Course Overview
The field of multiagent systems studies systems of multiple autonomous
entities with diverging information and perhaps interests. This
creates challenges above and beyond single-agent settings since we
must now be additionally concerned with such issues as cooperation,
coordination, and overcoming self-interest of individual
agents in order to reach desirable system-wide goals.
This course covers the mathematical and
computational foundations of multiagent systems, with a focus on game
theoretic analysis of systems in which agents can not be guaranteed to
behave cooperatively.
Prerequisites
This course draws on a wide set of ideas from AI, CS theory and
economics. While there are no formal prerequisites, some of the
topics are quite formal mathematically, and students need to be able
to construct and follow formal proofs.
Please send me
email if you have any questions.
Course Topics (tentative list)
- Games (normal-form, extensive-form, repeated, stochastic, Bayesian)
- Computation of game theoretic solution concepts
- Bounded rationality
- Social choice
- Mechanism design
- Auctions (single item, combinatorial, sponsored search)
- Teams and coalitions
- Multiagent learning
- Applications
Organization
The course will be a combination of lectures and
reading and discussion of research papers. Students will be given
several homework assignments on the material covered in the
lectures. With the research papers, students will be responsible for
presenting them in class and discussing them. Projects will also be
presented in class at the end of the semester.
Grading
- Assignments: 10%
- Presentations: 20%
- Project: 50%
- Class Participation:20%
Class Participation
Class
participation is an important component of this course. Before each
class, all students must read the paper and submit comments and
questions. Things to think about include
- What is the main contribution of the paper?
- Is it important? Why?
- What was the main insight of the paper?
- What assumptions were made?
- What applications might arise from the paper?
- How can the results be extended?
- What was unclear to you?
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic
integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are
expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and
responsibility. All members of the UW community are expected to hold
to the highest standard of academic integrity in their studies,
teaching, and research. The Office of Academic Integrity's website (
www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity)
contains detailed information on UW policy for students and
faculty. This site explains why academic integrity is important and
how students can avoid academic misconduct. It also identifies
resources available on campus for students and faculty to help achieve
academic integrity in and out of the classroom.
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting
some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable
may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student
Petitions and Grievances, Section 4,
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes
academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take
responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an
action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to
avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about rules for group
work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor,
academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct
has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be
imposed under Policy 71 Student Discipline. For information on
categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer
to Policy 71 - Student Discipline,
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm
Avoiding Academic Offenses: Most students are unaware of the
line between acceptable and unacceptable academic behaviour,
especially when discussing assignments with classmates and using the
work of other students. For information on commonly misunderstood
academic offenses and how to avoid them, students should refer to the
Faculty of Mathematics Cheating and Student Academic Discipline
Policy,
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/navigation/Current/cheating_policy.shtml
Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision
made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than
regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground
for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals,
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72