The International Centre of Decision Choice and Analysis invites you to the first meeting of a research seminar devoted to computational social choice problems!

HSE Computational Social Choice Seminar

The seminar will be held on Thursday, November 6, 15:00-16:00 (Moscow time, GMT+3) in hybrid format:

In person: room Т510, Pokrovsky Boulevard 11

Online: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76097431603?pwd=5UvbbwP8hENTu2Djt7j6MYayGpSQML.1

Meeting ID: 760 9743 1603
Passcode: 255535

Speaker: Veselova Y.A.

“Map of elections. Voting data for analysis and experiments”

This presentation surveys a line of research that explores the structural properties of elections independently of their outcomes. An election, i.e. a collection of voter preferences, can be analyzed as an object in itself, for which we could measure different characteristics, such as the degree of consensus or diversity among voters.

We mainly focus on the analysis of various statistical models for generating elections (votes) which are widely used by the community dealing with the algorithmic aspects of elections. A central theme of the presentation is the tool called a "map of elections" developed by (Szufa et al, 2020). This approach involves generating elections from various statistical models or using real data, computing distances between them, and embedding these distances into a low-dimensional space. The resulting map visualizes the complex landscape of elections, allowing researchers to intuitively compare their structures, classify them, and assess their similarity to canonical types like "identity" (perfect consensus) and "uniformity" (maximum diversity). It aids in selecting representative synthetic data for experiments, provides insights into the runtime of voting rules, and helps contextualize real-world election data within a broader theoretical space.

We will discuss how this framework serves as a valuable tool for the experimental branch of computational social choice as well as disadvantages and alternative approaches.

 

We want to create a new space for scientific discussion and comfortable conversation. A coffee break is included in the seminar program! We do have paper cups, of course, but if you have your own mug, please bring it with you – it's more eco-friendly.

We look forward to seeing all interested attendees!

If you plan to attend the session in person and need an HSE pass, or if you wish to be added to the seminar mailing list, please send an email with your full name to comsoc.hse@gmail.com.