Computer Science 515 - Computational Social Choice

This course explores the mathematical and computational foundations of public decision-making. We begin with computational social choice, delving into voting systems, Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, and multi-winner voting (also known as committee selection). Next, we examine market design, studying algorithms for the fair division of indivisible goods/chores, divisible goods (also known as cake-cutting), and matching markets. Finally, we explore cooperative game theory, focusing on concepts such as the core, the Shapley value, and coalition formation. We will employ a variety of techniques from both economics and algorithm design, which inform the design of algorithms for large-scale, automated decision making.

MS-CMPSCI students only PREVIOUSLY COMPSCI 590T. LECT 01 FOR UNDERGRADS; LECT 02 FOR GRADS. STUDENTS SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH BASIC CONCEPTS OF PROBABILITY THEORY (EXPECTATION, THE LAW OF TOTAL PROBABILITY), LINEAR OPTIMIZATION (SYNTAX, WHAT IS A PRIMAL AND A DUAL), AND BASIC ALGEBRA (WHAT IS A VECTOR SPACE). SEATS HELD IN LECT 02 FOR INCOMING GRAD STUDENT REGISTRATION. STUDENTS NEEDING SPECIAL PERMISSION MUST REQUEST OVERRIDES VIA THE ON-LINE FORM: https://www.cics.umass.edu/academics/course-overrides