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Online ad fraud is a feature, not a bug

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:26:46 +0000

Online ad fraud is a feature, not a bug Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 03/17/2026 - 13:26

Technological advancements and the dynamics of the platform economy make rooting out fraud more complicated than it may seem.

With print media circulation and broadcast television viewership in free fall, a lot is riding on the online advertising space being able to take up the slack. The good news is, digital ad spend is booming: The global total for 2025 is expected to surpass $678 billion, at an annual growth rate of nearly eight percent.

The bad news? A good chunk of that money is chasing a mirage.

Online ad fraud—where ad publishers falsely inflate engagement metrics (impressions, clicks, etc.) to boost revenues—is a growing problem that eats upwards of 20 percent of global ad spend.

Min Chen. Photo provided

Min Chen and Abhishek Ray, both professors in the information systems and operations management area at Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, are researching how online ad networks, such as Google Ads, can improve upon existing anti-fraud methods. Their recently published paper in Management Science explores deep-rooted dynamics of the online ad ecosystem that make eliminating fraud even more complicated than it may seem at first glance. The paper was co-authored by Subodha Kumar of Temple University.

The researchers used a game-theoretic model to replicate the interconnected decision-making of the three players involved: advertisers, publishers, and the networks that serve as go-between.

“The way the ecosystem works is that the platforms in the middle, the ad networks, shares the benefit from the transaction,” Chen explains. “People have been arguing whether the network is incentivized to put their best efforts behind deterring fraud, since the fraudulent traffic benefits the networks too. So we tried to create a model to capture this.”

“If the advertisers rely solely on the reports from the ad networks, they may be at risk. They should use third-party tools to audit the performance better.”

—Min Chen, information systems and operations management professor at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

In addition, the model incorporates the two main fraud deterrents that networks routinely use. One is technological—platforms can adopt tougher standards for fraud detection, widening the scope of suspicious activity that gets flagged. The other is economic—lowering payments to all publishers so as to disincentivize large-scale fraud.

Surprisingly, the researchers find that the online ad economy works best when the two approaches seem to be working at cross-purposes. A tightening in fraud detection technology, paired with high payments for publishers, may sometimes produce the best outcomes for advertisers, publishers, and networks, as the market evolves.

The reason is rooted in the imperfect nature of fraud detection. To be sure, detection systems are improving all the time, especially with the advent of AI. But fraudsters do their best to blend in and adapt, using technological tools that often outpace those of their pursuers. “You cannot catch all the fraud, and if you try, you are going to mis-detect a lot of non-fraud,” Chen says.

Tougher fraud detection, then, will always mean more false positives, no matter how good the technology gets. To counter this inherent unfairness that penalizes good and bad actors alike, the ad network’s payment to publishers need to go up. Otherwise, publishers may take their business elsewhere—especially those most valuable to the system, i.e. those that are trustworthy— thereby decreasing the advertisers’ valuation on ad traffic.

Abhishek Ray. Photo by Jeffrey Porovich/Costello College of Business

“These ad networks are kind of a unique system where you can be monetarily rewarded for being honest, or punished for being dishonest,” Ray says. “What we discover for this system is there can be a way in which we can give carrots to people, not just sticks.”

On a similar note, the researchers find that an attempt to purge “bad apple” advertisers from the system can backfire due to false positives. In fact, fraud can sharply increase if networks, believing they have solved the problem, relax their fraud detection standards and raise incentives for the remaining advertisers. “Since the publishers who produce the fraudulent traffic are fewer now, the ad network may no longer need to maintain a strict detection policy. This can encourage the remaining ones to commit much more fraud,” Chen explains.

To Ray and Chen, online ad fraud is, in at least one sense, no different from older forms of malfeasance that are found in all free societies. “We need to have some kind of mechanism for managing the level of fraud, because the fraud detection method is never going to be perfect, whether it’s financial fraud, accounting fraud, etc.,” Chen says.

But as an example of the contemporary platform economy, the online advertising ecosystem is also distinctive, in that its de facto regulatory authority has skin in the game. The ad networks’ mixed incentives—as both beneficiaries and inhibitors of fraud—can undermine integrity and trust within an already-compromised system.

“If the advertisers rely solely on the reports from the ad networks, they may be at risk,” Chen says. “They should use third-party tools to audit the performance better.”

