Second Faculty Candidate Research Presentation

The second candidate for the position of Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Mohammad Irfan, will be on campus on Monday, April 1. All are invited to attend a research presentation in Alden Hall, Room 101 at 4:00 PM.

Monday, April 1, 2013
Alden Hall, Room 101
4:00 PM

Presenter:
Mohammad T. Irfan http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~mtirfan/

Title:
Computational Problems in Social Sciences:  Using Game Theory to Connect the Dots

Abstract:
Who are the most influential senators in Congress? Is there a small coalition of senators who are influential enough to prevent filibusters? Moving from Congress to a different setting, can we model microfinance markets to help policy-makers take critical decisions, such as setting a cap on interest rates or subsidizing microfinance banks?

The above questions may seem to be unrelated at first, but as I will show, these can indeed be knit together by the same needle of game theory. A common element in these questions is that many agents strategically interact with each other within a network-structured complex system in order to make their decisions. I will exploit this game-theoretic element to connect the dot of artificial intelligence with the dots of sociology and microfinance economies. I will end my talk by outlining an array of exciting interdisciplinary research avenues, many of which can be explored in senior projects or theses.

Mohammad T. Irfan is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University. He is advised by Professor Luis E. Ortiz. His interests lie in the interdisciplinary areas that combine artificial intelligence with sociology (e.g., influence in social networks), economics (e.g., microfinance markets), and arts (e.g., computer-aided authentication of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings). His research has been published at the AAAI Conference on AI, ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry, Discrete & Computational Geometry Journal, and SPIE Electronic Imaging. His research on influence among the senators has also been reported in Science News. One of Mohammad’s career goals is to integrate his interdisciplinary interests into teaching, curriculum development, and collaborative research.