2024 senior projects
Optimizing for social impact
MS&E undergraduates presented their senior projects in March 2024. Across a wide breadth of industries and using a variety of MS&E techniques, many projects aimed to create social impact.
Students drew on their course work—including mathematical modeling, systems analysis, organization theory, optimization, probability, statistics, ethics, computer science, and economics—to inform their work on the projects. Teams of three to four students acted as consultants to their sponsor organizations, tackling real-world problems in real-time over 10 weeks.
This year's projects were geared toward generating social impact, for example by creating a framework to calculate social return on investment—not just financial returns—or by quantifying the economic and environmental impact of creating more climate-friendly websites. Sponsor organizations ranged from startups like Wagtail, to established firms like the WNBA, to non-profits like Strong Girls United that serve to impact the community at large. While the students wrapped their findings into a final presentation at the end of spring quarter, their work will continue to be utilized by their sponsor organizations long into the future.
MS&E faculty members acted as mentors to the student teams throughout the quarter. Teams met regularly with faculty to refine their work leading up to their final presentations. This year's faculty mentors included professors Itai Ashlagi, Chuck Eesley, Riitta Katila, Markus Pelger, and James Sweeney.
Videos are included for teams whose sponsor organizations gave permission to share the final presentations. Each project also has a written summary. Please note: Not all teams gave permission to share their information, and thus not all students are represented below.
Social return on investment for FoodWise
The team provided FoodWise with a means of calculating social return on investment—not just financial returns—as well as insights from those calculations.
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Expanding use cases for Prophet
Prophet created a general-purpose decision making algorithm. The team identified the most promising and impactful market opportunities for that algorithm.
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Improved social media strategy for Strong Girls United
With the goal of expanding the organization's reach and social impact, the team helped Strong Girls United revamp its Instagram strategy to increase follower count and engagements on the platform.
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Optimizing procurement processes for Vivo Fashion Group
The team helped Vivo optimize their procurement processes, with the goal of reducing unsold inventory and increasing their capacity for prediction of market trends.
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Creating greener websites with Wagtail
Wagtail wants to position its web hosting platform as a more sustainable alternative to traditional platforms. The team helped quantify the potential economic and environmental effects of hosting websites with the Wagtail system.
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Increasing fan engagement for the WNBA
The team helped solve the question of how to maximize fan engagement with the WNBA’s in-season tournament, the Commissioner’s Cup.
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Predicting risk for ZUWA Solar Solutions
The team helped ZUWA predict risk in their processes with the goals of optimizing the allocation of resources, tailoring financial solutions to customer needs, and ultimately expanding access to solar energy solutions in a sustainable manner.
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