Title: Mechanism Design and Analysis Using Simulation-Based Game Models

Speaker: Yevgeniy "Eugene" Vorobeychik, University of Michigan

Date/Time: Monday, January 25, 2010, 10:00 am        

Location: CSRI/90 in NM and 915/S101 in CA

Brief Abstract: I present a general framework for automated mechanism design on constrained design spaces when the outcomes of strategic interactions between the mechanism designer and participants are specified using a simulation. At the core of the framework lies a black-box stochastic optimization algorithm which guides the selection process of candidate mechanisms. I demonstrate the efficacy of such an approach using several applications to two-player design problems. A critical component of mechanism design based on simulations is an algorithm for approximately solving simulation-based games. I present several such algorithms, one of which is provably convergent, and experimentally assess their relative merits.

Yevgeniy Vorobeychik is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Computer and Information Science department. His work focuses on simulation-based game theory and mechanism design, algorithmic game theory, network economics, and machine learning.

CSRI POC: Jean-Paul Watson, (505) 845-8887