A Simple Vision for Fair Division
COM1 Level 2
SR2, COM1-02-04 and via Zoom (Hybrid)
Abstract:
We present recent results on simple algorithms for the fair allocation of indivisible resources. We advocate for the use of simple algorithmic techniques - i.e. ones that are easy to implement and understand by non-expert stakeholders - in real-world applications. We focus on two high-impact application domains: assigning course seats to university students and assigning academic reviewers to papers in large CS conferences. The mechanisms we propose are rather intuitive, but through either combinatorial preprocessing or careful analysis, we show that they are able to provide strong fairness guarantees, as well as high social welfare.
Based on joint works with Nawal Benabbou, Mithun Chakraborty, Ayumi Igarashi, Justin Payan, and Vignesh Viswanathan
Biodata:
Yair Zick is an assistant professor at the College of Information Systems and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the NUS School of Computing. He obtained his PhD (mathematics) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2014, and a B.Sc (mathematics, "Amirim" honors program) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests include computational fair division, computational social choice, algorithmic game theory, and algorithmic transparency. He is the recipient of the 2011 AAMAS Best Student Paper award, the 2014 Victor Lesser IFAAMAS Distinguished Dissertation award, the 2016 ACM EC Best Paper award, the 2017 Singapore NRF Fellowship, and the 2021 IJCAI Early Career Spotlight Award.
Refreshments will be provided after the talk. ALL are welcome