Allocation in Practice

TL;DR

This paper discusses practical approaches to resource and cost allocation in societal contexts, highlighting two projects involving food distribution logistics and corporate cost sharing, with novel dimensions not extensively covered before.

Contribution

It introduces new dimensions in fair division and cost allocation problems through real-world projects with FoodBank Local and a multinational company's distribution network.

Findings

Optimized food distribution logistics for charities.

Novel dimensions in cost allocation problems.

Insights into fair division in practical scenarios.

Abstract

How do we allocate scarcere sources? How do we fairly allocate costs? These are two pressing challenges facing society today. I discuss two recent projects at NICTA concerning resource and cost allocation. In the first, we have been working with FoodBank Local, a social startup working in collaboration with food bank charities around the world to optimise the logistics of collecting and distributing donated food. Before we can distribute this food, we must decide how to allocate it to different charities and food kitchens. This gives rise to a fair division problem with several new dimensions, rarely considered in the literature. In the second, we have been looking at cost allocation within the distribution network of a large multinational company. This also has several new dimensions rarely considered in the literature.