Éva Tardos

Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science

Department of Computer Science
4141 Upson Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
phone: (607) 255-0984
fax: (607) 255-4428
Email: eva.tardos@cornell.edu .

Dipl.Math. 1981, Ph.D. 1984, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary

Current Ph.D. students

Past Ph.D. students

Georgios Piliouras (2010)
Thanh Nguyen (2010)
Zoya Svitkina (2007)
Ara Hayrapetyan (2007)
Tom Wexler (2006)
Martin Pal (2004)
Aaron Archer (2004)
Tim Roughgarden (2002)
Vardges Melkonian (2002)
Kevin Wayne (1999)
Wee Liang Heng (1998)
Lisa Fleischer (1997)
Bruce Hoppe (1995)

Current Activities:

Workshop on Research Issues at the Interface of Computer Science and Economics, Thursday-Friday, September 3-4, 2009, Cornell University
Workshop Honoring John Hopcroft's 70th Birthday
Friday, October 9th, Cornell University
New York Computer Science and Economics Day
Monday, November 9, 2009 | 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences

Research Interests:

Algorithm Design and Algorithmic Game Theory. Algorithmic game theory, an emerging new area of designing systems and algorithms for selfish users. My research focuses algorithms and games on graphs or networks. I am mostly interested in designing algorithms and games that provide provably close-to-optimal results.

Areas of interest

Games in Networks
Price of anarchy
Network design algorithms and games
mechanism design
Classification
Clustering and facility location
Scheduling
Routing paths and packets in networks
Finding cuts in graphs with applications in visition

Books

J. Kleinberg, E. Tardos. Algorithm Design. Addison-Wesley, 2005.
Algorithmic Game Theory, co-edited with Noam Nisan, Tim Roughgarden, and Vijay Vazirani (published by Cambridge University Press, expected October 2007.)

Some Surveys

E. Tardos and V. Vazirani, Basic Solution Concepts and Computational Issues in Games, in Algorithmic Game Theory (Cambridge University Press, expected 2007).
T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos: Introduction to the Inefficiency of Equilibria. in Algorithmic Game Theory (Cambridge University Press, expected 2007).
E. Tardos and T. Wexler: Network Formation Games, in Algorithmic Game Theory (Cambridge University Press, expected 2007).
Games in Networks, presented at STOC 2004.
Tutorial on Approximation Algorithms, presented at FOCS 2002.

Courses

This semester: CS 6840 Algorithmic Game Theory, (past runs: CS 684, spring, 2008, fall 2005, spring 2004.
Discrete Structures, CS280, spring 2005
Introduction to Theory of Computing, CS 481 fall 2004
Design and Analysis of Algorithms, CS 681, fall 2000, fall 2002, fall 2003, fall 2006.
Introduction to Algorithms, CS 482, spring 1999, 2001, 2002
Approximation and Network Algorithms, CS 684, fall 2001
Seminar on Approximation Algorithms, spring 1999
Mathematical Programming, OR 630, fall 1998
Optimization, OR 321, spring 1998
Data Structures, CS 410, fall 1997

Selected Recent Publications

Network Games and extensions

T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos: How Bad is Selfish Routing? Journal of the ACM, 2002, Volume 49 , Issue 2. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 41st Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 2000.
T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos: Bounding the Inefficiency of Equilibria in Nonatomic Congestion Games. Games and Economic Behaviour, Volume 47, Issue 2, May 2004, Pages 389-403.
H. Lin, T. Roughgarden, and E. Tardos, Bounding Braess's Paradox, Proceedings of the 15th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2004.
H. Lin, T. Roughgarden, E. Tardos, and A. Walkover. Braess's Paradox, Fibonacci Numbers, and Exponential Inapproximability, in the 32nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP,05) July, 2005.
E. Anshelevich, A. Dasgupta, É. Tardos, T. Wexler, Near-optimal network design with selfish agents, in the proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 2003.
E. Anshelevich, A. Dasgupta, J. Kleinberg, E. Tardos, T. Wexler, and T. Roughgarden. The Price of Stability for Network Design with Fair Cost Allocation, Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 2004.
Eva Tardos. Network Games. Proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2004.
Ara Hayrapetyan, Éva Tardos and Tom Wexler - A Network Pricing Game for Selfish Traffic Distributed Computing, (PODC'05 special issue).Preliminary version appeared in the Proceedings of
24th Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC'05), July 2005.
Ara Hayrapetyan, Éva Tardos and Tom Wexler: Effect of Collusion in Congestion Games. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 2006.
L. Blume, D. Easley, J. Kleinberg and E. Tardos: Trading Networks with Price-Setting Agents in the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, EC'07.
Thanh Nguyen and E. Tardos, Approximately Maximizing Efficiency and Revenue in Convex Environments, in the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, EC'07.
Robert Kleinberg, Georgios Piliouras, and Eva Tardos. Multiplicative Updates Outperform Generic No-Regret Learning in Congestion Games, in the proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2009.
Robert Kleinberg, Georgios Piliouras, and Eva Tardos. Load Balancing Without Regret in the Bulletin Board Model, in the Proceedings of ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, August 2009.
Renato Paes Leme and Eva Tardos, Sponsored Search Equilibria for Conservative Bidders, Fifth Workshop on Ad Auctions, July 2009.
Renato Paes Leme and Eva Tardos, Pure and Bayes-Nash Price of Anarchy for Generalized Second Price Auction, 51st Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2010),
Preliminary versions of this paper appeared in AAW09 and AAW10 (AdAuctions Workshop)

