Friday, November 19, 2021
2:00pm-3:00pm
*ONLINE*
November 19, 2021
Interested members of the U of T community who would like to attend the online seminars can email Kendra Hunter at hunter@mie.utoronto.ca for the Zoom link.
Professor John Hooker – Carnegie Mellon University
Balancing Fairness and Efficiency in a Optimization Model
Abstract
A trade-off between fairness and efficiency is an important element of many practical decisions. This talk proposes a principled and practical method for balancing these two criteria in an optimization model. Following an assessment of existing schemes, it defines a set of social welfare functions (SWFs) that combine Rawlsian leximax fairness and utilitarianism and overcome some of the weaknesses of previous approaches. The equity/efficiency trade-off is regulated with a single parameter that has a meaningful interpretation in practical contexts. The SWFs are formulated in a mixed integer programming model and sequentially maximized subject to constraints that define the problem at hand. The talk describes theoretically the structure of optimal solutions in problems with budget constraints and resource bounds. It also demonstrates the method on problems of realistic size involving healthcare resource allocation and disaster preparation. This represents joint research with Violet (Xinying) Chen, Özgün Elçi, and Peter Zhang.
Bio
John Hooker is Professor of Operations Research and T. Jerome Holleran Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published over 200 articles, 9 books, and 6 edited volumes in operations research, constraint programming, ethics, cross-cultural management, and music theory. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), as well as recipient the INFORMS Computing Society Prize and the INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for lifetime achievements in optimization. He is also an active member of the Association for Constraint Programming and received the Association’s Research Excellence Award. He is a pioneer in the integration of optimization and constraint programming technologies, having written the first book and co-chaired the first conference on the subject. He also introduced logic-based Benders decomposition and, with Tarik Hadžić, decision diagrams as an optimization method. Other contributions include logic-based methods for optimization, optimization models for distributive justice, logic-based formulation of ethical principles, and deontological analysis of ethical issues in artificial intelligence.
MIE’s Distinguished Seminar Series features top international researchers and leading experts across major areas of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering. The speakers present about their latest research and offer their perspectives on the current state of their field. The seminars are part of the program requirements for MIE Master of Applied Science and PhD students. The Distinguished Seminar Series is coordinated for 2021-2022 by Assistant Professor Merve Bodur.
View all upcoming MIE Distinguished Seminars.
