CAREER: Networked Game Theory and Mechanism Design

这个职业项目研究社交网络的理论特性。 研究的重点是两方面的：首先，创建模型来解释社交网络的形成和演变。特别强调的是社交网络和社会行为，如吸烟或职业选择的共同进化。接下来，这些模型被用来帮助社会规划者为网络化社会构建系统，比如说，最大限度地传播特定的社会规范，或者从社交产品的销售中产生大量收入。 所提出的建模技术结合联合收割机经济理论和随机过程与标准图论，以生成的模型，捕捉两个自我激励的利益，个人在社交网络以及随机性固有的社会互动。诱导的社会规划问题往往是计算棘手的，因此，所提出的技术也将近似算法和平均情况下的分析，试图设计实用和高效的systems.The更广泛的影响，拟议的研究将提高认识和理解的权力社交网络，使更有效和高效的设计系统中运行的背景下，社交网络。 这些进步可用于通过引导网络演变来创建和促进社交网络平台，促进诸如反吸烟规范或慈善捐款等有益于社会的行为，并通过增加面向社会的产品的收入来帮助刺激经济。 PI还将开展几项教育和推广工作，重点关注标准学术机构以外的个人。 PI将通过科普文章和科学咖啡馆接触高中生和在职成年人。 此外，PI将通过现场暑期学校向伊朗、约旦河西岸和乌干达等发展中国家传播知识，以促进对这些国家未来至关重要的科学和教育。

This CAREER project studies the theoretical properties underlying social networks. The focus of the research is two-fold: first, models are created to explain the formation and evolution of social networks. Particular emphasis is placed on the co-evolution of social networks and social behaviors such as smoking or the choice of profession. Next, these models are leveraged to help social planners build systems for networked societies that, say, maximize the spread of a particular social norm or generate large revenue from the sale of a socially-enabled product. The proposed modeling techniques combine economic theory and stochastic processes with standard graph theory in order to generate models that capture both the self-motivated interests of individuals in social networks as well as the randomness inherent in social interactions. The induced social planning problems are often computationally-intractable, so the proposed techniques also incorporate approximation algorithms and average-case analysis in an attempt to design practical and efficient systems.The broader impact of the proposed research will be to increase awareness and understanding of the power of social networks, enabling more effective and efficient design of systems that operate in the context of social networks. Such advances can be used to create and facilitate social networking platforms by guiding the network evolution, to promote socially-beneficial behaviors such as anti-smoking norms or charitable contributions, and to help stimulate the economy by increasing revenues of socially-oriented products. The PI will also pursue several educational and outreach efforts, focusing on individuals outside standard academic institutions. The PI will reach out to high school students and working adults through popular science articles and Science Cafes. Additionally, the PI will disseminate knowledge to developing nations such as Iran, the West Bank, and Uganda through onsite summer schools in an effort to promote the science and education that are fundamental and essential for those nations' futures.