Name
Manish Raghavan, "Optimization And Serendipity"
Date & Time
Friday, October 17, 2025, 10:30 AM - 10:55 AM
Speakers
Manish Raghavan, MIT Sloan School of Management "Optimization And Serendipity" Engagement optimization can interact poorly with human decision-making. More broadly, optimization has unintended consequences when social objectives are underspecified. In this talk, I'll discuss challenges with engagement optimization and sketch research directions around content diversity and serendipity. Manish Raghavan is the Drew Houston (2005) Career Development Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is part of the Information Technology group, and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) and earned his PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
Raghavan’s research focuses on applying computational techniques to areas of social concern, including online platforms, algorithmic fairness and discrimination, and behavioral economics. He is a member of Cornell’s Artificial Intelligence, Policy, and Practice initiative and serves on the International Advisory Board of Sai University in Chennai. Outside of research, he coaches the Harvard Men’s Soccer Club.
Location Name
Kline Tower 14th Floor
Full Address
Kline Tower
219 Prospect St, 14th Floor
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
Session Type
Lecture
