January 28, 2021

#19 Yair Zick- Algorithmic Mechanism Design

1 hour 22 minutes

My guest today is Yair Zick. He is an assistant professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing. He was also a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University from 2014 to 2016, and completed his PhD at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Please enjoy the show.

Show Notes

[1:43] Brouwer fixed-point theorem and its relevance to game theory

[5:13] What is algorithmic mechanism design?

[12:28] What are constraints that make division of goods really hard to solve?

[24:57] Utilitarianism, egalitarianism and Nash bargaining solution

[32:40] Pre-requisites for certain conditions in algorithmic mechanism design (e.g. fairness) to hold

[37:30] Why is National University of Singapore’s former module allocation system overly complicated?

[48:52] What is Yair’s research process like? What is sub-modular property in allocation of goods?

[1:01:40] Optimising schedule for productivity

[1:06:30] Current readings

[1:14:14] Thoughts on love and marriage

[1:19:31] Aspirations for his children and parenting philosophy

Mentions

Brouwer fixed-point theorem

Connect

If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).

Outro

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.

Music credits