Games on Networks and Quantifying the Resulting Solutions

像Web和Internet这样的大型网络的出现是计算机科学自被认知以来最深刻的焦点转移之一。与单个计算机不同，这些网络是由具有不同目标的多方同时构建、操作和使用的，并且合作和竞争的程度不断变化。当今计算机科学面临的主要挑战之一是成功地构建和管理由如此多样化的用户使用的系统。今天开发的许多复杂技术的未来取决于我们确保参与者合作的能力，尽管他们的目标和利益不同。该项目使用博弈论的工具来研究这样一个多样化的，竞争和合作的用户在网络中的行为，模拟信息和由不同方控制的计算机系统之间的相互作用。算法中的每个参与者都被视为非合作游戏中的玩家，每个玩家都自私地优化自己的目标函数。该研究从博弈论的角度探讨了网络中的一些传统算法问题，包括网络是如何由合作的自私用户形成的，这样的网络如何被用来传播信息，经济如何在这样的网络上工作。在每种情况下，该项目考虑的主要问题是由于参与者的自私行为造成的质量损失。该项目的目的是了解什么是简单和自然的框架，导致有效的系统。

The emergence of large networks like the Web and the Internet is one of the most profound shifts in focus in computer science since its perception. Unlike a single computer, these networks are simultaneously built, operated, and used by multiple parties with a diverse set of goals and with constantly changing degree of cooperation and competition. One of the main challenges faced by computer science today is to successfully build and manage systems used by such diverse set of users. The future of much of the complex technology developed today depends on our ability to ensure that participants cooperate despite their diverse goals and interests. The project uses the tools of game theory for studying the behavior of such a diverse, competing and cooperating set of users in networks modeling the interaction between parts of information and computer systems controlled by different parties. Each participant in an algorithm is viewed as a player in a non-cooperative game, where each player acts to selfishly optimize his or her own objective function. The research approaches some of the traditional algorithmic questions in networks from the perspective of game theory ranging from how networks are formed by cooperating selfish users, how such networks are used to disseminate information, how economies work on such networks. In each case the main issue considered by this project is the quality loss due to selfish behavior of the participants. The project aims to understand what are simple and natural frameworks that lead to efficient systems.