DIMACS Special Focus on Computation and the Socio-Economic Sciences

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Partnerships between mathematicians and social scientists have existed for a long time, but partnerships between computer scientists and social scientists are relatively new. In the past 5 years, they have begun to sprout and several important new fields of research are already thriving as a result. Applying computational methods to the solution of modern social science problems requires the development of new data structures, algorithms, and other tools that are in the domain of the computer scientist. This project seeks to develop the new ``social-science-based'' CS methodologies and to investigate their application to problems of information technology and to problems of the social sciences of fundamental importance to modern society. It also seeks to investigate computer science tools that are especially relevant to emerging problems of the socio-economic sciences. Research into issues of this type requires new interdisciplinary partnerships among computer scientists, mathematicians, operations researchers, economists, experts in business applications, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and researchers specializing in the handling of information. This project seeks to catalyze such partnerships. The research component of the project will be organized around interdisciplinary working groups of researchers, with students and junior researchers included. Tutorials will introduce researchers and students to relevant methods of computer science and the social sciences and relevant applied problems. Workshops will identify areas for research, seek to catalyze interdisciplinary collaborations, and focus on future research challenges, and they will have an educational component with tutorial presentations and opportunities for students to participate. All working groups and workshops will seek an interdiscipinary mix of participants. Working Groups will investigate Game Theory, Computation, and Behavior; the Mathematics of Web Search and Meta-Search; and Distributed Computing, Social Networks, and Disease Spread Processes. Workshops will be held on Markets as Predictive Devices (Information Markets); Computational Issues in Auction Design; Electronic Voting (Theory and Practice); and Polyhedral Combinatorics of Random Utility. Additional workshops will cover the topics Network Economics; Bounded Rationality; and Yield Management and Dynamic Pricing.