In This Story

Min Chen

Abhishek Ray

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ISOM Faculty Research

Information Systems and Operations Management Area

Fiscal Patriots take first place in national AGA Datathon

Katelynn C Hipolito — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:01:20 +0000

Fiscal Patriots take first place in national AGA Datathon Katelynn C Hipolito Mon, 03/09/2026 - 13:01

This year’s AGA Datathon—a nationwide competition challenging college students to apply their data science skills to solve real-world government accountability problems—drew talent from many of the nation’s top business colleges. The Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ was well represented by the team known as the Fiscal Patriots, who rose above the competition to capture first place.

Fiscal Patriots receive the first-place prize check at Datathon. Courtesy of Fiscal Patriots.

The Fiscal Patriots formed quickly through existing academic connections. “I was introduced to this competition through Professor Mike Wetklow [instructor in accounting] when I took his class in advanced accounting analytics, Accounting 665, last year,” said Khaled Alkurd, an accounting analytics and forensic accounting student. “When I learned about it again this year, I knew I wanted to build a team and compete.”

Mariam Debas, an accounting and management information systems (MIS) student, had also expressed interest, so Professor Wetklow connected the two. Already familiar from a previous project, they expanded their team by inviting Andy Yaro, a cyber security engineering student, and Nikita Chandrasing, an MIS and business analytics student.

To round out the team, Chandrasing reached out to Pranavi Doodala, a business analytics student, who had been a finalist in George �鶹��Ƶ’s capstone competition a few weeks prior. The five students quickly established a strong dynamic and a well-rounded foundation for the work ahead.

From left, Andy Yaro, Mariam Debas, Nikita Chandrasing, Pranavi Doodala, and Khaled Alkurd. Courtesy of Fiscal Patriots

During the month leading up to the first phase of the competition, the Fiscal Patriots focused on refining their responses to various prompts they could expect at the Datathon. Wetklow provided the team with initial guidance, helping them decide on which direction to take. Later, Clement Chen, adjunct professor in management, reviewed their work and provided crucial feedback to strengthen the team’s submission.

Presented with three options to choose from, the Fiscal Patriots selected the use case of visualizing government spending data in an interactive, innovative format that would make complex financial information more accessible to the public. The result was AuditsMadeSimple, a website that serves as a launchpad for understanding federal spending and audit data. Broken into four distinct features—exploratory visualizations, a 50+ term glossary of auditing terms, a dataset guide, and case studies—the platform allows users without a technical background to interpret, contextualize, and better understand government accountability data.

“We’re really hoping to showcase the accessibility of the features we’ve carefully curated on this website and how they effectively make federal spending and audit data understandable to the average citizen,” said Doodala.

“This achievement was a year in the making with George �鶹��Ƶ's first advanced accounting analytics class a year ago,” said Wetklow. “From the time I first met Khaled, his skills were apparent. What’s equally impressive was the full team—each with a unique superpower that demonstrated the Costello-�鶹��Ƶ edge.”

—Mike Wetklow, accounting instructor at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

In the opening round of the AGA Datathon, the Fiscal Patriots made their presentation in front of the panel of judges. During the 20-minute virtual session, they walked through their website before receiving feedback on content, delivery, and other insights to keep in mind for the competition’s final round.

Polished and poised, the Fiscal Patriots delivered their final presentation on February 18 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Winning the top prize validated their preparation and commitment, but the Fiscal Patriots had so many other takeaways from the competition. “I got involved in this challenge because I just wanted to apply my skills,” said Debas. “Coming from an MIS and accounting background, I’ve built a strong foundation across both disciplines. What really excited me about this competition was the opportunity to focus on real-world government financial challenges.”

Chandrasing found that the competition helped her experiment with future career pathways. “Because one of my career goals is to become a product manager, I think creating the documentation for what the requirements for that would be really aligned with that,” she said.

“This achievement was a year in the making with George �鶹��Ƶ's first advanced accounting analytics class a year ago,” said Wetklow. “From the time I first met Khaled, his skills were apparent. What’s equally impressive was the full team—each with a unique superpower that demonstrated the Costello-�鶹��Ƶ edge.”

Together, the Fiscal Patriots proved that when diverse skill sets unite around a shared mission, the results speak for themselves—and they speak loudly enough to earn the top spot on a national stage.

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A.I. and Innovation - Costello

Why choosing stuff to share is an ordeal

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:25:19 +0000

Why choosing stuff to share is an ordeal Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 02/10/2026 - 14:25

Whether ordering a pizza to split with friends or planning a family excursion, better communication can help reduce the anxiety that surrounds joint-consumption situations.

Sharaya Jones. Photo by Jeffrey Porovich/Costello of College of Business.

