[Game Theory Reading] Reading: (Thu 1:15pm) Pandora's Problem in Negotiation

[Dengji Zhao]

Dear all,

In this Thursday's game theory reading group, Dr Tim Baarslag will give us
a talk about his research in negotiation, especially the application of
Pandora Problem.

Time/Venue: 21 May, 1:15pm - 2:00pm / B32 3073

Online participation:
https://sites.google.com/site/sotonecsreadinggroups/home

Title: Pandora's Problem - a technique from search theory to deal with
uncertainty and cost.

Abstract:
In this talk, I will introduce a problem from search theory called Pandora
Problem. The problem deals with optimizing reward while searching through
boxes with uncertain prizes, which can be uncovered against a certain cost.
Pandora's Problem not only has a wide range of possible applications, it
also has a surprisingly elegant and optimal solution. I will provide some
intuition behind the solution and then show an application of this
technique in the form of a negotiating agent that can adapt itself to the
user. In such a negotiation setting, it is essential for the agent to
understand the user's preferences, without exposing them to elicitation
fatigue. I discuss a new model, using Pandora's Rule, in which a
negotiating agent may incrementally elicit the user's preference during the
negotiation.  This yields an optimal elicitation strategy that decides, at
every stage of the negotiation, how much additional user information to
extract at a certain cost.

To access all previous talks:
https://sites.google.com/site/sotonecsreadinggroups/resources

Best,
Dengji
--------------------------------
Dengji Zhao
Research Fellow
Agents, Interaction, and Complexity Group (AIC)
School of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
http://dengji-zhao.net
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