Seminar Title: End-to-end Market Design for Social Good
Abstract: In this talk, I will share my experience collaborating with platform-based tech nonprofits. I will provide a brief overview of a few joint projects and then highlight the opportunities and challenges that arise in academic–public sector partnerships. As an illustrative case, I will discuss the following paper, “Redesigning VolunteerMatch’s Ranking Algorithm: Toward More Equitable Access to Volunteers” (with Scott Rodilitz, Daniela Saban, and Akshaya Suresh), to appear in Management Science.
Bio: Vahideh Manshadi is the Michael H. Jordan Professor of Operations at Yale School of Management and the Research Director for Operations Research at the Center for Algorithms, Data, & Market Design at Yale (CADMY). Her current research focuses on the operation of online and matching platforms in both the private and public sectors. Her research has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Auctions and Market Design Rothkopf Prize (2020, 2021, 2024), the Best OM Paper in Operations Research Award (2025), and the Doing Good with Good OR Award (2023). Professor Manshadi serves on the editorial boards of Management Science and Operations Research and as the vice president of the Auctions & Market Design section at INFORMS. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where she also received MS degrees in statistics and electrical engineering. Before joining Yale, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the MIT Operations Research Center.
