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Léonard Boussioux delivering a keynote

Léonard Boussioux

Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management

University of Washington · Foster School of Business

About me

Bonjour! I am Léonard, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Washington, Foster School of Business, with an adjunct position at the Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and an affiliation with Harvard's Laboratory for Innovation Science. I earned my Ph.D. in Operations Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

My research combines operations research with artificial intelligence. With my research group, the Human-AI Operations Lab, I work to accelerate problem solving and innovation with Generative AI, and to understand how such technology is reshaping the future of work. I emphasize multimodal frameworks and data-driven, explainable decision tools, especially in healthcare, climate, and sustainability.

I deliver AI education to over 800 students annually and have created new generative AI courses built on novel teaching methodologies. I am fortunate to have been recognized by Poets & Quants' 40 Under 40 Best Business Professors, by eight teaching awards at the Foster School of Business, and three at MIT, including the Goodwin Medal, the institute's highest teaching honor for a graduate instructor. I was also named to the Puget Sound Business Journal's “40 Under 40” for my impact on Seattle's ecosystem. I have contributed to the MIT Universal Artificial Intelligence initiative, which brings state-of-the-art technological insights to wide audiences, and I currently serve on the AI task force at Foster.

Research experience

Earlier, I was a PhD resident at Google X, the Moonshot Factory, visited Mila with Prof. Yoshua Bengio, and studied at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley. I also conducted research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and earned my Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupélec).

Beyond publications, my research has been applied and deployed in the field. I helped MIT Solve evaluate thousands of social-good startup solutions, built automatic segmentation algorithms for rare tumors with Massachusetts General Hospital, worked with OCP to optimize factory operations and reduce air pollution, and partnered with the Insectarium de Montréal to enable crowd-sourced, citizen-science labeling of butterfly data, and explore nature's intelligence through AI with Oxman.

Collaborators

MIT SolveMassachusetts General HospitalOCPInsectarium de MontréalOxman

Where I trained

Operations research, ML/AI, computer science, applied maths, engineering, and entrepreneurship at MIT, UC Berkeley, and Centrale Paris.

MIT logo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PhD, Operations Research · Sloan & Schwarzman College of Computing2023

Advised by Prof. Dimitris Bertsimas.

UC Berkeley logo

University of California, Berkeley

Visiting Scholar · Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology2018

CentraleSupélec logo

CentraleSupélec · Université Paris-Saclay

MSc, Applied Mathematics2019

Bachelor of Engineering · Maths/Physics/CS2017

Selected recognition

See all honors & awards
  • Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors

    The world's best graduate business-school professors, tied youngest on the 2026 list · Poets & Quants

    2026
  • Puget Sound Business Journal's 40 Under 40

    Seattle's most influential young business leaders

    2026
  • Goodwin Medal

    MIT's highest teaching honor, given to one graduate instructor a year

    2022
  • 1st Place & Audience Prize · MIT 3-Minute Thesis

    For research on multimodality for sustainability and health

    2022
  • 11 teaching awards

    Including the Charles E. Summer Memorial, Lex N. Gamble Family, and Dean's Excellence awards, spanning MIT and UW

    2022–2026

Building multimodal intelligencefor wildlife, climate, and the world we share.

Selected papers

View all research →
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Léonard Boussioux speaking at UW Foster School of Business AI Day

I teach how to use AI to make your dreams come true.

On day one, I encourage every student to define a project they want to build, and the rest of the course is reverse-engineered to get them there. They learn how to vibe code, leverage agentic systems, and ship products, tools, and websites at every step. I teach annually to over 800 students and industry professionals, through two flagship graduate courses at UW Foster and numerous tailored workshops and seminars elsewhere. You can find the approach and open-source materials on my GenAI page.

Discover more
Mosaic of bird species — multimodal vision dataset

I am a naturalist, birdwatcher, and photographer.

Discover more

Latest news

Press

Featured in The New York Times, CNBC, Reuters, Fast Company & more

Recent interviews, commentary & podcasts on AI and the future of work

Photography

Photographed the total solar eclipse in Spain

Spain

Press

The Hidden Cost of AI-Assisted Creativity

MIT Sloan Management Review · with Anil Doshi, Oliver Hauser & Kartik Hosanagar

Paper

“The Narrative AI Advantage?” accepted at Management Science

Field experiment on GenAI-augmented evaluation of early-stage innovations

Talk

Designing Human-AI Collaboration: From Narrative Explanations to Agentic Artifacts

UW Tacoma · Milgard School of Business

Talk

Vibe coding and the new craft of building with AI

Columbia University · New York

Talk

SWIS 2026 · UW–UBC Information Systems Spring Workshop

University of British Columbia · Vancouver

Teaching

Teaching at the AI-SCORE Summer School

AI-SCORE Summer School · Chicago

Award

Named to the World's Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors

Poets & Quants · 2026

Talk

Organized & led AI Spark: Foster AI Day (400+ attendees), moderated “Beyond the Chatbot,” and ran the Career-Specific AI Skills workshop

UW Foster School of Business · Founders Hall

Talk

The Creativity Paradox of AI — Leading Through

MIT Sloan Management Review · Work/26 · plus a same-day MIT Horizon live session on GenAI for problem solving

Talk

Generative AI to Accelerate Problem Solving

MIT Horizon · Live Event

Talk

Human-AI Collaboration for a Living Planet

Stanford University · Sustainable & Responsible Operations AI · also given for the Trilogy Birders community

Award

Honored on the 40 Under 40 list

Puget Sound Business Journal · Class of 2026

Talk

Teaching in the Age of Generative AI: From Vibe Coding to AI Champions

Berkeley Global Venture Lab · Sutardja Center, UC Berkeley

Talk

Designing Human-AI Collaboration: From Narrative Explanations to Agentic Artifacts

Rotman Young Scholar Seminar · University of Toronto

Teaching

AI Lunch & Learn: Teaching Claude to Co-Work, a hands-on workshop bringing colleagues up to speed

University of Washington · for fellow faculty

Teaching

Wrapped two flagship MSIS courses: MSIS 522 (Advanced Machine Learning) and MSIS 549 (GenAI for Business Applications)

UW Foster · MSIS Program

Paper

The Narrative AI Advantage? · Best in Track Paper, ICIS 2025 · 1st Place, Wharton People Analytics

Field experiment on GenAI-augmented evaluation of early-stage innovations

Nov 20262

  • TalkTwo talks: the limits of transparency in vibe coding, and who curates an AI skill ecosystem DSI Annual Conference · San Francisco
  • TalkPresenting on AI skill ecosystems, moderating a panel, and joint work from the lab INFORMS Annual Meeting · San Francisco

Sep 20264

  • TalkThe Crowdless Lab? Vibe Coding, Agent Ecosystems, and the Future of Research Arizona State University · Invited Seminar · Remote
  • TalkTeaching in the Age of Generative AI: From Vibe Coding to AI Champions UMass Lowell · Invited Seminar
  • TalkOne Tool, One Taste? Vibe Coding and the Homogenization of the Visual Web Wharton Human-AI Research · Business & Generative AI Conference · San Francisco
  • PressAI's growing role in wildfire response Axios · Rebecca Falconer

Jul 20263

Jun 20267

TEDx talks

Two short talks on what AI can unlock, for creativity, and for the planet.

TEDx MIT

Let Art Be Your Superpower!

A journey into the future of artistry, and the artist already waiting inside each of us.

TEDx Boston

How to Solve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in 5 Minutes

A collective approach to the UN SDGs, showing how generative AI can drive real-world impact.

Léonard Boussioux speaking on stage at TEDxMIT

See the work in depth.