"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):
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.