Costello College of Business News

The widely used machine-learning technique known as LASSO relegates smaller market events to an ignored “inactive zone”. How can that be a good thing for ambitious asset traders? Bo Hu, assistant professor of finance, explores the logic (and illogic) behind LASSO’s popularity and power.

Launched in the spring 2026 semester, the Innovation and Design Lab for Business and Government (MBA 797) is a new experiential MBA course offered at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University.

A real-world experiment found that when men on matching platforms were shown only the women whose profiles fit established cultural criteria, it improved outcomes for women without harming men, says Sabari Rajan Karmegam, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at Costello College of Business.

Earning a master’s degree had been a lifelong goal for John Sommer, MS Real Estate Development ’24—he just wasn’t sure in which field. In exploring a range of graduate degrees, he searched for the program that would best accelerate his career forward. It was not until a social media post found its way into his feed that he began to research and discover how a master’s in real estate development could really benefit him.

How do “blind box” products like the Labubu make money? Zhechao Yang, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, has co-authored a paper that breaks down the “win-win-win” at the center of this trendy selling strategy.

Months of hard work and collaboration led to the day of spring final presentations on April 27 for the Mason Consulting Group at George Mason University.

At the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, students have numerous opportunities to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Case competitions, unconnected to any course or credit, offer an excellent avenue for students to sharpen their analytical and decision-making skills while gaining valuable experience collaborating as a team in a competitive environment.

Entrepreneurship is rapidly reshaping the economic landscape of West Asia, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar where governments are actively transitioning away from oil dependence toward diversified, innovation-driven economies.

During his undergraduate studies, Brian Gaydos, MS Finance ’25, took several finance classes that piqued his interest and led him to consider beginning a finance graduate program immediately after graduating.

On Saturday, May 16, 20 Fairfax County residents graduated from the Workforce Innovation Success through Entrepreneurship (WISE) Program. These emerging entrepreneurs dedicated the previous nine months to fine-tuning the skill sets and knowledge necessary to continue their entrepreneurial journeys.

Pallab Sanyal, area chair of information systems and operations management at Costello College of Business at George Mason University, has been involved with the Virginia Research Seminar Series in Information Systems since its inception. Rotating among Virginia business schools, it was Costello’s turn to host the 10th annual event on Saturday, March 28, 2026.

Federal acquisition leaders are under growing pressure to move faster. Agencies are being asked to modernize procurement operations, reduce procurement administrative lead time, and process increasingly complex acquisitions with a workforce that is often stretched thin. At the same time, proposal volumes continue to increase, technical submissions are becoming more sophisticated, and evaluators are expected to absorb massive amounts of information under compressed timelines. Against that backdrop, it is not surprising that agencies are beginning to explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could assist the source selection process.