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Poster
A Finite-Sample Analysis of Payoff-Based Independent Learning in Zero-Sum Stochastic Games
Zaiwei Chen · Kaiqing Zhang · Eric Mazumdar · Asuman Ozdaglar · Adam Wierman

Thu Dec 14 08:45 AM -- 10:45 AM (PST) @ Great Hall & Hall B1+B2 #2016
in Poster Session 5 »

In this work, we study two-player zero-sum stochastic games and develop a variant of the smoothed best-response learning dynamics that combines independent learning dynamics for matrix games with the minimax value iteration for stochastic games. The resulting learning dynamics are payoff-based, convergent, rational, and symmetric between the two players. Our theoretical results present to the best of our knowledge the first last-iterate finite-sample analysis of such independent learning dynamics. To establish the results, we develop a coupled Lyapunov drift approach to capture the evolution of multiple sets of coupled and stochastic iterates, which might be of independent interest.

Author Information

Zaiwei Chen (California Institute of Technology)
Kaiqing Zhang (University of Maryland, College Park)
Eric Mazumdar (California Institute of Technology)
Asuman Ozdaglar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Asu Ozdaglar received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1996, and the S.M. and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1998 and 2003, respectively. She is currently a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also the director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. Her research expertise includes optimization theory, with emphasis on nonlinear programming and convex analysis, game theory, with applications in communication, social, and economic networks, distributed optimization and control, and network analysis with special emphasis on contagious processes, systemic risk and dynamic control. Professor Ozdaglar is the recipient of a Microsoft fellowship, the MIT Graduate Student Council Teaching award, the NSF Career award, the 2008 Donald P. Eckman award of the American Automatic Control Council, the Class of 1943 Career Development Chair, the inaugural Steven and Renee Innovation Fellowship, and the 2014 Spira teaching award. She served on the Board of Governors of the Control System Society in 2010 and was an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. She is currently the area co-editor for a new area for the journal Operations Research, entitled "Games, Information and Networks. She is the co-author of the book entitled “Convex Analysis and Optimization” (Athena Scientific, 2003).

Adam Wierman (Caltech)

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