Milind Tambe, Professor of Computer Science and Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been chosen to receive a highly prestigious IBM Faculty Award for his proposed research, “Towards Smarter Government and Smarter Cities: Computational Game Theory for Public Safety and Welfare”.
IBM Faculty Awards is a prestigious program that aims to nurture collaboration in areas where IBM has a strategic interest, as well as between IBM researchers and leading academics from the word’s top institutions. IBM encourages all work to be placed in the public domain.
Tambe’s proposed research will potentially lead to a new research area of computational public welfare, more precisely, computational game theory for public welfare. As a perfect marriage between computational theory and public welfare applications, the proposal has clear international applications. In an on-going collaboration between USC, IBM and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, Tambe’s proposal focuses on delivering computational game-theoretic tools to optimize randomized inspections of medical supplies; such a tool will potentially be of assistance to NGO’s and governmental agencies operating in Uganda.
Shanghua Teng, Professor of Computer Science and Department Chair, says Professor Tambe “is a unique scholar in multi-agent systems and applied game theory. The impact of his work is profound as it is now recognized by IBM.”
Tambe pioneered novel computational game theory approaches aimed at enhancing public safety, security and welfare. His research has led to numerous practical applications, including the implementation of randomized security scheduling at LAX Airport, the Los Angeles Metro train and rail system, and the ports of Boston and New York City.
