Studying Tech & Business: Shantanu Kumar ’26
As the first graduate of Yale’s new MBA/MS joint degree, Shantanu Kumar ’26 recounts how the MBA lens transformed the way he thinks about algorithms, incentives, and society.
Shantanu Kumar ’26 was the first student to graduate from Yale’s new joint degree program combining an MBA and a Master of Science in Engineering, a collaboration with the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science that was made possible by campaign funding. He says that the combination of management and technology gave him unexpected insights.
I had expected the MBA and the MS to feel like parallel tracks—one grounded in markets and organizations, the other in algorithms and systems. Instead, each has made me better at the other. The MBA has fundamentally changed how I approach engineering, teaching me to ground technical decisions in questions of incentives, institutions, and human behavior. It pushed me to see algorithms not just as systems to optimize, but as choices embedded in markets, governance structures, and social impact.
This story is part of Driving Purpose—The Yale SOM Campaign 2018–2026 Impact Report, which highlights the people and programs shaped by campaign support.
