Michael Chavrimootoo
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Denison University
(he/him/his)
My research spans computational social choice (COMSOC), which falls within AI (multiagent systems), but also draws on social choice theory, economics, political science, algorithms, and complexity theory. I'm driven by a need to understand the landscape of the field to find surprising structures and techniques that open new avenues. This had led me to explore the problems in COMSOC (and complexity) to determine precisely what separates them from other problems, and when collapses are hiding in plain sight. I received my Ph.D. at the University of Rochester (UR). Before that, I completed my undergraduate CS B.S. and Political Science B.A. at UR, with a focus on courses in CS theory, elections, and economic development.Some problems I've worked on:
- Determining which standard electoral control types are the same in concrete election systems (equivalences that have evaded the field for years).
- Linking search and decision complexities of equivalent electoral control problems, using a new framework we introduced to study/relate the complexity of search problems.
- Determining what properties of an election system lead certain control types to collapse (which immediately yields results for infinitely many systems).
- Providing tools to study the complexity of grid games with irreversible gravity (which were not well-studied; this opens up new research avenues).
Teaching
- Data Structures (DU) (Fall 2024)
- Markets, Polls, and Social Networks (DU) (Fall 2024)
- Computer Models and Limitations (UR) (Summer 2023)
- Analysis of Algorithms (RIT) (Summer 2023)
- Design & Analysis of Efficient Algorithms (UR) (Summer 2023)
- Computer Models and Limitations (UR) (Summer 2022)
- Analysis of Algorithms (RIT) (Summer 2022)
- Design & Analysis of Efficient Algorithms (UR) (Summer 2022)
- Computer Models and Limitations (UR) (Summer 2021)
- Analysis of Algorithms (RIT) (Summer 2021)
- Introduction to Cryptography (RIT) (Summer 2021)
