*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Video of this talk is available at: https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/55928
Full collection of talk videos are available at: https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/46836Algorithms & Randomness Center (ARC)
Brendan Lucier – Microsoft Research
Monday, October 3, 2016
Klaus 1116 East - 11:00 am
Title:
Prices, Auctions, and Combinatorial Prophet Inequalities
Abstract:
The most common way to sell resources, from apples to business licenses to concert tickets, is to post prices. A choice of prices can be viewed as an algorithm for an online stochastic optimization problem, which makes decisions using value thresholds. This connection provides an opportunity to use the famous prophet inequality -- which describes the power of threshold rules -- to study pricing problems, and vice-versa. In this talk I'll present a general framework for deriving new prophet inequalities using economic insights from pricing, with algorithmic applications. Along the way, I'll describe an unexpected connection between posted prices and equilibria of non-truthful auctions.
Based on joint works with Paul Duetting, Michal Feldman, Nick Gravin, and Thomas Kesselheim.
Bio:
Brendan Lucier is a Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England. Prior to joining Microsoft, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. His research interests lie in the intersection of theoretical Computer Science and Economics, and include algorithmic market design, algorithmic pricing, and social processes on networks. He is especially interested in the tradeoffs between simplicity, robustness, and optimality in markets for complex goods and services.
Fall 2016 ARC Seminar Schedule
