2-3 September 2010, Workshop on Advances in Algorithmic Game Theory
Location: CWI Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Costs: free

Algorithmic game theory is a rather recent research field that lies at the intersection of economics, computer science and mathematics. Its origins in the early 1990′s were largely motivated by the wealth of new applications that came into existence with the emergence of the Internet. The field pursues mathematical studies of games with a particular focus on computational and algorithmic issues. These studies are interdisciplinary in flavor and often demand for a combination of methodologies and techniques from the areas of optimization, algorithms and game theory. Algorithmic game theory contributed successfully to the understanding of many fundamental games in recent years and has become a highly active research field.

The two-day workshop will be hosted at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam and will take place September 2-3, 2010. There will be four keynote talks and about 12 contributed talks.
Please register before August 16, 2010. For more information, see http://www.cwi.nl/~schaefer/agt10/

The Faculty of Computer Science of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (FUB), Italy, offers an opening for 18 positions for its 3-year PhD program. 9 of the positions are fully funded by a PhD studentship. 3 of the PhD positions with studentship are offered by the KRDB Research Centre for Knowledge and Data.

The research activities in the KRDB research centre require good knowledge of Logic and of Foundations of Databases, and some knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and of Knowledge Representation. Good knowledge of English is also preferred.

The application deadline is Oct. 18, 2010 (arrival date of documents, electronic application is not possible). For information about the PhD program, the studentship, and the application, please visit http://www.unibz.it/en/public/research/phd/prospectivePhdstudents.html.
The KRDB Research Centre invites applicants to get in touch with the research group as soon as possible, in order to have a better understanding of the possible research activities in which the applicants may be involved. For more information, see the KRDB website at http://www.inf.unibz.it/krdb/ or send an email to prof. Diego Calvanese at calvanese@inf.unibz.it. To get in touch with the current PhD students, see https://www.inf.unibz.it/phd/.

Date and time: Monday, 23 August,  16:00-17:30

Location: Room 353, Xinzhai Building

Speaker: Prof. Sven Ove Hansson (Department of Philosophy and the History of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.)

Title: Cognitive realism in belief revision: Representing a finite mind

Abstract:  Since a human mind cannot deal directly with infinite structures, cognitively realistic models of belief change should operate on belief states that have a finite representation. The standard AGM model cannot easily be reconciled with that requirement. Different ways to achieve a finite representation are discussed, in particular: finite language, belief bases, and specified meet contraction. Formal results that compare and connect the different approaches are presented.

TU Wien: 10 PhD student positions in Mathematical Logic in Computer Science

The Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) is offering 10 PhD student positions within the doctoral program “Mathematical Logic in Computer Science” which is launched in Fall 2010; five of the positions are reserved for female applicants.

The program is jointly organized by the faculties of Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics, with a strong emphasis on Logic in Computer Science; computational logic is one of the priority research areas of the Faculty of Informatics. two envisaged key application areas are “Model-Based Design and Verification” and “Advanced Information
Systems”.

Applications are solicited starting immediately, and will be considered starting from September 10, 2010, until all positions are filled, but no longer than March 15, 2011.

Further details about the program and the application procedure are available at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/drkolleg/, or contact dk-info@dbai.tuwien.ac.at.

- 30 August 2010, Master of Logic defense, Yacin Hamami
Title: The Interrogative Model of Inquiry meets Dynamic Logics
Date and time: Monday 30 August 2010, 12.00
Location: Room A1.14, Science Park 904, Amsterdam
Supervisors: Johan van Benthem and Eric Pacuit

- 31 August 2010, Master of Logic defense, Margaux Smets
Title: A U-DOP inspired approach to the logical problem of language
acquisition
Date and time: Tuesday 31 August 2010, 15.00
Location: Room C1.112, Science Park 904, Amsterdam
Supervisors: Rens Bod and Federico Sangati

- 7 September 2010, Master of Logic defense, Charlotte Vlek
Title: Definability in degrees of randomness
Date and time: Tuesday 7 September 2010, 11.00
Location: Room A1.10, Science Park 904, Amsterdam
Supervisor: George Barmpalias

Postdoc Logics for Intelligent Interaction: Expressivity and Succinctne 1,0 fte (210242)

Organisation

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative centre of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 27,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. Belonging to the best research universities in Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

Job description

The project focuses on one of the prominent themes in logic today: intelligent interaction, which occurs in any social situation. There is a multitude of logical theories in this area to such an extent that for one and the same subject there is more than one approach. There is a great need to establish whether alternative approaches actually provide fundamentally different perspectives, or whether the differences are merely superficial. By focusing on the expressivity and succinctness of these logics, possible differences in their underlying conceptual frameworks are revealed, thus advancing our understanding of these conceptual frameworks and thereby of intelligent interaction itself.

