Conor McMenamin from Universitat Pompeu Fabra presented a seminar on State Machine Replication (SMR) without honest participants. The talk covered the limitations of current SMR protocols and introduced the ByRa model, a framework for player characterization free of honest participants. He then described FAIRSICAL, a sandbox SMR protocol, and discussed how the ideas could be extended to real-world protocols, with a focus on blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Why it matters: This research on SMR protocols and their incentive compatibility could lead to more robust and secure blockchain technologies in the region.
KAUST and AlFaisal University have signed an MOU to establish a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program, the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. AlFaisal medical students selected for the program will enroll in a KAUST Ph.D. program focused on basic research, smart-health tools, and precision medicine. Graduates will become clinician-scientists implementing smart-health methods in the Saudi healthcare system. Why it matters: This program will cultivate a new generation of leaders in smart health and precision medicine, fostering evidence-based practices in Saudi healthcare.
This paper introduces DaringFed, a novel dynamic Bayesian persuasion pricing mechanism for online federated learning (OFL) that addresses the challenge of two-sided incomplete information (TII) regarding resources. It formulates the interaction between the server and clients as a dynamic signaling and pricing allocation problem within a Bayesian persuasion game, demonstrating the existence of a unique Bayesian persuasion Nash equilibrium. Evaluations on real and synthetic datasets demonstrate that DaringFed optimizes accuracy and convergence speed and improves the server's utility.