Title: Effective Organization of a Motivated Community to Obtain Effective Algorithmic Solutions

Speaker: Karl Lieberherr, College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston.

Joint Work with Ahmed Abdelmeged (PhD Dissertation) and Ruiyang Xu.

Abstract

We introduce a new game, called side-choosing game, that helps to organize computational problem solving communities and, more generally, constructive formal scientific communities. We study the social choice theory of side-choosing games, including appropriate axioms, a representation theorem and a meritocracy theorem. While traditional social-choice theory studies game-theoretic models of political institutions we study game-theoretic models of formal scientific communities. Effective algorithmic solutions are in high demand in numerous domains, such as big data, and we claim that side-choosing games are an ideal tool to use Human Computation to find effective algorithmic solutions.

Side-choosing games offer the benefit of fair, collusion-resistant peer evaluation without a central authority, thereby lowering the effort of organizing competitions similar to the ones held on TopCoder.com. Side-choosing games are educational for players, giving them targeted feedback on their choices and their defense. We report on our experience in building computational problem solving communities in algorithm and software development courses as a first application of our theory.

Short Bio of Speaker:

Karl Lieberherr is a Professor in the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University. He has contributed to Algorithms (P-optimal Algorithms, Clause Learning for Satisfiability) and Modular Software Design (Law of Demeter and several systems for Adaptive Programming, a kind of Aspect-Oriented Programming). His latest interest is in systems and their foundations for Human Computation for complex tasks, e.g., algorithm development.