Related papers: On a generalisation of the coupon collector proble…
Consider an urn filled with balls, each labeled with one of several possible collective decisions. Now, let a random voter draw two balls from the urn and pick her more preferred as the collective decision. Relabel the losing ball with the…
This paper presents a method for calculating Region of Attraction of a target set (not necessarily an equilibrium) for controlled polynomial dynamical systems, using a hierarchy of semidefinite programming problems (SDPs). Our approach…
An accumulator is a bet that presents a rather unique payout structure, in that it combines multiple bets into a wager that can generate a total payout given by the multiplication of the individual odds of its parts. These potentially…
We study the collective schedules problem, which consists in computing a one machine schedule of a set of tasks, knowing that a set of individuals (also called voters) have preferences regarding the order of the execution of the tasks. Our…
We introduce a general problem about bribery in voting systems. In the $\mathcal{R}$-Multi-Bribery problem, the goal is to bribe a set of voters at minimum cost such that a desired candidate wins the perturbed election under the voting rule…
We give an algorithm for properly learning Poisson binomial distributions. A Poisson binomial distribution (PBD) of order $n$ is the discrete probability distribution of the sum of $n$ mutually independent Bernoulli random variables. Given…
Given a universal gate set on two qubits, it is well known that applying random gates from the set to random pairs of qubits will eventually yield an approximately Haar-distributed unitary. However, this requires exponential time. We show…
Consider unsupervised clustering of objects drawn from a discrete set, through the use of human intelligence available in crowdsourcing platforms. This paper defines and studies the problem of universal clustering using responses of crowd…
We consider the problem of computing the Boolean convolution (with wraparound) of $n$~vectors of dimension $m$, or, equivalently, the problem of computing the sumset $A_1+A_2+\ldots+A_n$ for $A_1,\ldots,A_n \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_m$. Boolean…
Consider the classical Min-Sum Set Cover problem: We are given a universe $\mathcal{U}$ of $n$ elements and a collection $\mathcal{S}$ of $k$ subsets of $\mathcal{U}$. Moreover, a cost function is associated with each set. The goal is to…
We propose a new model for formalizing reward collection problems on graphs with dynamically generated rewards which may appear and disappear based on a stochastic model. The *robot routing problem* is modeled as a graph whose nodes are…
Coupon distribution is a critical marketing strategy used by online platforms to boost revenue and enhance user engagement. Regrettably, existing coupon distribution strategies fall far short of effectively leveraging the complex sequential…
There is only one technique for prior-free optimal mechanism design that generalizes beyond the structurally benevolent setting of digital goods. This technique uses random sampling to estimate the distribution of agent values and then…
A variety of problems in distributed control involve a networked system of autonomous agents cooperating to carry out some complex task in a decentralized fashion, e.g., orienting a flock of drones, or aggregating data from a network of…
This paper considers the portfolio management problem of optimal investment, consumption and life insurance. We are concerned with time inconsistency of optimal strategies. Natural assumptions, like different discount rates for consumption…
The Poisson-binomial distribution is useful in many applied problems in engineering, actuarial science, and data mining. The Poisson-binomial distribution models the distribution of the sum of independent but not identically distributed…
The paper develops a new technique to extract a characteristic subset from a random source that repeatedly samples from a set of elements. Here a characteristic subset is a set that when containing an element contains all elements that have…
This paper studies randomized approximation algorithm for a variant of the set cover problem called minimum submodular cost partial multi-cover (SCPMC), in which each element $e$ has a covering requirement $r_e$ and a profit $p_e$, and the…
Consider the fundamental problem of drawing a simple random sample of size k without replacement from [n] := {1, . . . , n}. Although a number of classical algorithms exist for this problem, we construct algorithms that are even simpler,…
The problem of sampling from the stationary distribution of a Markov chain finds widespread applications in a variety of fields. The time required for a Markov chain to converge to its stationary distribution is known as the classical…