Jay Modi Memorial Lecture Featuring Dr. Tim Roughgarden
Monday, May 16, 2022
11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Lecture Title:
"The Long Arm of Theoretical Computer Science: A Case Study in Blockchains/Web3"
Talk Abstract:"Blockchains
that support a general contract layer (e.g., Ethereum) export the
functionality of a general-purpose, ownerless, and open-access computer
that can enforce property rights for digital data. How is such
functionality implemented? Using a lot of extremely cool computer
science ideas! And like everywhere else in computer science, theory
plays an undeniable role in the understanding and advancement of this
technology. In this talk, I'll highlight three examples (among many):
- Possibility and impossibility results for permissionless consensus (i.e., implementing an "ownerless" computer)
- Incentive-compatible transaction fee mechanism design (part of implementing an "open-access" computer)
- Succinct proofs of computation (for boosting the computer's power by piggybacking on off-chain computation)."
About the Speaker:
Tim Roughgarden
is a professor of computer science at Columbia University.
Prior to joining Columbia, he spent 15 years on the computer science
faculty at Stanford, following a PhD at Cornell and a postdoc at UC
Berkeley. His research interests include the many connections between
computer
science and economics, as well as the design, analysis, applications,
and limitations of algorithms. For his research, he has been awarded the
ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for
Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Kalai Prize in Computer Science
and Game Theory,
the Social Choice and Welfare Prize, the Mathematical Programming
Society's Tucker
Prize, and the EATCS-SIGACT Gödel Prize. He was an invited speaker at
the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians, the Shapley Lecturer
at the 2008 World Congress of the Game Theory Society, and a Guggenheim
Fellow in 2017. He has written or edited ten books and monographs,
including Twenty Lectures on Algorithmic Game Theory (2016), Beyond the
Worst-Case Analysis of Algorithms (2020), and the Algorithms Illuminated
book series (2017-2020).
This
lecture is held to honor former Drexel Computer Science Professor
Pragnesh Jay Modi (1975-2007) and his contributions to the field of
artificial intelligence. Learn more on our
Awards webpage.
Contact Information
raiken@drexel.edu