[Nets-seminars] Final talk of term this Friday 24th June GS/302 16:00

[Richard G. Clegg]

Our final talk of term is tomorrow.  Apologies for the incorrect date on 
the previous email.  The talk is this week on 24th of June, NOT 1st July 
as previously posted.

Title: Utilitarian Mechanism Design for Multi-objective Optimization

Piotr Krysta, Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, UK

Abstract:
  We study mechanism design for NP-hard multi-objective optimization 
problems with one objective function and secondary objectives modelled 
by budget constraints. Our main contribution is showing that two of the 
main tools for the design of approximation algorithms for 
multi-objective optimization problems, approximate Pareto curves and 
Lagrangean relaxation, can lead to truthful approximation schemes. By 
exploiting the first method, we devise truthful FPTASs for the 
multi-budgeted versions of minimum spanning tree, shortest path, maximum 
matching, and matroid intersection problems. By building on the second 
method, we present a universally truthful Las Vegas PTAS for the minimum 
spanning tree problem with a single budget constraint, without violating 
the budget constraint. Our achieved approximation guarantees match the 
best known approximation guarantees for the respective problems, which, 
however, were obtained by non-truthful algorithms. In this talk I will 
focus on the
minimum spanning tree problem with a single budget constraint.

-- 
Richard G. Clegg,
Dept of Elec. Eng.,
University College London
http://www.richardclegg.org/