# College of Engineering Seminars & Speakers

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## ISE Graduate Seminar - Prof. Azarakhsh Malekian, Associate Professor of Operations Management and Statistics at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Professor Rasoul Etsami
Location
Zoom
Virtual
Date
Sep 9, 2022   10:00 - 11:00 am
Speaker
Prof. Azarakhsh Malekian
Contact
Staci McDannel
E-Mail
tank@illinois.edu
Phone
217-244-3542
Views
10
Originating Calendar
ISE Seminar Calendar

# Title: Revenue Maximization with Non-Obligatory and Deferred Inspection

Abstract: We consider the problem of selling $k$ items to $n$ unit-demand buyers to maximize revenue in two settings with inspection. In the first setting, the buyers' values are independently distributed (not necessarily identical) but unknown to the buyers themselves, with the option of allowing buyers to inspect the item at a cost. In the second setting, the buyers' values are known to themselves, and the auctioneer can inspect to learn buyers' values and potentially punish the non-truthful buyers.

For both problems, we present an approximation mechanism that achieves $1-1/\sqrt{k+3}$ of the optimal revenue in expectation. Our mechanisms are sequential and have a simple implementation that works in an online setting where the buyers arrive in an arbitrary unknown order and yet achieve the aforementioned approximation with respect to the optimal offline mechanism.

Based on the following two papers: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3855810 and https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3700525

Short bio: Azarakhsh Malekian is an associate professor of Operations Management and Statistics at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Her current research interests include data markets, algorithmic game theory, and networks. Her research and teaching have been recognized by multiple awards such as best paper award at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics, University of Toronto Connaught New Research Award, Roger Martin Excellence in Research at Rotman, and Rotman Teaching Award. She has received a BSc in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. Before joining Rotman, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the MIT.