[Colloquium] Reminder: Robert Kleinberg Speaking, TTI-C, Today @ 3:00 pm

[Katherine Cumming]

TOYOTA TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE TALK
 
Thursday, February 10th, 3:00 pm
TTI-C Conference Room (1427 E. 60th St. - 2nd Floor) 
Refreshments provided
 
 
Speaker: Robert D. Kleinberg, MIT
Speaker's homepage: http://theory.csail.mit.edu/~rdk/
 
Title: Adaptive Algorithms for Electronic Markets
 
Abstract: 
The study of online markets is an emerging topic which blends computer
science, economics, and stochastic optimization.  This talk will address
theoretical aspects of electronic markets, focusing on fundamental
questions such as, "How can one quantify the value of economic
information?" by considering such questions in the context of online
auctions in which a seller allocates identical goods to buyers who
arrive and depart over time.  In particular, we will study two problems:
 
(1)  If buyers arrive in a predetermined order and the
seller must present a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer to each
of them in turn, what is the optimal adaptive price-setting algorithm?
To what extent can this algorithm match the revenue of an informed
seller who knows the demand curve in advance?
 
(2)  If buyers can strategically misrepresent their arrival
or departure time, how does this affect the outcome of the auction, in
terms of properties such as revenue and allocative efficiency?
 
      While such problems are important in their own right,
their appeal also stems from the fact that they point to relations
between electronic markets and classical topics in probability and
stochastic optimization, namely the "secretary" and "multi-armed bandit"
problems and their generalizations.  By deriving new results in these
two areas while also drawing on existing techniques, we supply adaptive
pricing algorithms and lower bounds for the two problems described
above.
 
      Parts of this talk represent joint work with Tom
Leighton, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, and David Parkes.
 
 
SPEAKER BIO:
        Robert Kleinberg is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in
the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
at M.I.T., working in theoretical computer science under the advisorship
of Tom Leighton.  His research interests include economic aspects of
algorithms, online learning and its applications, and optimization
problems in network routing.
>From 1999 to 2002, he worked for Akamai Technologies,
developing technologies for Internet mapping and streaming media content
delivery.
 
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