Related papers: Public Communication can Facilitate Low-Risk Coord…
Distributed computing models typically assume reliable communication between processors. While such assumptions often hold for engineered networks, e.g., due to underlying error correction protocols, their relevance to biological systems,…
In the era of big data, it is necessary to split extremely large data sets across multiple computing nodes and construct estimators using the distributed data. When designing distributed estimators, it is desirable to minimize the amount of…
Population protocols are a fundamental model in distributed computing, where many nodes with bounded memory and computational power have random pairwise interactions over time. This model has been studied in a rich body of literature aiming…
The amount of personal data collected in our everyday interactions with connected devices offers great opportunities for innovative services fueled by machine learning, as well as raises serious concerns for the privacy of individuals. In…
A central server needs to perform statistical inference based on samples that are distributed over multiple users who can each send a message of limited length to the center. We study problems of distribution learning and identity testing…
Population protocols are a relatively novel computational model in which very resource-limited anonymous agents interact in pairs with the goal of computing predicates. We consider the probabilistic version of this model, which naturally…
Population protocols are a model of distributed computation intended for the study of networks of independent computing agents with dynamic communication structure. Each agent has a finite number of states, and communication opportunities…
We consider the problem of privately estimating the mean of vectors distributed across different nodes of an unreliable wireless network, where communications between nodes can fail intermittently. We adopt a semi-decentralized setup,…
In this work, we focus on solving a decentralized consensus problem in a private manner. Specifically, we consider a setting in which a group of nodes, connected through a network, aim at computing the mean of their local values without…
In some socio-economic surveys, data are collected on sensitive or stigmatizing issues such as tax evasion, criminal conviction, drug use, etc. In such surveys, direct questioning of respondents is not of much use and the randomized…
Many of today's most pressing issues require a more robust understanding of how information spreads in populations. Current models of information spread can be thought of as falling into one of two varieties: epidemiologically-inspired…
Biological systems can share and collectively process information to yield emergent effects, despite inherent noise in communication. While man-made systems often employ intricate structural solutions to overcome noise, the structure of…
We present efficient and practical algorithms for a large, distributed system of processors to achieve reliable computations in a secure manner. Specifically, we address the problem of computing a general function of several private inputs…
We study the distributed tracking model, also known as distributed functional monitoring. This model involves $k$ sites each receiving a stream of items and communicating with the central server. The server's task is to track a function of…
Cognitive biases are widespread in humans and animals alike, and can sometimes be reinforced by social interactions. One prime bias in judgment and decision-making is the human tendency to underestimate large quantities. Previous research…
Imagine a group of citizens willing to collectively contribute their personal data for the common good to produce socially useful information, resulting from data analytics or machine learning computations. Sharing raw personal data with a…
We introduce a new coordination problem in distributed computing that we call the population stability problem. A system of agents each with limited memory and communication, as well as the ability to replicate and self-destruct, is…
In secure multiparty computation (MPC), mutually distrusting users collaborate to compute a function of their private data without revealing any additional information about their data to other users. While it is known that information…
Consensus is fundamental for distributed systems since it underpins key functionalities of such systems ranging from distributed information fusion, decision-making, to decentralized control. In order to reach an agreement, existing…
We consider the problem of PAC-learning from distributed data and analyze fundamental communication complexity questions involved. We provide general upper and lower bounds on the amount of communication needed to learn well, showing that…