I will introduce the theoretical field of distributed computing to you in this talk by explaining recent results on two problems in the field. Specifically, I will talk about
 (i) the leader election problem in the population protocol model, and
 (ii) Byzantine gathering problem by mobile agents.

 

The population protocol model represents a network consisting of tiny sensors that moves passibly (i.e., they constantly move, but cannot control their own move). This model was proposed by Angluin et al. in 2004 and has been intensively studied since then. In particular, the leader election problem and the majority problem are well studied. In this talk, I will discuss the former, that is, the leader election problem.

 

Mobile agents are mobile entity that moves autonomously on a computer network. The gathering problem is a well-studied fundamental problem, which requires all agents to gather at a single node. In this talk, we will discuss a variant of this problem, i.e., the gathering problem with the assumption that some agents take arbitrary adversarial actions.