Graduate Seminar

Misha Lavrov
Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Random Walks, Rich Uncles, and Research Topics

Abstract: Suppose you're trying to choose between several research problems to work on. You want to pick the one that produces results you can publish as quickly as possible, but research progress is random and unpredictable: we will model it as a random walk on an arbitrary graph. You're free to switch to a different problem if the current one isn't going well, but how do you compare two problems to determine which one is more promising? We will find the optimal strategy for this, and look at several related games in the process.

Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Wean Hall 8220
Submitted by:  Brian Kell