This course has been an eye-opening experience, undoubtedly the best I have ever taken at UCLA. Professor Dai's deep knowledge and inspirational teaching have profoundly influenced my academic career and ignited my passion for machine learning and economics. The lectures showcase the powerful intersection of algorithmic methods and social impact. I feel very proud to be a Bruin, as it affords me the opportunity to learn from Professor Dai.

Xiaowu Dai is the nicest human being I've met. This class is a broad collection of economics topics including auctions, pricing, matching, with a tiny bit of machine learning involved. You can tell the professor really loves this content. He ties every lecture subject with its historical context and active research progress. There are 2 pretty easy homeworks, a midterm presentation, and a final presentation and paper.

The presentations are pretty open-ended, you just pick a topic somewhat adjacent to the class that has been published in a top journal and present about it in the midterm. Then for the final, you extend. This is very open-ended.

The professor himself is extremely energetic and very open to class participation. He is organized and very dedicated. The subjects themselves are not explored in extreme depth, but the breadth of topics is very fascinating and opens the door for neat discussion.