Mechanism Design

A. Archer and 'E. Tardos: Frugal Path mechanisms, to appear in Transaction on Algorithms. Preliminary version appeared in the Proceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2002, pp. 991-999.
A. Archer and E. Tardos: Truthful mechanisms for one-parameter agents, Proceedings of the 42nd IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (2001) 482-491.
A. Archer, Christos Papadimitriou, Kunal Talwar, Eva Tardos: An approximate truthful mechanism for combinatorial auctions with single parameter agents. Internet Mathematics, Volume 1 Issue 2, 2004. Prleiminary version appeared in the Proceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2003, pp. 205 - 214.
M. Pal and E. Tardos: Group Strategyproof Mechanisms via Primal-Dual Algorithms, in the Proceedings of the Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 2003.
A. Gupta, A. Srinivasan, and E. Tardos. Cost-Sharing Mechanisms for Network Design. Proceedings of APPROX 2004.

Social Networks

David Kempe, Jon Kleinberg, Éva Tardos: Maximizing the Spread of Influence in a Social Network.
Proceedings of KDD 2003, Washington DC.
David Kempe, Jon Kleinberg, Éva Tardos: Influential Nodes in a Diffusion Model for Social Networks. In Proceedings of ICALP 2005, Lisboa, Portugal.
on Kleinberg, Sid Suri and Eva Tardos, Strategic Network Formation with Structural Holes, in the proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce 2008.
Jon Kleinberg and Eva Tardos. Balanced Outcomes in Social Exchange Networks. ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 2007.

Classification

J. Kleinberg and E. Tardos. Approximation Algorithms for Classification Problems with Pairwise Relationships:
Metric Partitioning and Markov Random Fields, Journal of the ACM, 2002, Volume 49, Issue 5, pp, 616-639. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 1999.
A. Gupta and E. Tardos: A Constant Factor Approximation Algorithm for a Class of Classification Problems, In the Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, May 2000.
A. Archer J. Fakcharoenphol, C. Harrelson, R. Krauthgamer, K. Talvar and E. Tardos: Approximate Classification via Earthmover Metrics, in the Proceedings of the 15th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2004.
Thanh Nguyen and E. Tardos, Parallel Imaging Problem, European Symposium on Algorithms, 2008: 684-695.

Clustering and facility location

Zoya Svitkina and Eva Tardos: Facility Location with Hierarchical Facility Costs. in the Proceedings of the 17th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2006.
Martin Pál, Éva Tardos, Tom Wexler. Facility Location with Hard Capacities. In the Proceedings of the 42nd Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 2001.
D. B. Shmoys, E. Tardos and K. Aardal. Approximation algorithms for the facility location problem.
In the Proc. of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1997, pp. 265-274.
M. Charikar, S. Guha, E. Tardos and D. Shmoys. A constant-factor approximation algorithm for the k-median problem. To appear in the JCSS, preliminary version has appeared in the Proc. of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1999, pp. 1-10.
Ara Hayrapetyan, Chaitanya Swamy and Éva Tardos: Network Design for Information Networks, ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), 2005

Network Design

M. Goemans, A. Goldberg, S. Plotkin, D. Shmoys, E. Tardos, and D. Williamson: Improved approximation algorithms for network design problems. In the proceeding of the 5th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, January 1994, pp. 223-232. ORIE TR-1116.
V. Melkonian and E. Tardos. Approximation Algorithms for a Directed Network Design Problem.
In the Proceedings of the 7th International Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization Conference (IPCO'99), Graz, 1999.
Ara Hayrapetyan, Chaitanya Swamy and Éva Tardos - Network Design for Information Networks
Zoya Svitkina and Éva Tardos: Facility Location with Hierarchical Facility Costs.

Routing Disjoint Paths and Packets in Networks

J. Kleinberg, Y. Rabani, and E. Tardos. Fairness in Routing and Load Balancing, In the Proceedings of the 40th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 1999.
J. Kleinberg and E. Tardos: Approximations for the Disjoint Paths Problem in High-Diameter Planar Networks, Journal of Computer and System Sciences STOC'95 special issue, vol 57, pp 61-73, 1998. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1995, pp. 26-35. ORIE TR-1121.
J. Kleinberg and E. Tardos: Disjoint Paths in Densely Embedded Graphs, In the Proceedings of the 34th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 1995, pp. 52-61.
Y. Rabani and E. Tardos: Distributed Packet Switching in Arbitrary Networks, in the 28th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, May, 1996, pp. 366-376.

