Vincent Conitzer, Sally Dalton Robinson Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Economics at Duke, will speak on "Algorithmic Economics: How Computer Science Lets Us Put Economic Theory to Work" as part of the year-long Provost Lecture Series at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, in 136 Social Sciences Bldg.
The free, public talk will explore examples where computer scientists and economists have joined forces to build markets driven by algorithms and data, such as online ad auctions and kidney exchanges. How should we act strategically in the presence of others? How should we design efficient markets? Economic theory provides elegant answers to such questions. However, even economists themselves often see these answers just as idealizations from which to draw some intuition.
In practice, it is generally thought, it would not be feasible to gather all the information that the theory requires, let alone to perform the needed computations on these data. But this view is rapidly becoming outdated.
Conitzer will then focus on algorithms that are now used to strategically schedule, among others, checkpoints at LAX and Federal Air Marshals on flights, based on game theory.
The 2012-13 Provost Lecture Series is called "Information Futures," having speakers discuss the future of informational and computational challenges and opportunities that exist in using "big data." This is the seventh Provost Lecture Series. The purpose of the series is to provide greater depth and a diversity of views on a topic of major public importance and lively debate.