming Languages. Before joining Grad School, he was a part of Google Summer of Code Program where he developed an iOS app followed by mentorship. Outside of curriculum, he enjoys singing and is a member of UTD Choir Group.
Rebecca Wenjing Lyu is a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management and at the Initiative on the Digital Economy, MIT. Rebecca’s research focuses on the role of AI, big data, and cloud computing in innovation of firms. Another stream of research of Rebecca’s work is evaluating the contribution of immigrants (entrepreneurs, scientist, etc.) as well as their mobility. Rebecca received her Ph.D. from Tsinghua University (Business Administration).
Ph.D. Candidate; Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management
Ms. Zyontz is currently working towards her Ph.D. in the TIES group at the MIT Sloan School of Management where her research interests include intellectual property strategy, the use of knowledge and tools in follow-on innovation, and the influence of institutions in the rate and direction of innovation.
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Her projects and publications have empirically analyzed a range of topics including synthetic biology and genetic engineering, patent damage awards, business method patents, clusters of related industries, cy pres awards in class action lawsuits, arbitration, and state consumer protection acts. Before starting at Sloan, she worked with Professor Michael Porter and his team at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School on the federally sponsored U.S. Cluster Mapping Project. Ms. Zyontz has also managed a number of policy focused, large-scale empirical law and economics projects for the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University School of Law and the Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern University School of Law. Prior to her career in academia, she spent seven years working in intellectual property litigation and valuation consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP and Navigant Consulting, Inc. Ms. Zyontz received a M.S. in Managerial Economics and Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a B.A. in economics and a minor in business marketing.
Shuning is the Senior Data Research Coordinator at the Perelman center for political science and economics, and has a masters in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Xueyun is a graduate student at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business.
Yash Sherry is a Computer Science undergraduate at IIIT-Delhi, India. Currently, he is working as a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan School of Management. His work focuses on tracking improvements in algorithms and their impact on the economy of IT firms. Prior to this , Yash has worked with Stanford and CMU on research projects. He has also worked as a member/intern with Mozilla , Microsoft , Irisys Korea and Cube 26. He holds several national awards and recognitions.
Alumni:
