Results for MS&E

Uncertain assumptions in business and public policy are often replaced with single ¿best guess¿ or average numbers. This leads to a fallacy as fundamental as the belief that the earth is flat, which I call the Flaw of Averages. It states, in effect, that: plans based on average assumptions are wrong on average. This class will discuss mitigations of the flaw of averages using simulation and other methods from probability management.

Subject of mutual interest to student and faculty member. Prerequisite: faculty sponsor.

Analytical techniques such as linear and integer programming, Monte Carlo simulation, forecasting, decision analysis, and Markov chains in the environment of the spreadsheet. Probability management. Materials include spreadsheet add-ins for implementing these and other techniques. Emphasis is on building intuition through interactive modeling, and extending the applicability of this type of analysis through integration with existing business data structures.

Concepts and tools for the analysis of problems under uncertainty, focusing on focusing on structuring, model building, and analysis. Examples from legal, social, medical, and physical problems. Topics include axioms of probability, probability trees, random variables, distributions, conditioning, expectation, change of variables, and limit theorems. Prerequisite: CME 100 or MATH 51.

Non-majors and minors who have taken or are taking elementary accounting should not enroll. Introduction to accounting concepts and the operating characteristics of accounting systems. The principles of financial and cost accounting, design of accounting systems, techniques of analysis, and cost control. Interpretation and use of accounting information for decision making. Designed for the user of accounting information and not as an introduction to a professional accounting career. Enrollment limited. Admission by order of enrollment.

Formerly MS&E 142. Evaluation and management of money, complicated by temporary distributions and uncertainty. The "time-value of money" and its impact on economic decisions (both personal and corporate) with the introduction of interest rate (constant or varying over time); several approaches critically examined and made consistent as suitable metrics of comparison. The concept of investment diversification in the presence of uncertainty; portfolio selection and efficient frontier analysis leading to the formulation of the Capital Asset Pricing Model; practical implementation of the concepts, including comparison of loan (e.g., house and auto) terms, credit card financial terms, interest rate term structure and its relationship to rate-of-return analysis, and graphical presentation of uncertain investment alternatives; and current economic news of interest. Critical thinking, discussion, and interaction, using group and computer labs assignments. Prerequisites: differential calculus and probability. Recommended: optimization.

Interdisciplinary student teams create and develop U.S. and international social entrepreneurship initiatives. Proposed initiatives may be new entities, or innovative projects, partnerships, and/or strategies impacting existing organizations and social issues in the U.S. and internationally. Focus is on each team¿s research and on planning documents to further project development. Project development varies with the quarter and the skill set of each team, but should include: issue and needs identification; market research; design and development of an innovative and feasible solution; and drafting of planning documents. In advanced cases, solicitation of funding and implementation of a pilot project. Enrollment limited to 20. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: 131 and 132, or consent of instructor.

This experiential course explores a wide array of tools that are used to enhance innovation and how those tools are applied across engineering disciplines. Using workshops, demonstrations, and field trips, students will learn how creative problem solving is deployed across engineering fields and, in partnership with the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, expand their own creative problem solving skills with virtual reality experiences that stretch their imagination. Limited enrollment. Admission by application.

Is there more to entrepreneurship than inventing the better mouse trap? This course uses the speakers from the Entrepreneurial Thought Leader seminar (MS&E472) to drive research and discussion about what makes an entrepreneur successful. Topics include venture financing, business models, and interpersonal dynamics in the startup environment. Students meet before and after MS&E 472 to prepare for and debrief after the sessions. Enrollment limited to 50 students. Admission by application.

For undergraduates only; preference to MS&E majors. Classical and contemporary organization theory; the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations. Limited enrollment. Admission by application. Students must attend first session.

Introduces students to the theoretical, substantive, and methodological foundations of social networks. The social network paradigm seeks to explain how social relations facilitate and constrain an actor¿s opportunities, behaviors, and cognitions. Topics include: network concepts and principles; network data collection, measurement, and analysis; and applications in management, engineering, and related disciplines.

The interaction of technology and national security policy from the perspective of history to implications for the new security imperative, homeland defense. Key technologies in nuclear and biological weapons, military platforms, and intelligence gathering. Policy issues from the point of view of U.S. and other nations. The impact of terrorist threat. Guest lecturers include key participants in the development of technology and/or policy.

Analytical techniques such as linear and integer programming, Monte Carlo simulation, forecasting, decision analysis, and Markov chains in the environment of the spreadsheet. Probability management. Materials include spreadsheet add-ins for implementing these and other techniques. Emphasis is on building intuition through interactive modeling, and extending the applicability of this type of analysis through integration with existing business data structures.

MS&E students obtain employment in a relevant industrial or research activity to enhance professional experience, consistent with the degree program they are pursuing. Students submit a one-page statement showing relevance to degree program along with offer letter before the start of the quarter, and a 2-3 page final report documenting the work done and relevance to degree program at the conclusion of the quarter. Students may take each of A, B, and C once.

MS&E students obtain employment in a relevant industrial or research activity to enhance professional experience, consistent with the degree program they are pursuing. Students submit a one-page statement showing relevance to degree program along with offer letter before the start of the quarter, and a 2-3 page final report documenting the work done and relevance to degree program at the conclusion of the quarter. Students may take each of A, B, and C once.

MS&E students obtain employment in a relevant industrial or research activity to enhance professional experience, consistent with the degree program they are pursuing. Students submit a one-page statement showing relevance to degree program along with offer letter before the start of the quarter, and a 2-3 page final report documenting the work done and relevance to degree program at the conclusion of the quarter. Students may take each of A, B, and C once.

Optimization theory and modeling. The role of prices, duality, optimality conditions, and algorithms in finding and recognizing solutions. Perspectives: problem formulation, analytical theory, computational methods, and recent applications in engineering, finance, and economics. Theories: finite dimensional derivatives, convexity, optimality, duality, and sensitivity. Methods: simplex and interior-point, gradient, Newton, and barrier. Prerequisite: CME 100 or MATH 51.

Concepts and tools for the analysis of problems under uncertainty, focusing on model building and communication: the structuring, processing, and presentation of probabilistic information. Examples from legal, social, medical, and physical problems. Spreadsheets illustrate and solve problems as a complement to analytical closed-form solutions. Topics: axioms of probability, probability trees, random variables, distributions, conditioning, expectation, change of variables, and limit theorems. Prerequisite: CME 100 or MATH 51. Recommended: knowledge of spreadsheets.

Non-majors and minors who have taken or are taking elementary accounting should not enroll. Introduction to accounting concepts and the operating characteristics of accounting systems. The principles of financial and cost accounting, design of accounting systems, techniques of analysis, and cost control. Interpretation and use of accounting information for decision making. Designed for the user of accounting information and not as an introduction to a professional accounting career. Enrollment limited. Admission by order of enrollment.

Formerly MS&E 242. Introduction to the basic concepts of modern quantitative finance and investments. Focus is on basic principles and how they are applied in practice. Topics: basic interest rates; evaluating investments: present value and internal rate of return; fixed-income markets: bonds, yield, duration, portfolio immunization; term structure of interest rates; measuring risk: volatility and value at risk; designing optimal security portfolios; the capital asset pricing model. Group projects involving financial market data. No prior knowledge of finance required. Appropriate for engineering or science students wishing to apply their quantitative skills to develop a basic understanding of financial modeling and markets. Prerequisite: basic preparation in probability, statistics, and optimization.

Coherent approach to decision making, using the metaphor of developing a structured conversation having desirable properties, and producing actional thought that leads to clarity of action. Socratic instruction; computational problem sessions. Emphasis is on creation of distinctions, representation of uncertainty by probability, development of alternatives, specification of preference, and the role of these elements in creating a normative approach to decisions. Information gathering opportunities in terms of a value measure. Relevance and decision diagrams to represent inference and decision. Principles are applied to decisions in business, technology, law, and medicine. See 352 for continuation.

Operations management focuses on the effective planning, scheduling, and control of manufacturing and service entities. This course introduces students to a broad range of key issues in operations management. Topics include determination of optimal facility location, production planning, optimal timing and sizing of capacity expansion, and inventory control. Prerequisites: basic knowledge of Excel spreadsheets, probability, and optimization.

With healthcare spending in the US exceeding 17% of GDP and growing, improvements in the quality and efficiency of healthcare services are urgently needed. This class focuses on the use of analytical tools to support efficient and effective delivery of health care. Topics include quality control and management, capacity planning, resource allocation, management of patient flows, and scheduling. Prerequisites: basic knowledge of Excel spreadsheets, probability, and optimization.

For graduate students only. Introduction to the basic concepts of strategy, with emphasis on high technology firms. Topics: competitive positioning, resource-based perspectives, co-opetition and standards setting, and complexity/evolutionary perspectives. Limited enrollment.

Open to graduate students interested in technology driven start-ups. Provides the experience of an early-stage entrepreneur seeking initial investment, including: team building, opportunity assessment, customer development, go-to-market strategy, and IP. Teaching team includes serial entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Student teams validate the business model using R&D plans and financial projections, and define milestones for raising and using venture capital. Final exam is an investment pitch delivered to a panel of top tier VC partners. In addition to lectures, teams interact with mentors and teaching team weekly. Enrollment by application: http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande273. Recommended: 270, 271, or equivalent.

Inventors and entrepreneurs have four concerns related to patent law: protecting their inventions in the very early stages of product development, determining the patentability of their invention, avoiding infringement of a competitor's patent, and leveraging their patent as a business asset. This course will address each of these concerns through the application of law cases and business cases to an invention of the Studentâ¿¿s choice. Although listed as a ME/MSE course, the course is not specific to any discipline or technology.