We’ve all been there—shopping not just for ourselves, but also for someone else. Maybe you know them well and know exactly what they want, but what if you aren’t sure? What if it's a group of people? What do you get? Something popular like pizza could always be good. Maybe that spicy nacho dip you love, but would they like it? Do they even like spicy things? It’s anxiety-inducing, and Sharaya Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, decided to ask why.

Her recently published paper in Journal of Marketing Research is the culmination of five years of research targeting an understudied area of consumer psychology: joint consumption. Jones started the paper as a PhD student looking into decision-making for groups; her co-author Margaret Campbell, marketing professor at University of California Riverside, was her dissertation advisor.

“Marketing and consumer decisions often focus on individual consumers, but quite often we don't make decisions for just ourselves, we also make them for ourselves and others," says Jones. “We should have more research that looks at social contexts and marketers should be aware of when these different contexts arise, because they can make a significant impact.”

Her initial inspiration, however, came from her own life. “I'm an extrovert, and despite how often I enjoy hanging out with others, I would find those [group] decisions anxiety-inducing,” she says.

The paper’s seven experiments randomly assigned participants—numbering over 2,000 in total—to make a consumption choice either for themselves, for another person or for sharing. They also filled out psychological surveys on their emotions regarding the purchase.

As predicted by the researchers, participants making purchases for sharing experienced more anxiety, which was linked to a sense of responsibility and a lack of confidence in their ability to please both parties. “It’s not that it makes the decision more difficult,” Jones points out. “You’re still choosing between the same three options. But what changes is the emotional nature of the decision.” The anxiety was heightened when purchasers didn’t know the preferences of their co-consumer or knew only that their co-consumers’ preferences differed from their own.

“Marketing and consumer decisions often focus on individual consumers, but quite often we don't make decisions for just ourselves, we also make them for ourselves and others. We should have more research that looks at social contexts and marketers should be aware of when these different contexts arise, because they can make a significant impact.”

— Sharaya Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

This anxiety affected not only the consumer’s state of mind but also their choices. When making shared choices, they selected safer bets, such as wines that were presented as “the most popular” or snack assortments offering something for everyone.

Jones’s insights can help marketers better understand the decision-making that goes into, for example, planning a Super Bowl or Oscars watch party. “Marketers would definitely want to have variety packs and highlight what the popular choice is, knowing that consumers are going to be making these decisions for groups, not just themselves,” says Jones.

Offering advice for consumers, she also emphasizes that uncertainty about other people’s preferences is the main source of anxiety in joint-consumption situations. While it might feel demanding or impolite to state a strong preference, the person choosing will likely be relieved that you spoke up.

“If someone is telling you that they don’t have a preference, then you’re still in this ambiguous stage of, ‘what do I choose?’ with heightened emotion, heightened anxiety,” Jones explains.

Even better, she advises, would be to present a range of preferences, thus making it easier for the buyer to land on a mutually satisfying option. Otherwise, items selected for joint consumption will skew toward the predictable (top sellers, variety packs, etc.).

Similarly, purchasers can relieve their own anxiety by simply “asking people what they want.”

However, Jones can envision a future where the emotional burden of shopping for two will be lessened by AI. “If you don’t really know the other person’s preferences, a lot of people will turn to AI to ask for advice. Asking AI for help could make people feel more confident and alleviate the sense of responsibility,” she says.

Jones plans to continue researching joint purchases, using this paper as a starting point to delve deeper into various contexts and situations.

In This Story

Sharaya Jones

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Costello Research Innovation Strategy

Marketing Faculty Research

A.I. and Innovation - Costello

It takes three types of thinking to be smart

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:07:24 +0000

It takes three types of thinking to be smart Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 02/10/2026 - 14:07

Balancing and combining different kinds of intelligence may be even more important than how much you know, or how you think.

Do you know what it means to be smart? It’s a more complicated question than it may seem. There are several ways to think about intelligence—as the well-known “book-vs.-street smart” binary illustrates. By most people’s definition, a truly smart person would be someone who not only thinks well but is also able to translate thought into concrete steps toward positive and practical goals. Balancing and combining different kinds of intelligence may be even more important than how much you know, or how you think.

Matthew A. Cronin. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

In a recently published technical note, Matthew A. Cronin, professor of management at Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, and his co-author Lillien M. Ellis of the University of Virginia, deconstruct intelligence into three modalities, which they label the Scientist, the Artist and the Judge (or “SAJ,” pronounced “sage”).

As Cronin says, the Scientist is about “logic and evidence…how we know stuff.” The Artist stands for imagination, the ability to conceive possibilities outside what we are given. The Judge is responsible for weighing the morality, appropriateness, etc. of an action or direction.

