Rahul Chandan is a fifth-year PhD student and UC Regents' Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). His research work uses game theory and optimization to study the coordination of multi-agent systems. His research interests are motivated by a desire to understand complex biological, social and technological systems composed of relatively simple agents, and to explore interesting applications of mathematics. In his spare time, Rahul enjoys biking the hills of Santa Barbara, cooking new and challenging dishes, and watching terrible Netflix movies with his friends.
Tune in for answers to questions like...
How does Game Theory describe human behavior?
What are multiagent systems and where do we find them in the real world?
How does a system reach equilibrium, Nash or otherwise?
What is the role of information, new and old, in a complex system?
and many more!
Topics & Concepts
Multi-Agent Systems
Intelligence
Consciousness
Optimization
(Local) Utility Functions
Rationality
Economics
Game Theory
Road Networks & Routing
Nash Equilibrium
Intractable Equilibria
Centralized Authority (And the Pseudo-Dictatorship of Google Maps)
A Multiplicity of Solutions
Drones & Forest Fire Surveillance
Information
Single-Agent Systems
Distributed Decision-Making
The Tragedy of the Commons
Policy
Hobbes vs. Rousseau
Noise & Unpredictability
Cake Equality
/// FURTHER READING
(Non-cooperative) game theory -- the branch of game theory that deals with self-interested decision making: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-cooperative_game_theory
Tragedy of the commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
Price of Anarchy (a term of the art in game theory which serves as a metric for the "tragedy of the commons"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_of_anarchy
Fair cake-cutting problem (by the way, it turns out there's a solution for 3 or more agents, but the optimal mechanism just gets really complex): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_cake-cutting
///CONTACT
Rahul's Website: https://rahul-chandan.github.io
/// CLOSING REMARKS
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Episode Cover Art by the very talented Eva Goblot.