Organization theory; concepts and functions of management; behavior of the individual, work group, and organization. Emphasis is on cases and related discussion. Enrollment limited; priority to MS&E students. Autumn Quarter section is restricted to SCPD students; the class will not be available to on-campus students in the Autumn Quarter.

The interaction of technology and national security policy from the perspective of history to implications for the new security imperative, homeland defense. Key technologies in nuclear and biological weapons, military platforms, and intelligence gathering. Policy issues from the point of view of U.S. and other nations. The impact of terrorist threat. Guest lecturers include key participants in the development of technology and/or policy.

Restricted to Ph.D. students assigned tutorials as part of the MS&E Ph.D. qualifying process. Enrollment optional.

Prerequisite: doctoral candidacy.

Topics include interior-point methods, relaxation methods for nonlinear discrete optimization, sequential quadratic programming methods, optimal control and decomposition methods. Topic chosen in first class; different topics for individuals or groups possible. Individual or team projects. May be repeated for credit.

With a vast amount of data now collected on our online and offline actions -- from what we buy, to where we travel, to who we interact with -- we have an unprecedented opportunity to study complex social systems. This opportunity, however, comes with scientific, engineering, and ethical challenges. In this hands-on course, we develop ideas from computer science and statistics to address problems in sociology, economics, political science, and beyond. We cover techniques for collecting and parsing data, methods for large-scale machine learning, and principles for effectively communicating results. To see how these techniques are applied in practice, we discuss recent research findings in a variety of areas.

Advanced stochastic modeling and control of systems involving queueing and scheduling operations. Stability analysis of queueing systems. Key results on single queues and queueing networks. Controlled queueing systems. Dynamic routing and scheduling in processing networks. Applications to modeling, analysis and performance engineering of computing systems, communication networks, flexible manufacturing, and service systems. Prerequisite: 221 or equivalent.

Markov population decision chains in discrete and continuous time. Risk posture. Present value and Cesaro overtaking optimality. Optimal stopping. Successive approximation, policy improvement, and linear programming methods. Team decisions and stochastic programs; quadratic costs and certainty equivalents. Maximum principle. Controlled diffusions. Examples from inventory, overbooking, options, investment, queues, reliability, quality, capacity, transportation. MATLAB. Prerequisites: MATH 113, 115; Markov chains; linear programming.

Classic and current research on business and corporate strategy. Limited enrollment, restricted to PhD students. Prerequisites: SOC 363 or equivalent, and permission of instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.

Doctoral research seminar, limited to Ph.D. students. Current meso-level field research on organizational behavior, especially work and coordination. Topics: work design, job design, roles, teams, organizational change and learning, knowledge management, performance. Focus on understanding theory development and research design in contemporary field research. Topics change yearly. Recommended: course in statistics or research methods.

The social science literature on organizations assessed through consideration of the major theoretical traditions and lines of research predominant in the field.

Restricted to PhD students, or by consent of instructor. Doctoral research seminar covering current topics in health policy, health systems modeling, and health innovation. May be repeated for credit.

Directed study and research on a subject of mutual interest to student and faculty member. Prerequisite: faculty sponsor.nn (Staff)

Research in progress or contemplated in policy and economics areas. Emphasis depends on research interests of participants, but is likely to include energy, environment, transportation, or technology policy and analysis. May be repeated for credit.

Current research and related topics presented by doctoral students and invited speakers. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 252.

Entrepreneurial leaders share lessons from real-world experiences across entrepreneurial settings. ETL speakers include entrepreneurs, leaders from global technology companies, venture capitalists, and best-selling authors. Half-hour talks followed by half hour of class interaction. Required web discussion. May be repeated for credit.

Thought leaders in healthcare policy and healthcare design and delivery share ideas about how to improve our healthcare system. Speakers include individuals from government, industry, and academia with a broad range of experience and perspective.

For SCPD students only in 2014; not offered on-campus. Strategies and techniques for development of sustainable products and manufacturing processes. Topics: strategic decisions in new product development when environmental and resource externalities are accounted for; effect of regulatory requirements on ability of a firm to achieve its business objectives; contributions of sustainable products/processes to the firm's competitive advantage and operational efficiency and to enabling entrepreneurial opportunities; industrial ecology and life cycle analysis techniques in integrating traditional product development requirements with those of the environment and society. May be repeatable for credit once.

The global financial crisis of 2007-8 threw into sharp relief the ongoing challenges of understanding risk, the financial system, links with the global economy, and interactions with policy. We will explore elements of the crisis, a few other key events, and ongoing debates about systemic risk. Group projects will explore in more detail past events and current topics in systemic risk. Supplements a rigorous technical curriculum in modern finance with select aspects relevant to understanding the practice and broader context of modern financial activities such as derivatives, financial engineering, and risk management.