Cronin contends that we all have a Scientist, Artist and Judge in our minds, but they are often out of balance. “Most people have one of the three that they like the most, and they have that guy command everybody else. And that’s when you have problems,” he says.

As an example, Cronin’s technical note cites Judge-heavy cybersecurity protocols—they valued security but did not account for how memory worked—that forced users to create passwords that were impossible to remember. People wrote them down near their computers, defeating the whole purpose of security. Adding the Scientist and Artist into the mix resulted in innovation, e.g. long passphrases that more easily stick in the mind without needing to be noted down.

According to the SAJ framework, the Artist-Scientist pairing produces discoveries about the world, by relating novel information or situations to what is already known. Collaboration between Artist and Judge is required to formulate a vision, or an imagined realization of desires or ideals deemed worth pursuing. The Scientist and Judge can work together to build skill, or the productive application of knowledge toward a chosen objective.

“You cycle through these roles,” Cronin says. “We can start with what we want, which is the Judge, and how things work, which is the Scientist—but that’s likely only to maximize what we’re already doing. So we have to find a vision that might be better, but we’re almost certainly not going to be able to get that to work without some discovery.”

Building upon Cronin’s 2018 book (co-authored by Jeffrey Loewenstein) The Craft of Creativity, the SAJ framework formalizes how creativity (the Artist) works alongside other cognitive tools to help us think, work, and live better. “People think of creativity as this magical ability. No, it’s a skill that can be developed. If you can think about a subject, you can think creatively about it,” Cronin says.

“AI can tell you whatever you want to know. But that doesn’t guarantee it’s correct—that’s the Scientist. It doesn’t tell you what you should do—that’s the Judge. And it will predict only from the most likely outcomes—definitely not the Artist.”

— Matthew A. Cronin, professor of management at Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

By extension, there’s hope for anyone striving to achieve intellectual balance by strengthening their Scientist, Artist, or Judge—whichever might be a bit undernourished. “Step one is just to make people aware,” Cronin says. “They think either thinking is one undifferentiated blob, or the three are totally remote and separated from one another.”

The SAJ framework can also be an active tool for structuring decision-making in a balanced way. “If I have an idea for the way things could be, I know that I need to also know how they actually work…And when you encounter unbalanced thinking, like a bureaucrat who lacks the imagination (i.e. Artist) to conceive that there may be other ways to deal with a situation, you can remind that person how everything we now take for granted was once thought impossible.”

Cronin has been teaching the SAJ framework in his management courses for more than five years, and he feels it will only grow more impactful as AI challenges organizations to define the value-add that human minds can bring to a problem set.

“AI can tell you whatever you want to know,” he says. “But that doesn’t guarantee it’s correct—that’s the Scientist. It doesn’t tell you what you should do—that’s the Judge. And it will predict only from the most likely outcomes—definitely not the Artist.”

In This Story

Matthew A. Cronin

Topics

Costello Research Innovation Strategy

Management Faculty Research

Costello College of Business

Student consulting group brings expertise to business development in Fairfax City

Sarah Holland — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 20:46:41 +0000

Student consulting group brings expertise to business development in Fairfax City Sarah Holland Fri, 02/06/2026 - 15:46

Experiential learning is one of the ways George �鶹��Ƶ prepares its students for life beyond the classroom. It’s a core part of our mission. For Costello College of Business sophomore and Honors College student Iman Chaudhry, it’s also an inspiration that helped shape �鶹��Ƶ Consulting Group’s (MCG) new venture: pro bono consulting support for local small businesses in Fairfax City.

�鶹��Ƶ Consulting Group presents their recommendations to Make My Day CPA. Photo provided.

MCG began as a means to educate the George �鶹��Ƶ community about consulting as a career path. When Chaudhry, the current president of MCG, began an internship with Fairfax City Economic Development (FCED), she came with a vision for the group to expand their impact and reach through free consulting services for local businesses in Fairfax City.

“It was mutually beneficial: we help strengthen our local community and support small businesses, as well as providing experiential learning opportunities aligned with Costello’s strategic priorities,” she said. “We still want to educate the community about business consulting, while providing real, tangible, experiential learning opportunities to students where they’re working with a real-life client.”

As an intern, Chaudhry served as a bridge between FCED and Costello: “A person on the inside,” she said, who helped make the initiative successful.

With support and guidance from FCED and Costello College of Business, Chaudhry and the group developed the program structure, reviewed applications, selected the inaugural clients, and negotiated a contract with FCED for funding.

MCG completed their first round of consulting in Fall 2025, serving two Fairfax City clients: BE2 Pilates and Make My Day CPA. Throughout the semester, the team held regular meetings with clients to provide updates and pitch ideas; at the end, they presented their final recommendations and deliverables to both businesses and FCED.

