A pdf version of my resume is also available.


EDUCATION

Ph.D. Student in Computer Science (5th year)
  • Brown University, 2007-present
  • Advisor: Amy Greenwald
  • Cumulative GPA: 4.0/4.0
  • Coursework: Design of Agents for Bidding in Sponsored Search Auctions, Game Theory, Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization, Probabilistic Methods in Computer Science, Game-Theoretic Artificial Intelligence, Solving Hard Problems in Combinatorial Optimization, Recent Applications of Probability and Statistics, Approximation Algorithms, Topics in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Human-Computer Interaction and Visual Analysis

B.S. in Computer Science
  • University of Minnesota, 2006
  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude.
  • Advisors: Maria Gini, John Collins, Paul Schrater
  • Technical Coursework: Artificial Intelligence I, Artificial Intelligence II, Intelligent Agents, Principles of Microeconomics, Mathematical Models of Human Behavior, Introduction to Probability and Statistics, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations, Calculus I, Calculus II, Mathematical Logic, Introduction to Numerical Computing, Algorithms and Data Structures, Program Design and Development, Discrete Structures of Computer Science, Formal Languages and Automata Theory, Machine Architecture and Organization, Introduction to Operating Systems, Computer Vision, Robotics, Physics I, Physics II, Structure of Computer Programming I, Structure of Computer Programming II, Introduction to C/C++, Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Cognitive Science


EXPERIENCE

Yahoo! Research—New York, NY,
Research Intern, Economics and Social Systems, Fall 2010
  • Implemented methods to infer advertiser values-per-click based on bidding behavior across keywords.
  • Created hierarchical regression model to (1) understand which keyword features were driving each advertiser’s bids and values-per-click, and (2) predict advertiser bids/values on new keywords.
  • Constructed models of advertiser click/cost beliefs from sponsored search logs.

The Search Agency—East Greenwich, RI
Research Intern, 2009-2010
  • Developed methods to estimate sponsored search auction parameters using Google bid simulator data from multiple accounts.
  • Created simulations to better understand counter-intuitive auction dynamics with budget-constrained bidders, such as potential non-monotonicity in clicks with increasing bids.

Brown University—Providence, RI
Teaching Assistant: Autonomous Agents and Computational Market Design, Fall 2011
Teaching Assistant: Design of Agents for Bidding in Sponsored Search Auctions, Spring 2010
Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Spring 2009
  • Co-led students in designing various components of an autonomous sponsored search bidding agent which ran in the Trading Agent Competition for Ad Auctions.
  • Led discussions on recent publications in sponsored search research.


RESEARCH PROJECTS

Dutch Flower Auctions (ongoing research)—Rotterdam, The Netherlands
January 2011-present
  • Research abroad, studying bidder and auctioneer strategies for the Dutch Flower Auctions. We’re interested in both modeling bidder preferences and bidder behavior, as well as designing autonomous agents and mixed-initiative systems to help bidders improve their decision making.
  • Developed a simulator based on actual Dutch Flower Auction data to enable evaluation of various price predictors and bidding strategies.


Trading Agent Competition for Ad Auctions (ongoing research)—Brown University
2008-present
  • Developed demand predictors and multiple-choice knapsack-based optimization algorithms for budget-constrained bidding in sponsored search.
  • Created and implemented mathematical programs to disaggregate average position data to more accurately estimate the number of impressions seen by each advertiser in each slot.
  • Achieved 2nd place in the annual Trading Agent Competition for Ad Auctions in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management—Brown University, University of Minnesota
2004-2010
  • Team leader for Brown University’s agent in 2008-2010, and team member for the University of Minnesota’s agent in 2004-2007.
  • Designed and implemented various supplier price predictors, sales price predictors, procurement algorithms, and bidding algorithms using both mathematical programming techniques and greedy marginal profit-based algorithms.
  • Designed and implemented simulator that turns game-theoretic problem into a simplified decision-theoretic problem, allowing for testing of various optimization algorithms in a controlled setting.
  • Designed and implemented an additional (game-theoretic) controlled testing framework to assist in game analysis, sensitivity analysis, and variance reduction.
  • Finalist of the annual Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010.


