Hello, I'm Dominik. I'm a second-year PhD student at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, supervised by Edith Elkind. I work on problems in algorithmic game theory and computational social choice. Recently, my main focus has been on understanding and exploiting underlying structure in preference data: once we notice that agents' preferences are well-behaved, this can greatly help us in aggregating their opinions and make good group decisions. I am also working on hedonic games, which model the formation of stable social groups, and on using SAT solvers to find new paradoxes and impossibilities in voting theory.
I'm a member of Balliol College. Before starting my PhD (or rather DPhil) in 2015, I was an undergraduate student of Maths & Computer Science at St. John's College, Oxford, where I had a particular focus on Foundations of Mathematics and Topology. I'm proud to be an MMathCompSci, which at 12 letters is the longest title the University has to offer. I'm originally from Barsbüttel, close to Hamburg, where I briefly studied Economics before coming to Oxford. My English is now some weird concoction of a British and a German accent.
I'm an enthusiastic user of Anki, a flash card program exploiting the wonders of spaced repetition. My deck includes over 9,000 cards, mainly on maths, but also including notes on everything I've read over the last few years. Occasionally, I like to put on magic shows (poster) consisting of a mixture of mind-reading, side show, and plain silliness. In recent times, I worry much about ethical issues. I aspire to be an Effective Altruist. I believe in consequentialism, some sort of total utilitarianism, and think that we should be non-speciesist, and not discount the welfare of future generations. I am very concerned about wild-animal suffering.
I'm always looking for research collaborators, or opportunities to visit other universities. Please get in touch. If you're in Oxford, we have something in common, and you fancy a pint of cider or Diet Pepsi, I'd be very happy to meet.