Senem Işık

Hi! I'm Senem Işık, a PhD student at Stanford University advised by Amin Saberi.

I am broadly interested in the foundations of learning and decision-making systems, often motivated by social and economic contexts. At Stanford, I have been affiliated with the Theory and Operations Research groups in MS&E, Center for Computational Market Design, Language, Data, and Reasoning Lab, SOAL (Society & Algorithms) Lab, and Stanford AI Lab. In the summer of 2026, I worked as an Applied Scientist Intern at Amazon (AWS) Science hosted by Nina Mishra.

Previously, I completed my Bachelor's with Honors in Mathematics and Master's in Computer Science also at Stanford :) where I was advised by Tselil Schramm and Jinyoung Park. I am originally from Istanbul, Türkiye. I pronounce my full name as Senæm ɯˈʃɯk, and here are three places that are close to my heart 🧡

email: senemi at stanford dot edu

Research

Bayesian Learning in Online Decision Making

with Alireza AmaniHamedani, Ali Aouad, and Amin Saberi

The Stanford Market Design in the Age of AI Conference 2026 poster

SIGMETRICS Workshop on Learning-augmented Algorithms: Theory and Applications 2026 extended abstract

TTIC Learning-driven Algorithms and Machine-aided Proofs 2026 slides

What Online Algorithms Can Transformers Learn In-Context?

with Nico Christianson, Amin Saberi, and Ellen Vitercik

Query Lower Bounds for Maximal Independent Sets

with Soheil Behnezhad, Alma Ghafari, and Mohammad Roghani

Local Limits of Small-World Networks preprint

with Yeganeh Alimohammadi and Amin Saberi

preliminary version at the 25th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC'24) poster

Random Lipschitz functions on graphs with weak expansion preprint

with Jinyoung Park

presentation at 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM'25) poster slides

Theoretical analyses of epidemiological processes on graphs and

Improving the convex program for antidote allocation

with Uma Dayal, Margalit Glasgow, and Mary Wootters

presentation at Stanford CURIS (Computer Science Research) 2021 poster

presentation at Stanford CURIS (Computer Science Research) 2021 (Outstanding Poster Award) poster

news!

June, 2026. Starting my first PhD internship as an Applied Scientist Intern at Amazon Science - Amazon Web Services (AWS), hosted by Nina Mishra!

May, 2026. I will give spotlight talks on our work on Bayesian online decision making at the SIGMETRICS Workshop on Learning-augmented Algorithms: Theory and Applications and TTIC Learning-driven Algorithms and Machine-aided Proofs 2026!

February, 2026. Presented our work on Bayesian online decision making at The Stanford Market Design in the Age of AI Conference

October, 2025. Presented our paper on local properties of small world networks and weak expanders at TOCA-SV (Theory of Computing Associated-Silicon Valley)

September, 2025. Started my Phd at Stanford!

January, 2025. Presented our paper on weak expanders at the Joint Mathematics Meetings

July, 2024. Presented our paper on weak expanders at DIMACS (the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science) at Rutgers University