Founded in 1966

Ph.D. Proposal

EVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS FOR ALGORITHMIC GAME THEORY

Christine Chung (CS Grad/Pitt)

Friday, October 3rd, 2008
10:30am - SENSQ 6329 - Board Room

Abstract

Traditionally, problems in computer science have been amenable to solutions designed by the creator of a central algorithm. However, the growing pervasiveness of the internet and its new technologies has brought forth a new class of problems in computer science: those in which the strategic interaction of independent, self-interested entities must be accounted for. New internet-based settings have, for the first time, forced computer scientists to face a fact that economists came to grips with long ago: solutions in the real world are not always dictated by a central authority, but often formed by the aggregation of the actions of separate, autonomous agents. If we have no control over the decisions of these autonomous agents, what *can* we do?

This new question has fueled the entwining of computer science with game theory, and has brought the field of algorithmic game theory to fruition. The goal of our research is to contribute to shaping and enriching this new area. We wish to widen the breadth of computer scientists' understanding of game theory by introducing the application of lesser-known and more progressive areas of game theory, and we also seek to supply game theoretic frameworks and analyses for a wider range of applied areas of computer science. Specifically, our goals are (1) to bring evolutionary game theory more fully to the attention of computer scientists by demonstrating its usefulness as an analytical and evaluative tool, and (2) to use game theoretic models and tools for a theoretical treatment of problems in applied areas of computer science such as data streams and internet traffic congestion.

Dissertation Adviser

Dr. Kirk Pruhs, Department of Computer Science

Committee Members

Dr. Panos K. Chrysanthis, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Alexandros Labrinidis, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Avrim Blum, Carnegie Mellon University

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