Optimal Social Decision Making

Nisarg Shah

Abstract: How can computers help ordinary people make collective decisions about real-life dilemmas, like which restaurant to go to with friends, or even how to divide an inheritance? In this talk, I will present an optimization-driven approach that draws on ideas from AI, theoretical computer science, and economic theory, and illustrate it through my research in computational social choice and computational fair division. In both areas, I will make a special effort to demonstrate how fundamental theoretical questions underlie the design and implementation of deployed services -- Spliddit.org and RoboVote.org that are already used by more than a hundred thousand people.