This course is based on selected topics in mechanism design. These topics include stable matching, auctions, selfish routing, games on networks, potential games. This is a research-oriented course, hence students are expected to read and present cutting-edge research topics in this area, and also develop writing skills towards a formal technical report.
The tentative plan of coverage is as follows.
Selected papers from leading conferences and journals on the topic that deals with research in mechanism design in the paradigm of artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems
Part 1 is the lecture part by the instructor. Part 2 is for the students to survey, read, present papers (with help from the teaching staff) on the state-of-the-art of the topics that includes (but are not limited to) those discussed in Part 1. This part also requires every student to do a course project (aim: to extend the state-of-the-art, deliverables: writing a technical report comparable to a formal publication and an end semester presentation).
One exam (midterm) at the end of part 1. For part 2, the technical report and the quality of the presentations will be counted for the evaluation. Both parts have equal weightage.
No specific textbook. The references and lecture notes of CS698W will be useful for the basics of mechanism design. Selected chapters from books and lecture notes may be useful which will be made available during the course. Some examples include: