OIT 272: Online Marketplaces

How does Uber match drivers to passengers? How does Airbnb select the set of listings to show to a guest in a search? How does eBay manage trust and reputation between buyers and sellers? How does Google optimize auctions for billions of dollars’ worth of online advertising? This course focuses on the basic analytic and data science tools used to address these and other challenges encountered in the most exciting online marketplaces in the world. With hands-on exercises we will open and understand the “black-box” of online marketplaces’ operations. We will cover application areas such as transportation, rentals, sharing, e-commerce, labor markets, and advertising, leveraging tools from D&D, OSM, and Micro (all base). In particular, the course will use tools from R covered in D&D. Overall, the course will provide basic business knowledge for future investors, product managers, sales and marketing managers, operation managers, and anyone interested on online marketplaces.


OIT 275: Online Marketplaces, Accelerated

How does Uber match drivers to passengers? How does Airbnb select the set of listings to show to a guest in a search? How does eBay manage trust and reputation between buyers and sellers? How does Google optimize auctions for billions of dollars’ worth of online advertising? This course focuses on analytics and data science tools used to address these and other challenges encountered in the most exciting online marketplaces in the world. With hands-on exercises we will open and understand the “black-box” of online marketplaces’ operations. We will cover application areas such as transportation, rentals, sharing, e-commerce, labor markets, and advertising, leveraging tools from D&D, OSM, and Micro. In particular, the course will use tools from R covered in D&D. Overall, the course will provide business knowledge for future investors, product managers, sales and marketing managers, operation managers, and anyone interested on online marketplaces. [This is the accelerated version of OIT 272 and knowledge from D&D and OSM is expected at the accelerated (or advanced) level.]


OIT 521: Data Science for Platforms

This is an MBA compressed course that covers analytic and data science tools that are currently being used to operate some of the most exciting online platforms and marketplaces in the world. This course will consist of guest lectures from industry leaders involved in these efforts, emphasizing practical challenges associated with implementing analytics and data science projects. We will cover online platforms and marketplaces in diverse application areas such as transportation, rentals, sharing, e-commerce, labor markets, media, and advertising.


OIT 644: Research in Operations, Information and Technology

This year-long course takes a hands-on approach to learning about conducting research in Operations, Information and Technology. It will cover a broad spectrum of cutting-edge research in OIT from conceiving an idea to formulating a research problem, deriving results, and publication. The topical content will be customized to the specific interests of the enrolled students, but generally will be concerned with questions of operational interest.


OIT 648: Empirics of Online Markets

In this course we cover current research on the empirics of platforms and online marketplaces. We will study diverse topics relevant to the design of these markets such as search and matching, review and reputation systems, demand estimation, and pricing. We will do so in the context of different application domains such as rentals, sharing, e-commerce, labor markets, and advertising. The course will be eclectic in terms of approaches, using reduced-form and structural econometrics, machine learning, and experimentation. The course will mostly consist of recent papers presented by the instructor, guests, and students. Some background knowledge required to understand current work will be provided as needed.