“Knowing how to market my business has been my Achilles’ heel,” said Julia Hughes, founder and owner of BE2 Pilates. “I thought I’d toss my hat into the ring when I saw the call for applications for the program.”

The team provided Hughes with a comprehensive social media marketing plan and a range of business development recommendations, such as adding QR codes to business cards and developing a pricing structure for students.

�鶹��Ƶ Consulting Group visits BE2 Pilates with founder and owner Julia Hughes (third from left) and MCG prsident Iman Chaudhry (fourth from left). Photo provided.

“Everything they gave me in terms of deliverables are things that could be started on the small scale and grown over time,” Hughes said. “And their recommendations helped me think outside of the box for business development, thinking more broadly about with whom I can partner, with whom I can connect.”

MCG’s services are free to those businesses that are accepted through the FCED program. Hughes noted that the quality of the business consulting provided was above and beyond her expectations.

“The level of professionalism, the product presented, and the deliverables MCG provided were all of a caliber that far surpassed their years of experience,” said Hughes. “I was quite impressed by them at every step of the way.”

“The �鶹��Ƶ Consulting Group has done an outstanding job diving deep into the consulting world. The students are getting hands-on experience with real clients to understand the dynamics of consulting and the complexities of the business world,” said MCG’s faculty advisor Katherine Rosenbusch, associate professor of management in Costello.

After the success of this first cohort, FCED has agreed to extend funding for another semester. MCG is selecting their next round of clients for the Spring 2026 semester.

“We’re a young club, but I think Costello and George �鶹��Ƶ’s vision of high access and high outcomes makes us stand out,” Chaudhry said. “I want to help put George �鶹��Ƶ on the map as a hub for high-caliber student talent delivering real-world impact."

Learn more about Costello College of Business

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Katherine Rosenbusch

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George �鶹��Ƶ online graduate programs rank among Virginia’s best

ckearney — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:27:58 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ online graduate programs rank among Virginia’s best ckearney Mon, 01/26/2026 - 13:27

�鶹��Ƶ earned top Virginia placements across business, nursing, and education, and leads in the region as a college destination for veterans and working professionals in the 2026 Best Online Programs rankings by U.S. News & World Report, released today.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Recognized as the No. 1 public university in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., region for upward mobility, George �鶹��Ƶ translates access into outcomes through its nationally ranked online programs. Ranked in 13 U.S. News online graduate program categories, the university appears in highly selective fields statewide; in eight of those categories, only a small number of Virginia universities are included, sometimes as few as two or three.

A National Leader for Veterans and Military-Affiliated Students

As a designated Military Friendly® School, George �鶹��Ƶ demonstrates a long-standing commitment to serving military-connected students at scale. Approximately 14% of George �鶹��Ƶ’s 40,000-plus students are current or former service members or military dependents, and approximately one in five freshmen, transfer, and graduate students this year has military ties, making George �鶹��Ƶ a leading destination for military-affiliated learners in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., region.

That commitment translates into nationally recognized outcomes across multiple programs:

Master’s in business programs for veterans ranked No. 1 in Virginia, including both MBA and non-MBA options. The master’s in business (non-MBA) for veterans debuted 18th nationally and 14th among public universities.
The master’s in nursing for veterans pathways was ranked No. 1 in Virginia and among public universities in the Washington, D.C., region.
The master’s in information technology for veterans program ranked 19th nationally and 13th among public universities.
The master’s in education for veterans program ranked 18th nationally and among public universities, placing 2nd in both Virginia and the Washington, D.C., region.

Overall, four of six veteran-focused programs included in the rankings placed in the top 20 nationally, with all six ranking in the top 50, underscoring George �鶹��Ƶ’s role as a regional and national leader in education designed for those who have served.

Beyond rankings, George �鶹��Ƶ provides comprehensive support for military-connected students and their families, grounded in an understanding of the academic, professional, and lived experiences they bring to the university. Through the Military, Veterans, and Families Initiative and the Office of Military Services students are connected to academic advising, career preparation, and regional resources that recognize the realities of military service and transition.

“These rankings are a testament to both the strength of the faculty and curriculum, as well as the overall student experience that we provide for our veterans,” said Keith Renshaw, senior associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of psychology. “They’re reflective of our comprehensive approach to serving those who have served our nation.”

Preparing Business Leaders

George �鶹��Ƶ’s master’s in business programs within the Costello College of Business posted some of the strongest gains this year, with the master’s in business (non-MBA) program climbing 19 spots nationally to 37th, rising 12 spots among public universities to 27th, and ranking 2nd in Virginia.

