Welcome to the home of the Electronic Marketplaces Laboratory (EM). We're part of Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department.

We work in the convergence of AI, game theory, and operations research. This involves everything from large-scale equilibrium computation to automated negotiation to the design of new economic structures like markets. Probably our three most famous projects are superhuman AIs for large imperfect-information games such as poker, organ exchanges (our algorithms run the national kidney exchange for UNOS), and combinatorial auctions.

Team members

Tuomas Sandholm - Angel Jordan University Professor of Computer Science, Founder and Director

Stephen McAleer - Postdoctoral Research Associate

Brian Zhang - PhD Student

Ioannis Anagnostides - PhD Student

Carlos Martin - PhD Student

Siddharth Prasad - PhD Student (co-advised by Nina Balcan)

Fabian Pieroth - Predoctoral visitor

 

Graduated PhD students

Dr. Gabriele Farina (2023) - Assistant Professor, MIT EECS. CMU SCS Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Dr. Ellen Vitercik (2021) - Assistant Professor, Stanford University, CS and MS&E (co-advised with Nina Balcan). SIGecom Dissertation Award, CMU SCS Distinguished Dissertation Award, Victor Lesser Dissertation Award Runner Up.

Dr. Noam Brown (2020) - Research Scientist, OpenAI. AAAI/ACM SIGAI Dissertation Award, Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation award, CMU SCS Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Dr. Christian Kroer (2018) - Assistant Professor, Columbia University, IEOR.

Dr. John Dickerson (2016) - Associate Professor, University of Maryland, College Park, Computer Science.

Dr. Sam Ganzfried (2015) - Assistant Professor, Florida International University.

Dr. Abe Othman (2012) - Co-Founder, stealth startup in the Bay area.

Dr. Michael Benisch (2011) - VP of Engineering at Woven by Toyota (co-advised with Norman Sadeh).

Dr. Andrew Gilpin (2009) - Director, Princeton-based hedge fund. Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation award.

Dr. Vince Conitzer (2006) - Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Computer Science Department. Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation award, ACM Distinguished Dissertation Award honorable mention.

Dr. Kate Larson (2004) - Professor, University of Waterloo.

 

Former postdocs and research associates

Dr. Fei Peng (2013-2015) - Director of Engineering, Optimized Markets, Inc.

Dr. Kimmo Berg (2014) - Aalto University, Systems Analysis Laboratory

Dr. Noam Goldberg (2013) - Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University

Dr. Pingzhong Tang (2010-12) - Assistant Professor of computer science in Yao's class at Tsinghua University

Dr. Felix Brandt (2003-04) - Heisenberg Professor, Technical University of Munich

Dr. Alexander Nareyek (2003) - Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore

Dr. Paolo Santi (2003) - Senior Researcher, Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council

 

Former sabbatical visitors

Prof. Tri-Dung Nguyen - Sabbatical Visitor

Prof. Nicola Gatti (2013) - Professor in Computer Science and AI, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano

Prof. Craig Boutilier (2008-09) - Principal Scientist, Google; formerly Professor and Chair, Computer Science Department, University of Toronto

Prof. Dov Monderer (1999-2000) - Luxenberg Chair Professor, William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Prof. Sviatoslav Braynov (1998-2000) - Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, University of Illinois at Springfield

Prof. Fernando Tohmé (1996-2000) - Professor, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Departamento de Economía, Bahia Blanca, Argentina

 

Graduated MS and BS students

Winston Grenier (Summer 2020)

Benjamin Clayman (MS)

Jonathan Li (BS 2019)

Benjamin Plaut (BS 2016). Allen Newell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

Kevin Su (MS 2013)

Zhijian Lim (BS 2004)

Kate Larson (MS 1999)

Martin Andersson (MS 1999)

Qianbo Huai (MS 1999)

Vincent Ferrandon (MS 1999)

John Olsen (MS 1999)

 

Former short-term visitors

Luca Carminati (Spring 2023)

Tommaso Bianchi (2019)

Dr. Andrea Celli (Jan 2018 - May 2018)

Dr. Michael Albert (Summer 2015)

Dr. Marco Rocco (Fall 2014)

Dr. Troels Bjerre Sorensen (7/2006-12/2006)

Prof. Rudolf Müller (9/2005)

Prof. Makoto Yokoo (10/2001)