The second DIMACS mixer series for the fall is scheduled for Monday, October 18, 2010. It will be held at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ in Fielding Room, located in the Howe Center Building. It is possible to drive to Stevens Institute, but for those participants looking for an alternative, Stevens Institute is easily accessible by train, path, bus, and ferry. If you would like more information on traveling to Stevens, please contact Gene Fiorini at gfiorini@dimacs.rutgers.edu.
The featured speaker for the mixer is Dr. Michael Littman of the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University. The title and abstract for Dr. Littman's talk is below:
Title: An Analysis of Reinforement Learning Dynamics with Multiple Agents
Abstract: The Q-learning reinforcement-learning algorithm is known to converge to optimal behavior in the limit in single-agent environments given sufficient exploration. The same algorithm has been applied, with some success, in multiagent environments, where traditional analysis techniques break down. Using dynamical systems methods, we derived and studied an idealization of Q-learning in 2-player 2-action repeated general-sum games. We provide a complete catalog of the convergence behavior of the epsilon greedy Q-learning algorithm. The results stand in contrast to existing results for policy-search methods. Of particular interest is the chaotic super-Nash non-convergence behavior of this algorithm in the Prisoner's Dilemma.
In addition to Dr. Littman, the mixer will feature the following speakers:
Please distribute this announcement to people who would be interested in attendiing. Please contact Nicole Clark (nicolec@dimacs.rutgers.edu) by October 15, 2010 if you plan on attending.
If you have any questions, please contact Gene Fiorini (gfiorini at dimacs.rutgers.edu)
Full details of the program, including abstracts, are displayed at http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Events/2010/program-mix2.html
Directions on how to reach Stevens Institute may be found at http://www.stevens.edu/sit/maps/driving_directions.cfm
October 18, 2010 Mixer II
at Stevens Institute of Technology
Last modified October 20, 2009.