At a time when many traditional MBA graduates face prolonged job searches, George �鶹��Ƶ’s business programs emphasize practical, career-aligned learning designed for working professionals. This year, two of the university’s four business programs ranked No. 1 in Virginia, with all four placing among the top five statewide, reflecting a consistent focus on applied skills, flexible online delivery, and workforce-aligned preparation.

“We continue to innovate across our online programs and the significant rise in our master’s in business ranking, along with our online business programs placing within Virginia’s top 5, are indicative of Costello’s growing prestige among business schools in our region,” said Cheryl Druehl, interim dean of the Costello College of Business. “These rankings reinforce our success in delivering an educational experience that meets learners' needs—with graduate programs that emphasize career outcomes, flexibility, and affordability.”

Excellence Across Key Academic Disciplines

Strong national and regional standing was also evident across multiple master’s programs, including education, nursing, engineering, and information technology.

In education, George �鶹��Ƶ stands out for its national leadership in special education, a field facing persistent workforce shortages in Virginia and across the country. The master’s in special education ranked 7th overall and 8th among public universities, being only one of two Virginia universities included in the category.

That leadership aligns with George �鶹��Ƶ’s broader efforts to address special education workforce challenges. Through innovative training programs, the university is helping prepare the next generation of special education leaders through a focus on evidence-based practice, policy expertise, and leadership training.

"National recognition matters because it affirms the responsibility we carry,” said Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of the College of Education and Human Development. “These rankings reflect the depth of our faculty’s expertise and our focus on preparing educators and leaders who think critically, continue learning and adapting, and work across boundaries to solve real-world challenges.”

The School of Nursing within George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Public Health also earned strong recognition as demand for nurses remains high across Virginia and the country. The master’s in nursing ranked No. 1 in Virginia and among public universities in the Washington, D.C., region, placing 41st nationally among public universities. The master’s in nursing for veterans program ranked 15th nationally and 10th among public universities, reinforcing George �鶹��Ƶ’s role in preparing nurses to meet growing health care demands.

"At the School of Nursing, we advance nursing excellence by offering flexible, accessible pathways to advanced degrees,” said Dean Melissa Perry, College of Public Health. “Through online and veteran-focused options, we are strengthening the nursing workforce and preparing graduates to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care in a rapidly changing health care environment. The recognition as the top program in Virginia reflects the College of Public Health's commitment to developing tomorrow’s leaders in health care."

George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing demonstrated strength across engineering and information technology programs aligned with high-demand technical fields critical to the region’s innovation economy. The master’s in industrial engineering ranked 11th nationally, and several programs placed among the top 50 nationally, including master’s in engineering (50th), master’s in engineering for veterans (34th), and the master’s in information technology (38th).

“We’re happy to be so well represented in this year’s rankings,” said Ken Ball, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing. “Our college has a successful history in online education, which includes offering George �鶹��Ƶ’s first online master’s degree—a master’s in computer science—in 2005. We’re proud to provide flexible learning opportunities that support one of the university’s Grand Challenge [Initiative] solutions: advancing 21st-century education for all.”

Commitment to Access

Taken together, these rankings reflect George �鶹��Ƶ’s sustained investment in education that expands access, strengthens workforce pipelines, and delivers meaningful outcomes. For veterans, working adults, and post-traditional students, George �鶹��Ƶ’s online programs support upward mobility and regional impact across high-demand fields.

View the full list of George �鶹��Ƶ in the Rankings

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College of Education and Human Development

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Costello Scholarship Luncheon

Graduate Education

Costello Scholarship Luncheon showcases growth in named scholarship funding

Katelynn C Hipolito — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 20:39:51 +0000

Costello Scholarship Luncheon showcases growth in named scholarship funding Katelynn C Hipolito Wed, 12/17/2025 - 15:39

The Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ recently announced a significant increase in scholarship money awarded to students—$1.3 million for the 2024-25 academic year—$500,000 of which went to named scholarships. Over the past five years, both the total amount of scholarship funding and the number of students who have received Costello scholarships have more than doubled.

Costello scholarship recipients. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

As outlined by Ajay Vinzé, interim provost and executive vice president of �鶹��Ƶ, priority number one at Costello is student readiness and career preparedness. “Scholarships play a huge role in the success of our students,” he said.

