The Department of Mathematics, Dibrugarh University organized an International Workshop on Game Theory and Networks during 13-15 September 2018 in collaboration with Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. The Workshop was a part of a three-year collaborative project between Prof. Surajit Borkotokey from Dibrugarh University and Dr. Rajnish Kumar from Queen’s University under the UK-India Education and Research Initiatives (UKIERI) awarded to them jointly by the UGC-MHRD and the British Council for the period 2017-2020. The objective of the workshop was three folded namely,
1. To provide the beginners a suitable setup for learning the basics of Cooperative games, Networks and Mechanism Design. This objective was achieved by organizing three mini courses which were offered by respectively Prof. Manipushpak Mitra from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; Prof. Sudipta Sarangi from Virginia Tech, USA and Prof. Arunava Sen from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
2. To provide some insights to the working research scholars who have the basic knowledge of the topics, by means of some expository talks. Prof. Indrajit Ray, Cardiff University, Birmingham, UK; Dr. Rajnish Kumar, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK; Dr. Souvik Roy, ISI-Kolkata; Dr. Mallikarjun Rao, IIT Bombay; Dr. Diganta Mukherjee, ISI-Kolkata; Dr. Nagarajan Krisnamurty, IIM-Indore; Dr. Anirban Ghatak, IIM-Vishakhapatnam; Dr. Amarjyoti Mahanta, IIT Guwahati; Dr. Mriduprabal Goswami, ISI-NE, Tezpur were among others who presented some expository talks in the field of Game Theory, Networks and Mechanism Design.
3. To provide a platform to the research scholars for showcasing their current works in the form of poster presentations.
A whooping number of 40 students took part in the workshop out of which 15 students presented posters. The students had varied backgrounds right from Management Sciences to Mathematics to Computer Sciences in addition to Economics and Political Sciences.
The event was inaugurated by Prof. G. C. Hazarika, the senior most Professor of the department who highlighted the achievements of the department in a very lucid manner. Prof. Indrajit Ray and Prof. Sudipta Sarangi made some brief comments citing the usefulness of the UKIERI to have brought people from the two different parts of the world so as to sit together and work for the common cause. Success of any such events depends on how much academic interactions takes place among the participants both on and off the sessions. The workshop witnesses plenty of such closed group discussions, interactions etc. A proceeding of the activities was unanimously decided to be published under the banner of some renowned publishing house. There will be another couple of such big events under the UKIERI project awarded to the two institutions in the coming year, one in Belfast and the other in Dibrugarh.
