NWO VIDI award to Alessandra Palmigiano

Alessandra Palmigiano's research project 'A mosaic of them all': logics for multi-agent interaction via duality and correspondence has been granted in the last Vidi round. The project adds 800.000 euros to a conglomeration of grants worth 1.400.000 euros in total, which will create 3-5 PhD positions and 1 Postdoc position. The project will be based at the TU Delft, and will start on 15 December 2013.

Project abstract

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The cognitive aspects of multi-agent interaction are focal issues to vast areas of modern science, from computer science to economics, through artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, and sociology. Logic can contribute significantly to these fields: while maintaining its hardcore identity as the study of formal truth and deductive reasoning, logic has expanded and redefined itself as the study of information flow and rational procedures. Since classical formalisms alone cannot possibly account for the variety of reasoning patterns generated by this enlarged range of applications, new logics have emerged, collectively named nonclassical logics.

The mathematical development of these logics is presently uneven: for some of them, like modal and intuitionistic logics, it is satisfactory; for others, and interestingly, for those of most immediate applicability, it is not.

This proposal aims at developing the mathematical theory of those nonclassical logics most directly applicable to multi-agent interaction, and relevant e.g. to judgment aggregation (Social Choice) and categorization theory (Management Science).

The many technical developments envisaged in this project are methodologically grounded on dual characterization techniques on the mathematical side, and correspondence techniques on the logical side. The innovative content of this proposal lies in the beautiful and mutually-reinforcing interplay between dual characterizations and correspondence.

This project will not just bring mathematical rigour to existing formalizations, but will also introduce new and more sophisticated ones, capable to handle the state-of-the-art in social science and management science.