Costello celebrated donors and scholarship recipients on November 18 at the annual Costello Scholarship Luncheon. The luncheon featured an inspiring lineup of speakers whose lives and careers have been shaped by scholarship support. Mitchell Cho, founder and CEO of FedWriters, Inc. (FWI), and a proud George �鶹��Ƶ alum, shared his journey. As a student, he said, he was not the overachiever some might assume. What he did have was persistence and grit. Today, as a member of the Corporate and Community Partners Program, Cho views scholarships as an investment in the future. “Supporting scholarship is not just about philanthropy for us,” he said. “It’s about investing in the future.”

Longtime donor Jim Beers, retired managing partner of Beers & Cutler, encouraged students to keep pushing forward toward their dreams. “It’s so important what you’re doing now—and it will be even more important after you graduate,” he said.

Sandra Flores, BS Business Analytics ‘23, MS Business Analytics ‘25, Historian of the Costello Alumni Chapter, speaking at the Costello Scholarship Luncheon. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

Current students also shared their heartfelt reflections.

“Something I really appreciate about Costello is how it helps us grow,” said Iman Choudry, recipient of the Robert Amy Scholarship.

Historian of the Costello Alumni Chapter Sandra Flores, BS Business Analytics ‘23, MS Business Analytics ‘25, credited her donor’s generosity for making her dreams possible. “I made a promise that I would give back when I can,” she said.

“I made a promise that I would give back when I can,” she said.

— Sandra Flores, BS Business Analytics ‘23, MS Business Analytics ‘25, Historian of the Costello Alumni Chapter

While the speeches inspired and provided valuable insights, the luncheon’s greatest asset was bringing students and their donors together to express gratitude, network, and to ask questions. Many of the donors once stood in the shoes of the recipients, facing similar challenges.

Costello scholarship donors and Costello Alumni Chapter members. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

The Costello Scholarship Luncheon is a proud tradition, celebrating both student achievement and the generosity of donors. With the named scholarship funding continuing to rise, the Costello College of Business is sending a clear message that their business is student success.

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In This Story

Ajay Vinzé, PhD

Sandra Flores, '23

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Scholarships

Corporate and Community Partners Program

Costello College of Business Scholarships

Costello College of Business Alumni

Costello College of Business Students

�鶹��Ƶ Now: Power the Possible

philanthropy

Are salespeople more effective when they’re being monitored?

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:28:57 +0000

Are salespeople more effective when they’re being monitored? Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 12/16/2025 - 10:28

How employees respond to being under surveillance depends on a number of factors, including how good they are at their jobs.

Digital and online technologies have made our workplace routines faster and easier. They have also made it easier for managers to keep tabs on workers, via monitoring apps designed to capture whether employees are “working hard, or hardly working.”

Brad Greenwood. Photo provided.

But for researchers such as Brad Greenwood and Ioannis Bellos, professors in the information systems and operations management (ISOM) area at �鶹��Ƶ’s Costello College of Business, the jury’s still out on whether the latest worker surveillance tech actually benefits performance, productivity, efficiency, etc., especially in certain key sectors.

“Prior research has identified both harms and benefits stemming from worker surveillance,” they state. “But very little research has been done in the retail or sales space, especially in a real-life sales environment as opposed to the lab.”

In contrast, Bellos and Greenwood’s forthcoming academic paper in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management homes in on one China-based company, an online supplier of baby products (diapers, formula, etc.) to physical retail stores. This B2B company employs hundreds of salespeople to partner directly with small-business owners, not only on promotion and upselling but also helping solve marketing and operational challenges related to the product line. Naturally, the sales force’s job description includes a lot of in-person, on-site collaboration.

The paper was co-authored by Yingda Lu of University of Illinois at Chicago and Liqiang Huang of Zhejiang University.

In 2019, the company issued phones equipped with GPS technology to track the frequency and length of salespeople’s site visits. This was not a secret program; sales teams were told they would be tracked via GPS. Due to a technical glitch, not all salespeople received the phones at the same time. The erratic rollout allowed the research team to draw clean comparisons between monitored and unmonitored employees within the same timeframe.

Almost immediately, monitored salespeople began making more client visits, spending longer at each store and engaging in a wider variety of tasks each time. As a result, overall sales performance—i.e., the gross merchandise value (GMV) of goods sold to clients—rose about 4.75 percent over the pre-surveillance average.

Ioannis Bellos. Photo by Office of University Branding

But that wasn’t the whole story. The GMV for top-performing salespeople went down once they knew they were being monitored, despite the fact that they—like the rest of the sales force—ramped up their sales activity to look good for the GPS. The critical difference was that top performers had successful routines before the GPS came in. Once they started performing for Big Brother, rather than continuing with their familiar working patterns, their outcomes started to suffer.

