Ioannis Panageas Receives $400K Grant from Algorithmic Foundations for Multi-agent Learning

Ioannis Panageas, assistant professor of computer science in the UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Algorithmic Foundations (AF) for his project “Towards Theoretical Foundations of Multi-agent Learning: Algorithms, Dynamics, and their Limitations.”

AF is part of the National Science Foundation and supports research on the theory of algorithms focused on problems that are central to computer science and engineering, and the development of new algorithms and techniques for analyzing algorithms and computational complexity.

The awarded project investigates how independent ‘agents’ — from AI programs to human decision-makers — learn to interact. “We are building the foundational tools to understand when their actions will lead to a stable and predictable outcome, or ‘equilibrium,’” says Panageas. “This work helps us understand, and ultimately design, complex systems that are reliable and safe.”

Panageas explains, “From ensuring AI safety to stabilizing financial markets and deploying autonomous vehicles, our world increasingly depends on complex systems of interacting agents. This research provides the essential theoretical tools to analyze, predict, and shape the behavior of these systems across critical fields like economics, robotics, and evolutionary biology.”

– Tonya Becerra