A detailed outline of the project can be obtained by sending an e-mail to Ms Fré Moorrees (F.C.Moorrees@rug.nl), in it the postdoc project is described.

Requirements

Secundary

The preferred starting date is January 1st, 2011.

How to apply
Completed applications should include:

• a Curriculum Vitae, outlining in particular previous academic qualifications (BA and MA equivalent), grades, list of publications, etc.
• a letter explaining your competence in the research field, and your motivation
• research proposal of maximum 1000 words plus concise, illustrative bibliography (not required for applicants who plan to do the subproject described in the detailed outline of the project)
• a copy of your most important research paper, which appeared or is submitted for publication to a scientific journal (can be co-authored)
• a short summary of your PhD thesis of maximum 500 words
• names and contact details (including e-mail address) of three referees.

Please apply by clicking the link ‘Apply’ and on AcademicTransfer ‘Apply for this job’. You can use the form to send your CV and letter if they are in Word format. Send other documents (and your CV and letter when they are not in Word format) to: vmp@rug.nl

Information

For information you can contact:
Ms Fré Moorrees,   F.C.Moorrees@rug.nl

Simon Huttegger (UC Irvine) and Kevin Zollman (CMU) “Game Theory, Evolution and Communication

Programme

Tuesday, 13 July (Venue: T206, Lakatos Building)

13.30 – 15.00 Part I. Game Theory and Animal Interaction

Game theory originated to study strategic situations – those situations where how well one individual does depends not only on her own actions but also on the actions of others. These situations occur both in human interaction and in other animals as well. This course will focus on the use of game theory in studying non-human animal interactions. Problems addressed with these tools include: altruism, conflict, and signaling. In studying these types of problem two main techniques have emerged called static and dynamic techniques respectively. This course will introduce students to both of these techniques and discuss the philosophical underpinnings of both.

16.00 – 17.30 Part II. Conventions

In his seminal book “Conventions”, David Lewis analyzed the strategic aspects of communication by using game theory. Since then, the development of a rich set of tools has allowed researchers in economics, theoretical biology and philosophy to considerably expand on Lewis’ basic insights. In this lecture, I will survey some of the most important findings and explain their significance.

Wednesday, 14 July

Workshop on ‘Networks, Signalling, Social Epistemology’. .

(Venue: T206, Lakatos Building, LSE)

10:00 – 10:30  Welcome

10:30 – 11:45  Sanjeev Goyal (Christ’s College, Cambridge), “Strategic Network Formation”

12:00 – 13:15  Rory Smead (LSE) and Jason Alexander (LSE), “Evolution of  Learning on Networks.”

13:15 – 14:30  Lunch

14:30 – 15:45  Simon Huttegger (UC Irvine), “Learning to Transfer Information”

15:45 – 16:15  Tea and Coffee

16:15 – 17:30  Kevin Zollman (CMU), “The inconsistency thesis: when individual  and social epistemology diverge”

Master class readings

- John Maynard Smith, Evolution and the theory of games, Chapters 1 and 2.
- David Lewis, Convention, Chapter 4.
- Brian Skyrms, Evolution of the Social Contract, Chapter 5.

Registration

Please register by sending an email to c.heilmann @ lse.ac.uk.

Further Information

The master classes are organized by the LSE Choice Group and sponsored by the AHRC. The LSE Choice Group| is a group of people based for the most part at the LSE with a shared interest in the theory of rational decision making in individuals and groups and its application to economic, political and social questions. We hold regular seminars on Wednesday afternoons from 17-30 to 19-00 in T206 (2nd floor, Lakatos Building, Portugal Street. Please email c.heilmann @ lse.ac.uk if you are interested in regular updates on seminars and events

Student Session of the Sino-European Winter School in Logic, Language and Computation
http://www.math.helsinki.fi/logic/sellc-2010/stus.html
December 3-18, 2010 Guangzhou, China

The Sino-European Winter School in Logic, Language and Computation (SELLC-2010) will be held in Guangzhou, China on December 3-18, 2010. It is organized for logic students in the spirit of the well-known summer schools ESSLLI in Europe. Details of SELLC-2010 can be found at: www.math.helsinki.fi/logic/sellc-2010/

As a special part of SELLC-2010, the Student Session invites submissions of extended abstracts describing original, unpublished research conducted in the areas of

- Logic
- Language
- Computation

One author of each accepted paper will be invited to give an approximately 20-minute presentation of the paper at the Student Session.

Aim of the Student Session of SELLC-2010:
The aim of the Student Session is to provide an opportunity for students at all levels (Bachelor-, Master-, and PhD-students) to present and discuss their work in progress in the areas of logic, language and computation with a possibility to get feedback from senior researchers. For more information about the Student Session of SELLC-2010, please visit: www.math.helsinki.fi/logic/sellc-2010/stus.html

Submission:
Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract with a maximum length of 5 pages on any topic in the areas of logic, language and computation.

