Games and Graphs: The Third Internship at the International Game Theory Laboratory

From July 15, 2024 to August 12, 2024, a summer internship for mathematics students was held at the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making and the Center for Market Studies and Spatial Economics

For the third year in a row, the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making is hosting a summer internship. In 2024, the number of participants in the event was more than 60 people, which is 1.5 times more than in previous years. 
The organizers have significantly expanded the research topics: industrial projects by employees of the Moscow Laboratory of Complex Networks, Hypergraphs and their Applications have been added to classical theoretical problems from the areas of game theory, mechanism design and decision making.
The lecturers and scientific supervisors for the students were both staff members of the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making and associate professors of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Moscow campus of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. In addition, more than a third of the supervisors who took part in the internship represented other universities: New Economic School, Novosibirsk State University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, as well as many foreign research centers: BIMSA - Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Delhi Statistical Institute, University of Glasgow, Ozeygin University in Turkey. An important part of the program was the speech of the international director of the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making - Hervé Moulin (University of Glasgow).
All students wishing to participate in a summer internship were selected on a competitive basis. A mandatory condition for participation was an application, which included the student’s portfolio, motivation essay, term papers and theses. Applications were evaluated by the organizing committee of the summer internship, and the final decision on inviting interns was made by the Head of the International Laboratory of Game Theory and Decision Making, A.S. Nesterov. A total of 70 applications were reviewed, 32 applications were approved.
The summer internship interns included graduate bachelors, masters and postgraduate students from technical faculties of the Higher School of Economics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, New Economic School, St. Petersburg State University, Novosibirsk State University, Moscow State University and Far Eastern Federal University.
The best project results were submitted to competitions from industrial partners and international conferences.
Particularly outstanding results were demonstrated by a group of students who worked on mathematical optimization problems and models for the formation of complex networks as part of their internship. In particular, a solution was obtained for the applied optimization problem of Yuri Andreevich Kochetov (intern - Boris Gavrish, Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University), the results of which might be demonstrated at the international conference MOTOR - Methods of Optimization and Operations Research. Significant progress was also made on a number of theoretical problems (intern Stepan Bondar under the supervision of Alexey Suzdaltsev) and on projects under the supervision of Ivan Samoylenko, Oleg Baranov and Maxim Beketov (interns - Maxim Klimenko, MIPT, Anton Zudin - Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University, Stepan Spirin - Faculty of Mathematics, National Research University Higher School of Economics).
The results of these projects, in addition to their research value, also have practical significance and can become the basis for cooperation between HSE and industrial partners and for attracting external funding through grants.