St. John’s College Junior Fellow Speaker Series
In Search of the Perfect Voting System: A Disheartening Quest for Mathematicians
Juan Serpa
B.Sc (Mathematical Economics)
M.A (Economics)
Ph.D student in Operations and Logistics
Which method should be used to elect an official, the next Olympics venue and/or the interest of a collective group? Although democracy has long been deemed as an efficient system to represent the collective interest of a society, there is no specific voting system (when there are more than two choices) that perfectly accomplishes this task.
In this talk, Juan explores various voting and choice systems, while discussing their respective pathologies through a series of examples. Juan will also provide a non-formal discussion about how Mathematicians and Game Theorists have long been concerned about these issues for centuries, and their daunting tasks in search of the most efficient voting system.
Note: No formal mathematics background required to understand the talk!
Tuesday, November 27 | 8:00 PM | Fairmont Social Lounge | St. John’s College, 2111 Lower Mall