“If you tell underperformers ‘We’re going to monitor you,’ it lights a fire under them,” Greenwood says. “But if you tell high performers the same thing, they try to guess what they think you want them to do and do that rather than just doing their job.”

The researchers discovered that engaging in more sales calls resulted in diminishing returns for the best salespeople, because they were spreading their skills too thin across a less profitable pool of clients.

Bellos and Greenwood envision that declining commissions and a disrupted work routine for top performers could lead to negative outcomes for the company. For example, some star salespeople could become disengaged and even start looking for work elsewhere.

“When it comes to these sorts of MVPs, anything that harms their relationship with the firm opens the door to some very real negatives,” Greenwood says.

For Greenwood and Bellos, this speaks to the need for companies to be nuanced and strategic in their approaches to worker surveillance. “Whether monitoring works or doesn’t work will have a lot to do with individuals,” they state. “When we treat people like monoliths, it’s hard to understand what’s really going on. You can improve high-level performance while at the same time sub-optimizing other aspects of the firm.”

Sometimes, proper communication and clarity can make monitoring less problematic, the researchers contend. If employees are fully briefed on the goals and uses of monitoring programs, they won’t have to rely on guesswork as they adjust their routines. This is especially true for workers with a diverse and complicated portfolio of tasks, such as the sales force in Bellos and Greenwood’s study.

“In our study, salespeople had a high degree of freedom in that within each store, they have several tasks to perform. Plus, each salesperson services multiple stores,” says Bellos. “Managers and platforms need to factor [task diversity] in on the implementation side.”

“In our study, salespeople had a high degree of freedom in that within each store, they have several tasks to perform. Plus, each salesperson services multiple stores. Managers and platforms need to factor [task diversity] in on the implementation side.”

— Ioannis Bellos, Director of Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Management Programs, and Business Certificates

In This Story

Brad Greenwood

Ioannis Bellos

Topics

A.I. & Innovation - Costello

Costello Research Innovation Strategy

Costello Research Retail

Operations - Costello

ISOM Faculty Research

Costello College of Business Students

Global residency empowers Costello MBA student’s entrepreneurial dreams

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:03:01 +0000

Global residency empowers Costello MBA student’s entrepreneurial dreams Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 12/16/2025 - 10:03

Supreet Singh, MS Computer Forensics '14, balances coursework with a demanding career, while gaining a lifelong network of colleagues and friends.

Supreet Singh, current Costello MBA student. Photo provided by Supreet Singh.

After years of taking classes as an extended student at George �鶹��Ƶ and advancing in her engineering career, Supreet Singh decided to take a leap and enroll in the Costello MBA program at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George �鶹��Ƶ, to pursue a lifelong dream: starting her own business.

One highlight of her MBA experience has been the program’s global residency, which offers students a week abroad exploring real companies and cultures. “Growing up in India, the world awareness was very small,” says Singh. She was fascinated to learn about apartheid and its effects on business and culture, as well as the similarities between the colonialism of South Africa and that of India.

The Costello faculty member leading the trip, Russell Abratt, an instructional professor of marketing, had assigned the class half a dozen South African companies—ranging from an airlines company to a children’s music school—to research and present on prior to their departure. After gaining a perspective on the companies through research, they were able to ask questions during the residency to truly understand how each company operates.

The residency was a remarkable cultural experience that Singh was happy to share with the other students in her cohort. “We were really connected with each other,” she says. “The last day there we went to a restaurant where you get to play drums and dance on the dance floor.”

Looking ahead to graduation in spring 2026, Singh already feels more assured in her role as lead engineer at College Board. “Taking those finance classes, I feel very confident that I have built more awareness, and confident that I can move forward with cybersecurity,” she says. She also values the program’s flexibility, which has enabled her to balance coursework with a demanding career and personal commitments.

While Singh enjoys her engineering work, her ultimate goal is entrepreneurship—perhaps launching a dog food company or a café. “My end goal in life is to be able to start my own business, and I think this program has given me tools to do that on my own,” she says. Beyond skills, Singh has gained a strong network that she stays connected with for professional opportunities and social activities like hiking.

“My end goal in life is to be able to start my own business, and I think this program has given me tools to do that on my own,” she says.

— Supreet Singh, current Costello MBA student

Singh’s Costello MBA is not only a launchpad for her entrepreneurial dreams—it also provides a lifelong network of colleagues and friends.

Supreet Singh with the Costello MBA Program’s global residency students at the Cape of Good Hope. Photo provided by Supreet Singh.

In This Story

Russell Abratt

Topics

Graduate programs