“A Rigorous Analysis of Schelling Segregation”

Speaker: Robert Kleinberg 
Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University

Abstract: In 1969, economist Thomas Schelling introduced a landmark model of residential segregation in which individuals move out of neighborhoods where their ethnicity constitutes a minority. The model is influential both for its policy implications – bearing on the causes of segregation and its possible remedies – and for its theoretical implications, as a benchmark model exemplifying the emergence of macroscopic phenomena from random local interactions. Our work presents a rigorous analysis of Schelling’s model, focusing on the case of one- and two-dimensional grids. This talk is based on joint work with Christina Brandt, Nicole Immorlica, Gautam Kamath, Brendan Lucier, and Morteza Zadimoghaddam.

Bio: Bobby Kleinberg is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. He was also a researcher at Microsoft Research New England, where the work presented in this talk was initiated. His research in general pertains to the design and analysis of algorithms, and their applications to machine learning, economics, networking, and other areas. Prior to receiving his doctorate from MIT in 2005, Kleinberg spent three years at Akamai Technologies, where he assisted in designing the world’s largest Internet Content Delivery Network. He is the recipient of a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and an NSF CAREER Award.

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