AWARDS
  • TAC SCM Scholarship, 2009, 2010, 2011.
  • Rosh Foundation Fellowship, 2007.
  • TAC SCM Scholarship, 2007.
  • Lando Scholarship, 2006.
  • TAC SCM Best Poster Award, May 2006.
  • TAC SCM Finalist, 2005, 2006, 2008.
  • Dean's List, Spring 2004, Fall 2004, Fall 2002.


LEADERSHIP/INVOLVEMENT
  • Faculty-Graduate Liaison, Brown CS Department. May 2009-May 2010.
  • Coach, Rhode Island Urban Debate League. 2007. Led weekly practices at Times Squared Academy in Providence.
  • Volunteer Coordinator, Dinnaken Properties. 2004-2005. Responsible for coordinating, advertising, and overseeing monthly community service events such as blood drives, canned good collections, neighborhood cleanups, etc.
  • Tutor, Minneapolis public schools. 2004. Made weekly 3-hour visits to Seward Montessori School to help 4th-6th grade students with their schoolwork (primarily mathematics and English).


PUBLICATIONS
  • Jordan Berg, Carleton Coffrin, Amy Greenwald and Eric Sodomka. Rank and Impression Estimation in TAC AA. In IJCAI 2011 Workshop on Trading Agent Design and Analysis. July 2011.
  • Eric Sodomka, Sebastien Lahaie, and Dustin Hillard. A Hierarchical Model for Value Estimation in Sponsored Search. In EC 2011 Seventh Ad Auctions Workshop. June 2011.
  • Jordan Berg, Amy Greenwald, Victor Naroditskiy, and Eric Sodomka. A Knapsack-Based Approach to Bidding in Ad Auctions (poster). In the 19th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI). August 2010.
  • Jordan Berg, Amy Greenwald, Victor Naroditskiy, and Eric Sodomka. A First Approach to Autonomous Bidding in Ad Auctions. In EC 10 Workshop on Trading Agent Design and Analysis (TADA 2010). June 2010.
  • Jordan Berg, Amy Greenwald, Victor Naroditskiy, and Eric Sodomka. An Approach to Bidding in Ad Auctions. In the Fourth North East Student Colloquium on Artificial Intelligence. April 2010.
  • Eric Sodomka, Amy Greenwald. Design and Analysis of Decision Processes for Autonomous Supply Chain Management (poster). In the Fourth North East Student Colloquium on Artificial Intelligence. April 2010.
  • Amy Greenwald, Victor Naroditskiy, Tyler Odean, Mauricio Ramirez, Eric Sodomka, Joe Zimmerman, and Clark Cutler. Marginal Bidding: An Application of the Equimarginal Principle to Bidding in TAC SCM. In edited volume on Agent Mediated Electronic Commerce and Trading Agent Design and Analysis, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Volume 13. 2009.
  • Eric Sodomka, John Collins, and Maria Gini. Efficient Statistical Methods for Evaluating Trading Agent Performance. Proceedings of AAAI-07, Vancouver, Canada, July 2007.
  • Wolfgang Ketter, Eric Sodomka, Amrudin Agovic, John Collins, and Maria Gini. Strategic Sales Management in an Autonomous Trading Agent for TAC SCM (demo). Proceedings of AAAI-06, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, July 2006.
  • Brett Borghetti and Eric Sodomka. Performance Evaluation Methods for the Trading Agent Competition (student abstract). Proceedings of AAAI-06, pp 1857- 1858, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, July 2006.
  • Brett Borghetti, Eric Sodomka, John Collins, and Maria Gini. A Market-Pressure-Based Performance Evaluator for TAC-SCM (poster). Proceedings of AAMAS/ TADA-AMEC-06, Hakodate, Japan, May 2006.
  • Eric Sodomka. Decision-Making with Monetary Value Uncertainty. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, University of Minnesota. May 2006.
  • Paul Schrater, Eric Sodomka, Charles Sloane. Decision-Making with Monetary Value Uncertainty (poster). Proceedings of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making Conference, Toronto, Canada, November 2005.


REFERENCES
Available upon request.