Scheduling

D. Shmoys and E. Tardos, An approximation algorithm for the generalized assignment problem. Mathematical Programming A 62, 1993, 461-474. Preliminary version has appeared in the proceeding of the 4th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, January 1993.
A. Goel, M. Henzinger, S. Plotkin, and E. Tardos. Scheduling Data Transfers in a Network and the Set Scheduling Problem In the Proc. of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1999, pp. 189-199.

Generalized Flow

A. Goldberg, S. Plotkin, E. Tardos: Combinatorial algorithms for the generalized circulation problem, Mathematics of Operations Research, 16/2, 1991, 351-381. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 29th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science (1988), 432-443.
E. Tardos and K. Wayne. Simple Generalized Maximum Flow Algorithms. Proceedings of the 6th International Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization Conference (IPCO'98), Houston, 1998, pp. 310-324.

Packing and Covering Algorithms

P. Klein, S. Plotkin, C. Stein and E. Tardos, Faster approximation algorithms for the unit capacity concurrent flow problem with applications to routing and finding sparse cuts. SIAM Journal on Computing, 23/3, 1994,. 466-487. Preliminary version has appeared in the proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (1990), 310-321.
T. Leighton, F. Makedon, S. Plotkin, C. Stein, E. Tardos, S. Tragoudas: Fast Approximation Algorithms for Multicommodity Flow Problems, Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 50 (STOC'91 special issue), 1995, pp. 228--243. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (1991), 101-110.
S.A. Plotkin, D. Shmoys, and E. Tardos, Fast approximation algorithms for fractional packing and covering problems, to appear in Mathematics of Operations Research. ORIE TR-999. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 32nd Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science (1991), 495-505.

Networks with transit times

B. Hoppe and E. Tardos: Polynomial Time Algorithms for Some Evacuation Problems. In the proceeding of the 5th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, January 1994, pp. 433-441. .
B. Hoppe and E. Tardos: The Quickest Transshipment Problem, journal version of the paper in the proceeding of the 6th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 1995 pp. 512-521.
L. Fleischer and E. Tardos. Efficient Continuous-Time Dynamic Network Flow Algorithms. Operations Research Letters 23 (1998) pp. 71-80.

Effective bandwidth

J. Kleinberg, Y. Rabani and E. Tardos. Allocating Bandwidth for Bursty Connection. Journal version of the paper in the Proceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, May, 1997, pp. 664-673.

Finding cuts in graphs

S.A. Plotkin and E. Tardos, Improved Bounds on the Max-flow Min-cut Ratio for Multicommodity Flows. Combinatorica. Preliminary version has appeared in the Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 1993, pp. 691-697.
P. Klein, S. Plotkin, S. Rao and E. Tardos: Approximation Algorithms for Steiner and Directed Multicuts.
Zoya Svitkina, and Eva Tardos. Min-Max Multiway Cut. Proceedings of APPROX 2004.

Separating cutting planes

L. Fleischer and E. Tardos: Separating Maximally Violated Comb Inequalities in Planar Graphs, tech report version of the paper in the Proceedings of the 5th International Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization Conference (IPCO), June 1996, pp. 475-489.

Other Miscellaneous papers

E. Tardos: The Gap Between Monotone and Non-Monotone Circuit Complexity is Exponential. Combinatorica, 1987, 7(4) 141-142.

Older Survey Papers

A. V. Goldberg, E. Tardos, R. E. Tarjan: Network Flow Algorithms, in Paths, Flows and VLSI-Design (eds. B. Korte, L. Lovasz, H.J. Proemel, and A. Schrijver) Springer Verlag, 1990, 101-164.
E. Tardos: Strongly Polynomial and Combinatorial Algorithms in Optimization, in the Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians Kyoto 1990, Springer-Verlag, Tokyo 1991, 1467-1478.
D. B. Shmoys, E. Tardos: Computational Complexity, In the Handbook of Combinatorics (eds. R. Graham, M. Groetschel, and L. Lovasz) North Holland. An extended version has appeared as Technical Report 918, School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University.
L. Lovasz, D. B. Shmoys and E. Tardos: Combinatorics in Computer Science, In the Handbook of Combinatorics (eds. R. Graham, M. Groetschel, and L. Lovasz) North Holland.
E. Tardos: Approximate Min-Max Theorems and Fast Approximation Algorithms for Multicommodity Flow Problems, annotated bibliography. In Proc. of the Summer School on Combinatorial Optimization, in Maastricht,
The Netherlands, Aug. 1993.
E. Tardos: Approximate Min-Max Theorems and Fast Approximation Algorithms for Multicommodity Flow Problems, In Proc. Network Optimization Theory and Practice (NETFLOW), in San Miniato (PI) Italy, Oct. 1993.