Language of papers: English

Accepted formats: PDF and PS (Latex-generated papers are preferred)

Submissions should be sent to the email address (fan.yang@helsinki.fi) of the organizer Fan Yang.

 
Acceptance:
Each submitted paper will be reviewed by three Student Session programme committee members in the relevant field. Final decision regarding acceptance/revision/rejection will be based on the reviews.

 
Important Dates:
Deadline for submissions: September 20, 2010
Notification of acceptance: November 1, 2010

Organizer:
Fan Yang (University of Helsinki, Finland)

 
Programme Committee:
Samson Abramsky (University of Oxford, UK)
Robin Cooper (Gothenburg University, Sweden)
Juliette Kennedy (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Phokion Kolaitis (University of California, Santa Cruz and IBM Research-Almaden, USA
Jeff Paris (University of Manchester, UK)
Greg Restall (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh (University of Oxford, UK)
Mark Steedman (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Jouko Väänänen (University of Helsinki, Finland and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Dag Westerståhl (Gothenburg University, Sweden)

 
Sponsors:
Sun Yat-sen University
Institute of Logic and Cognition

PhDs in Logic III

February 17-18th, 2011
BRUSSELS

www.vub.ac.be/phdsinlogic2011/

FIRST CALL FOR ABSTRACTS AND PARTICIPATION

PhDs in Logic is an annual two-day graduate conference and winter school in logic. Each year we invite four established professors to do a tutorial on their work in two one-hour sessions. We also give about ten   PhD students the opportunity to do a thirty-minute presentation on (a) their own work or (b) an overview of some topic in their field.

Come February 17-18th, 2011 the following tutorials will take place in Brussels.

Eric Pacuit: Epistemic Logic
Sonja Smets: Quantum Logic
Mai Gehrke: Algebraic Logic
Peter Koepke: Set Theory

PhD students in logic with a background in philosophy, computer science, or mathematics are the intended audience for these tutorials. They are also the type of students we have in mind for our thirty-minute student sessions. Students interested in doing a talk should send a 500-1000 word abstract to phdsinlogic+abstracts@gmail.com by November 15th, 2010. If your abstract is accepted, you will be expected to give us a six to ten page paper by January 15tnh, 2011. We welcome students to participate in PhDs in Logic III regardless of whether they want to do a presentation. We also invite master students in logic, first year   postdocs, and logicians from disciplines other than philosophy, computer   science, and mathematics to apply. There is a 30 euros registration fee.

For more information, visit our website at www.vub.ac.be/phdsinlogic2011/.

Organizing Committee: Jonas De Vuyst, Lorenz Demey, Jean Paul Van Bendegem, Marc Denecker.

Scientific Committee: Benedikt Loewe, Leon Horsten, Marc Denecker, Jean Paul Van Bendegem.

Sponsors: Formal Epistemology Project (FEP), Centrum voor Logica en Wetenschapsfilosofie (CLWF), VUB Doctoral School of Human Sciences (DSh).

Date and Time: 19 June, 2010 , 9:00-12:00

Location: Room 335,  Xinzhai Building at Tsinghua University

Lecture 1: Shichang Song(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)            Title: Continuous Logic and Probability                                                              Abstract: Continuous first-order logic is an analog of classical first-order logic. Unlike classical logic with the truth value {True, False}, continuous logic ‘s truth value is the whole interval [0,1]. Continuous model theory also preserves many key properties of classical model theory. Although continuous first-order logic was introduced quite recently, it has already been applied to analysis and probability theory. During this talk, I will introduce continuous logic briefly and then discuss the applications to probability theory. If time permits, I’ll also show some of my recent results in this topic.

Lecture 2: Dick de Jongh (University of Amsterdam)                                          Title: Comparing Strengths of Beliefs explicitly                                           Abstract: Inspired by a similar use in provability logic, formulas p >_B q and ≥_B q are introduced in the existing logical framework for discussing beliefs to express that the strength of belief in p is greater than (or equal to) that in q. This explicit mention of the comparison in the logical language aids in defining several other concepts in a uniform way, viz. older and rather clear concepts like the operators for universality (which possibilities ought to be considered), together with newer notions like plausibility (in the sense of ‘more plausible than not’) and disbelief. Moreover, it assists in studying the properties of the concept of greater strength of belief itself. A heavy part is played in our investigations by the relationship between the standard plausibility ordering of the worlds and the strength of belief ordering. If we try to define the strength of belief ordering in terms of the world plausibility ordering we get some undesirable consequences, so we have decided to keep the relation between the two orderings as light as possible to construct a system that allows for widely different interpretations. Finally, after a brief discussion on the multi-agent setting, we move on to talk about the dynamics – the change of ordering under the influence of hard and soft information.