PAUL VARKEY

Multi Agent Systems Group
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
e: p v a r k e y AT cs DOT uic DOT edu

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Keywords

interactive epistemology, games under incomplete information, decision-theoretic reasoning and optimal sequential planning under uncertainty, resource bounded rationality

Overview

My research interests can be best summarized in three words: uncertainty, epistemics and combinatorics.

I am currently studying the world of agents, both, human and artificial. Eventually, I would also like to explore the natural world.

In the world of interactions (both collaborative and strategic) between multiple (intentional and possibly rational) agents, (optimal) behavior ought to and oftentimes does depend on the knowledge of the agents. This knowledge may be incomplete, interactive (therefore, infinitely nested) and dynamic (continually evolving). A natural modeling tool for such epistemics is the probability calculus.

The world of natural (ecological, geological, biological, atmospheric, etc.) phenomenon is seemingly rife with uncertainty or, at least, incompletely determined(able) causes, effects and correlations. Such phenomenon can sometimes be powerfully modeled and studied using probabilistic graphical models and the calculus of stochastic processes.

In much of my studies, there is an underlying acknowledgement of the possibility that any mechanical solution procedure may have to evaluate an astonishing number of alternatives in the search for a solution. Therefore, I also believe it is important to consider how fast one can either solve a model completely or at least produce a sufficiently good enough solution.

See conice resume (concise pdf, concise txt) and Research Statement (Mar 15, 2010, Dec 9, 2010).

Papers

  1. Sampling and Updating Higher Order Beliefs in Decision Theoretic Bargaining under Uncertainty
    -- full version accepted for publication at ICAART'11
    -- talk presented at IDTGT'10 (AAAI 2010)
  2. Resource Bounded Decision-Theoretic Bargaining with Finite Interactive Epistemologies
    -- accepted for publication at ICAART'11
    -- talk presented at NASSLLI'10
  3. Bargaining under Higher Order Uncertainty: Perfect Bayesian Equilibria with Sensitivity Analysis
    -- accepted at BWGT'10
    -- talk presented at 60th Midwest Theory Day (Spring 2010)
  4. A Particle-Filter based Rubinsteinian Behavioral Bargaining Agent

Talks

  1. Stochastic Games (Part I): Discounted (Noncompetitive) Markov Decision Processes
    -- talk presented at 4th GSPC (2010)
  2. What I Believe About What You Believe About What I Believe, And So On Ad Infinitum (Or, Game Theory, Interactive Epistemology and Infinite Hierarchies of Probabilistic Beliefs)
    -- talk presented at 3rd GSPC (2009)

Posts

  1. The brave new economy (May 27th 2013)

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