Asu Ozdaglar

Asu Ozdaglar is the deputy dean of academics for the Schwarzman College of Computing, the MathWorks Professor, and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In her role as deputy dean, Ozdaglar is working on developing the Common Ground for Computing Education, an interdepartmental teaching collaborative that is bringing multiple departments together to develop and teach new courses and launch new programs that blend computing with other disciplines. Additionally, Ozdaglar is an active member of the Computing Council and the Undergraduate Student Advisory Group.
 
Ozdaglar received her B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1996, and the S.M. and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Her research expertise includes optimization theory, with emphasis on nonlinear programming and convex analysis, game theory, with applications in communication, social, and economic networks, distributed optimization and control, and network analysis with special emphasis on contagious processes, systemic risk and dynamic control.
 
She is the recipient of a Microsoft fellowship, the MIT Graduate Student Council Teaching award, the NSF Career award, the 2008 Donald P. Eckman award of the American Automatic Control Council, the Class of 1943 Career Development Chair, the inaugural Steven and Renee Innovation Fellowship, the 2014 Spira teaching award, and the METU Recognition Award, among others. She served on the Board of Governors of the Control System Society in 2010 and was an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
 
A principal investigator at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Ozdaglar’s educational contributions to MIT are substantial. She has developed a range of graduate and undergraduate courses, including a graduate-level game theory subject and an undergraduate course on networks that is jointly listed with the Department of Economics. She likewise served as a champion of curriculum innovations through her role in launching the new undergraduate major in 6-14: Computer Science, Economics and Data Science, and the creation of Course 11-6: Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science, a new program that offers students an opportunity to investigate some of the most pressing problems and challenges facing urban areas today.
 
Ozdaglar was the inaugural area co-editor for the area entitled “Games, Information and Networks” in the journal Operations Research. She is the co-author of the book entitled “Convex Analysis and Optimization” (Athena Scientific, 2003), is listed on three patents, and is the coauthor of well over two hundred chapters, papers, talks and seminars.