ESP Biography



MICHAEL WEI, I like to make people happy and connected




Major: Economics

College/Employer: Stanford

Year of Graduation: 2011

Picture of Michael Wei

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Michael has worked in social data for the past 7 years, from social networking to mobile gaming to online dating. He is a big believer in the power of mobile to change the way people connect with others and engage with their community.

He graduated Stanford in 2011 with a degree in Economics, and currently works as a data scientist at Facebook.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

M6561: Human vs Machine in Splash Spring 2018 (May. 05 - 06, 2018)
How do computers and people make deductions about whether a person will pay back a loan or want to watch a particular movie? We'll try to make predictions about people, and see if we can out-perform a computer's machine-learning predictions.


M4631: Basic machine learning in Splash Fall 2015 (Nov. 07 - 08, 2015)
How do computers learn? We'll learn about some of the techniques involved, and how they apply to everything from self-driving cars to Youtube recommendations.


M4209: Mining your online data in Splash Spring 2015 (Apr. 11 - 12, 2015)
If you search on Google, shop on Amazon, or post on Facebook, these companies likely know more about you than you expect. Such as how likely you are to pay your bills on time, who you'll vote for in the next presidential election, or how likely you are to buy tickets to the next Selena Gomez concert. We'll take a look at how technology companies are applying data science to personalize their products, solve interesting challenges, and make money.


E4059: What's in your mobile phone? in Splash Fall 2014 (Nov. 08 - 09, 2014)
Today's mobile phones can take pictures, access the internet, and even track our sleep quality. What hardware is involved in enabling the modern smartphone? We'll learn about the components controlling mobile phone reception, power, information gathering and processing, and consider exciting developments to expect in the future.


W4060: Online social platforms in Splash Fall 2014 (Nov. 08 - 09, 2014)
From Twitter to WeChat to new startups, we'll try out chat, video, and games across a variety of devices and applications for creating fun social experiences.