The course will deal extensively with formal game theory as a background for designing automatic transactions on markets. The theory will be put in practice in the context of the Trading Agent Competition by implementing a software agent that participates in a competitive market. In specific, during the course the following topics will be discussed:

Game theory
This theory defines the basic principles of markets, auctions and other forms of interaction. Concepts such as equilibrium, strategy, perfect information and competitive games will be discussed. We will also cover some computational aspects of game theory

Auctions: Dutch, English and Vickreyauctionsareexamples of auctions using different protocols. We will discuss which protocol would be best for the buyer or the seller and in which circumstances.

Negotiations: We will survey some tools for negotiation, but also will have a look at actual negotiations and the theory about negotiations.

Agent Trading Competition: The students will practice the theory in this competition. It will show the limitations of game theory but also how the theory can lead to useful heuristics.

This course supposes that students have knowledge of formal methods such as taught in "logic and set theory". Be aware that the course has a big theoretical game theory component! The practical part of the course requires reasonable programming skills in Java. If you are not sure whether you have the above skills then don't register for this course. For additional information see the course website.

http://www.cs.uu.nl/education/vak.php?vak=INFOVM&jaar=2008