Alvin E. Roth Quotes

I've always been interested in using mathematics to make the world work better.

Calculating does not equal mathematics. It's a subsection of it. In years gone by it was the limiting factor, but computers now allow you to make the whole of mathematics more intellectual.

The science of operations, as derived from mathematics more especially, is a science of itself, and has its own abstract truth and value.

As an undergraduate at Columbia, I went to the engineering school. I had a great deal of training in engineering and mathematics as well as subdiversified training. And then I went to the California Institute of Technology to do my Ph.D. in applied math.

I view the work I've done related to statistics and economics as, roughly speaking, how to do something without having to do everything.

Data helps solve problems.

Part of the process is always, 'Is there a better way?' We try to think through if there's something we can do better creatively or technically, or just is more efficient.

Machines have the ability to assemble things faster than any human ever could, but humans possess the analytics, domain expertise, and valuable knowledge required to solve problems and optimize factory floor production.

There's a mathematical way to get success.

Art history and Elizabethan poetry don't employ workers; the arduous and tedious application of business sciences such as computer programming and accounting does.

I'm always trying to think of ways to make something more efficient. If I have to do something once, that's fine. If I have to do it twice, I'm kind of annoyed. And if I have to do it three times, I'm going to try to automate it.

If you see something that doesn't make sense, ask. Change it. Think about dollars, think about your soldiers' time, think about efficiency.

I always try to find better ways to do things. Whether it's a game plan, a practice, a meeting, an interview, whatever it is. I'm going to find a way to find a way to analyze it and find a better way to do it. That's my mindset. I've never been satisfied with anything. That's just my mindset. I'm always trying to find a better way to do things.

I was always trying to get people to fix things that are wrong. Now, it was, 'How do I make things that are going good go better?

When I was a graduate student, I actually took a course in development economics and I thought it was the most boring thing in the world.

I remember having this vague idea that what mathematicians did was that some authority, someone, gave them problems to solve, and they just sort of solved them.

There is nothing wrong with good accounting, except that it does not necessarily lead to good science.

Research sometimes feels like an ongoing TV series in which some amazing revelations have already been made, but there are still plenty of cliff-hangers and unresolved plotlines that you want to see resolved. But unlike TV, we have to do the work ourselves to figure out what happens next.

I'm an analytics girl.

I think maths is the root of everything. If we understood every area of math, it would lead to improving our sense of science, physics, engineering, space travel... all those great things. Maths is a backbone for it.

You don't have to be a genius mathematician to have a career in cyber security, but it certainly helps to be a strong mathematician.

I had a stormy graduate career, where every week we would have a shouting match. I kept doing deals where I would say, 'Okay, let me do neural nets for another six months, and I will prove to you they work.' At the end of the six months, I would say, 'Yeah, but I am almost there. Give me another six months.'

My Ph.D. is in computer vision and machine learning. I developed software that can read your emotions from your face as part of my doctorate work.

I've never been a stat guy.

We need a lot more technically literate people. The computers are the tools that are going to solve essentially all problems, and the people who can use them better will be more effective.