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)
- Introduction to game-theoretic concepts
- Introduction to mechanism design
- Introduction to computational social choice
- Applications
Organization
The course will be a seminar-style course where the focus is on
reading and discussing recent research papers. Some background
lectures will be given and students will have several assignments
covering the material in these 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
The grading breakdown is subject to change.
- Presentations: 20%
- Class Participation: 20%
- Course Project: 60%
Participation
Class participation is an important component of this course. Students are expected to attend all lectures and presentations and participate in the discussion of the research papers, read all listed research papers before class and provide constructive feedback about the presentations made by the other students in the class. Please see the Participation description for more information.
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