Nicole Immorlica is a senior principle researcher at Microsoft whos research lies broadly within the field of algorithmic game theory. Using tools and modeling concepts from both theoretical computer science and economics, Nicole hopes to explain, predict, and shape behavioral patterns in various online and offline systems, markets, and games. Her areas of specialty include social networks and mechanism design. Nicole received her Ph.D. from MIT in Cambridge, MA in 2005 and then completed three years of postdocs at both Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA and CWI in Amsterdam, Netherlands before accepting a job as an assistant professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL in 2008. She joined the Microsoft Research New England Lab in 2012.
Nicole talks about game theory and how she feels that it is her way to understand the world around her.
Nicole talks about game theory, a way to understand how intelligent agents, humans or machines, interact and optimize their outcome in a particular context.
Nicole discusses how this process can be used to create user interactions that are understandable and can be used efficiently.
We also hear about how dynamic games apply to robotics and how robots deal with the ever-changing world they act in.
Nicole then talks about a trend in market design where large amounts of data about previous behavior is used to redesign the market and optimize it. We also hear about how this is used to understand how people use and interact on social media platforms.
She also shares how game theory can be used to explain behavior that is not optimal, for instance in procrastination.
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