Guest Talk: Javier Esparza: Black Ninjas in the Dark: Analyzing Population Protocols.

Thursday, February 13, 2020, 10:30am

Location: RWTH Aachen University, Department of Computer Science - Ahornstr. 55, building E3, room 9222

Speaker: Javier Esparza

 

Abstract:

Population protocols are a mathematical model of distributed
computation introduced by Angluin et al. in 2004. The original purpose
of Angluin et al. was the theoretical study of systems consisting of
identical, cheap mobile devices with tiny computational resources, like
sensor networks. However, since its introduction the model has also been
used to analyze the behaviour of chemical systems and of people in
social networks.

Population protocols help us to pose and study many fundamental
questions about distributed systems: What can be computed by agents
wishing to remain anonymous? Are leader processes necessary for optimal
speed? Can macroscopic ``phase transitions'' be ``programmed'' at
microscopic level? Is it possible to check automatically that a protocol
works correctly? Is it possible to automatically synthesize a protocol
for a given task?

In the talk I will introduce the population protocol model with the help
of several examples. More precisely, I will present the problem of the
Black Ninjas in the Dark, and the different solutions given to it by
their Senseis. I will also show animated simulations of some protocols.