The Dawn of a New Meritocracy

Higher education admissions have hit a watershed moment. Colleges need to consider the implications of the move away from standardized testing in admissions and what will replace the current hegemony of high stakes college admission tests, writes Ezekiel Dixon-Román.

Social Policy

Consensus and Contagion in Society

The Warren Center welcomes its newest affiliate, Hamsa Bastani

Hamsa Bastani completed her PhD in Stanford's Electrical Engineering department and spent a year as a Herman Goldstine postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research before joining Penn. Her work is inspired by applications to healthcare operations management, revenue management, and sustainable supply chains.

Operations Information and Decisions

Social Norms for Algorithms

Talking philosophy, privacy, and race with Anita Allen

In early July, Anita Allen began her three-year term as the first female African-American president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. Penn Today spoke with Allen about the intersection of philosophy and the law, how the field has changed, and her thoughts on being head of this organization.

Law
Philosophy

Ubiquity of Data

Professors González-Bailón and Mutz to Participate in Research Partnership with Facebook

Sandra González-Bailón and Diana Mutz will both serve on Social Science One advising committees, employing their expertise to advise how companies' data might be divided into subsets for further study.

Communication
Political Science

Ubiquity of Data

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Victor Amelkin

Victor Amelkin, hosted by Rakesh Vohra, George Pappas, and Victor Preciado, is working on network science, with a general emphasis on analysis, modeling, and control of network processes, and a specific emphasis on network (process) resilience.

Electrical and Systems Engineering

Resilience in Networked Systems

How Big Banks Can Become Too Big to Fail

In a wide-lens view of the dynamics at play, Chaojun Wang, whose research focuses on how financial markets are organized, explains why some financial markets are so concentrated, which can lead to the problem of too-big-to-fail banks.

Finance

Resilience in Networked Systems

Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

Studying the conditions that give rise to cooperation has occupied researchers for generations, with implications for understanding the forces that drive workplace dynamics, charitable giving, animal behavior, and more. Erol Akçay shows how certain types of social networks can paradoxically lead to cooperation’s collapse.

Biology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

What Your Facebook Network Reveals about How You Use Your Brain

Decades of research have shown that having more numerous and stronger connections predicts better health and well-being, but the shape of your social network matters too. If your friends mostly know each other only indirectly through you, you're likely to be a better problem solver and more successful overall, writes Emily Falk.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Jieming Mao

Jieming Mao, hosted by Michael Kearns, Aaron Roth and Rakesh Vohra, graduated with a PhD from Computer Science Department at Princeton University and is interested in multi-armed bandit, algorithmic mechanism design, communication complexity and information theory.

Computer and Information Science

Social Norms for Algorithms

Blockchain Fever

Cryptographic sorcery, entrepreneurial zeal, and utopian dreams have gripped a striking number of Penn students and alumni this year. Why are people so excited? “To me,” Kevin Werbach reflected, “blockchain is a foundational technical innovation that will have tremendous impacts on just about every company in the world."

Legal Studies & Business Ethics

Resilience in Networked Systems

News

The Dawn of a New Meritocracy

The Warren Center welcomes its newest affiliate, Hamsa Bastani

Talking philosophy, privacy, and race with Anita Allen

Professors González-Bailón and Mutz to Participate in Research Partnership with Facebook

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Victor Amelkin

How Big Banks Can Become Too Big to Fail

Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

What Your Facebook Network Reveals about How You Use Your Brain

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Jieming Mao

Blockchain Fever