Sébastien Martin

I am an associate professor of operations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. This website showcases my research, teaching, and other activities.

My research focuses on the interface of algorithms and operations management, with applications to AI, public sector operations, and transportation. Applications include transportation systems and school operations. For example, I helped design Lyft’s matching algorithm with reinforcement learning, redesign Boston’s school transportation system, change the school schedules of San Francisco. These changes save tens of millions of dollars every year and benefit millions of people.

At Kellogg, I am also working on leveraging AI for higher education. I created Kellogg’s first AI TA and introduced the concept of AI case studies, which are ways to use AI to improve teaching and learning. I also work on the use of generative AI to improve operations in the private sector. For example, I am an AI advisor to ESAB corporation’s CEO.

news

Nov 01, 2025	The Wall Street Journal spotlighted Kellogg’s new AI-powered case method that Daniela Hurtado-Lange and I debuted—catch the feature here. What if the next business case could talk back? Students now debate strategies with AI personas—from the superintendent to the bus driver—as they tackle a $50 million budget deficit in real time.
Nov 01, 2025	We launched NoYes AI, a platform that lets any instructor craft and distribute their own AI case studies—no long PDFs, just dialogue with the decision-makers. Curious about building one for your classroom? Reach out and let’s talk.
Oct 15, 2025	My new MBA course, AI Foundations for Managers, Lab, is finally starting! Here is the syllabus. Given its focus on the most recent AI developments, I had to create it from scratch. To my colleagues - if you’re interested, I’d be more than happy to share the material.
Aug 27, 2025	Excited to introduce my new MBA course, AI Foundations for Managers, this Fall. The course’s main focus is on agentic AI, is open to any student regardless of background, and will follow the philosophy of “Learning by doing”. It’s one of Kellogg’s courses with the most demand this quarter, and it is also sponsored by the rising agentic AI companies Lovable and N8N (thank you!).
May 20, 2025	I’m happy to share that I was selected as one of the 40 under 40 MBA professors in the world by Poets & Quants, with a focus on my work on AI in the classroom.