Computer scientist will examine the role of bounded rationality in economics during a public talk, “Bounding Rationality With Computation,” on Friday, January 8, 11 a.m. in the Physical Science Auditorium (room 217). This is the keynote event of the being held on the Mānoa campus.
Fortnow is currently professor and chair of the at , a leading researcher in computational complexity, and winner of the 2014 Nerode Prize, awarded by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science and the International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation.
He is the author of a popular science book on the P versus NP problem published by . The P versus NP problem, perhaps the most important open problem in mathematics, can be succinctly described as: Can every solved problem whose answer can be checked quickly by a computer also be quickly solved by a computer? A certain kind of affirmative answer to the problem may have great impact on computer security, breaking most existing cryptosystems.
Fortnow's work in economics includes game theory, optimal strategies and prediction. The 2008 financial crisis highlighted the acute problem of bounded rationality. Financial securities such as credit default obligations were packaged in such a way as to make it very difficult for computers, and even more so humans, to evaluate their fair price and risk.
More on the conference
The 11th International Conference on Computability, Complexity and Randomness will be held January 4–8, 2016 on the UH Mānoa campus.
The conference is sponsored by the , the , the and the in the at UH Mānoa.
The presentation is free and open to the public.