In March 2017, PPGEP receives the important visit of Prof. Marc Kilgour. Prof. Kilgour He has been a member of the Department of Mathematics of Wilfrid Laurier University since 1973. He has been Adjunct Professor of Systems Design Engineering at University of Waterloo since 1984, and was Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies from 1991 to 2004. He is now a member of the Board of Directors of LCMSDS, as well as the Board of Advisors of the Center for Election Science. Among the academic activities planned for its visit to the Program is the presentation of the lecture “Electing Representative Groups”, which will take place on 03/29 at 2:40 pm in the auditorium of NIATE.
Lecture: ELECTING REPRESENTATIVE GROUPS
Abstract: Often, a group of people must select a few of its members to represent it. What properties characterize a subset of group members that appropriately represents the group as a whole? How best to select a subset that captures well the commonalities and diversities of the group? If the composition of the group is simple and uncontroversial, then the selection problem is one of apportionment. But if the composition of the group is not known precisely or is fluid, or if the dimensions of diversity are controversial or simply too numerous, then voting is a common solution. In this presentation, the varieties of elections that can be used to select a set of representatives are introduced, and their properties – good and bad – are discussed.