CMSC 498T, Game Theory

Lecture slides

Here are rough drafts of my lecture slides, and a tentative schedule for presenting them. I'll update these things as the semester proceeds.

Aug. 31: Lecture 1: Introduction, and Homework 1 (due Sept 12).

Sept 7, 12: Lecture 2: Analyzing Normal-Form Games, and Homework 2 (due Sept. 19).

Sept 12, 14, 19: Lecture 3: More about Normal-Form Games, and Homework 3 (due Sept. 26).

Sept 19, 21: Lecture 4a: Extensive-Form Games

Sept 21, 26, 28: Lecture 4b: Game-Tree Search

Sept 26: Project 1 (see the next column).

Sept 28, Oct 3: Lecture 4c: Lookahead Pathology, and Homework 4 (due Oct. 10).

Oct 3, 5: Lecture 5a: Imperfect-Information Games

Oct 5, 10: Lecture 5b: Zero-Sum Imperfect-Information Games, and Homework 5.

Oct 10, 12: Lecture 6a: Repeated Games.

Oct 19: Marty Zinkevich's lecture, room 2460, A.V. Williams Bldg.

Oct 24: Gerry Tesauro's lecture, rooms 1107 & 1111, Kim Engineering Bldg.

Oct 26: Review for the midterm exam. Homework 5 due.

Oct 31: midterm exam

Oct 12, Nov 2: Lecture 6b: Stochastic Games

Nov 2: Project 2 (see the next column).

Nov 2, 7: Lecture 6c: Evolutionary Games, and Homework 6 (due Nov 14).

Nov 9: Lecture 7a: Incomplete-Information Games

Nov 14: Lecture 7b: Synthesizing Strategies from Interaction Traces, and Homework 7 (due Nov 21).

Nov 16: Lecture 8: Coalitional Games, and Lecture 9: Miscellany

Nov 21: guest presentation by Brandon Wilson, on search algorithms for multi-player games.
Homework 8 (due Nov 30) and Project 3 (see next column).

Nov 23: no class

Nov 28: guest lecture by Mohammad Hajiaghayi, on adword auctions.

Nov 30: More on Coalitional Games. Return Homework 6

Dec 5: Guest lecture by Patrick Roos, on game-theoretic cultural models.
Return Homework 7.

Dec 7: guest lecture by Jennifer Golbeck, about a multi-player game with deception.
Return Homework 8.

Dec 12: last class - review for the final exam.

Dec 19, 1:30–3:30pm: final exam (according to the university's final exam schedule)

Other information

Projects:

Project 1 and the game driver. Due date extended to Sunday, Oct 16 at noon; late date extended to Tuesday, Oct 18 at noon.

Project 2 (due Nov 16) and the game driver.

Project 3, and the updated game driver posted on Nov. 28 (here is the only file that changed). Due date extended to Sunday, Dec 11 at noon; late date extended to Tuesday, Dec 13 at noon.

Some links:

• Piazza, the discussion forum
  • Link for enrolling in CMSC 498T
• The syllabus
• A tentative list of topics to be covered
• Password-protected materials

Location & time: 1122 CSIC, Mon/Wed 2:00–3:15

Textbook: Leyton-Brown and Shoham, Essentials of Game Theory. Morgan & Claypool, 2008.

• Hard copies of the book are available in the bookstore
• You can get a PDF copy at the publisher's web site
  (it's free if you connect from the university network)

Prerequisite: CMSC 351

This course will count for Area 2 (the 42x courses) in the CS degree requirements.