On the morning of June 30, 2020, the 151st Master Distinguished Lecture, co-sponsored by the Graduate School, SJTU and Antai College of Economics & Management (ACEM), welcomed Professor Eric S. Maskin, Adams University Professor at Harvard University and laureate of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. He gave a wonderful online lecture entitled "An Introduction to Mechanism Design" to the students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Dai Liang, Associate Professor from the Department of Economics of ACEM presided over this online forum.

Professor Eric Maskin is an expert with profound attainments in the field of economic theories, such as mechanism design, game theory and contract theory, etc. He worked at MIT, Harvard University and Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He was the Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2003. He won the Nobel Laureate in Economics for "having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory" in 2007.

The lecture started in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Professor Maskin introduced some basics theory of the mechanism design and its differences from traditional microeconomics. By using three examples of cutting the cake, wireless spectrum auction and public energy selection, he introduced to the audience in an easy-to-understand way his research results which won him the Nobel Prize – the mechanism design theory, that is, when an economic or social objective is given, how to design a program or system (mechanism) to achieve the objective. He also guided the audience to discuss whether there is a general method to determine whether a given objective can be achieved and whether an implementable mechanism can be designed for it. At the end of the lecture, Professor Maskin introduced the sufficiency and necessity for the implementation of Nash equilibrium - Maskin's Games - which was proved in his paper Nash Equilibrium and Welfare Optimality in 1977.

During the lecture, the students who listened to the lecture in the cloud asked questions enthusiastically. In the Q&A session, the host, Associate Professor Dai Liang, discussed with Professor Maskin on behalf of the audience such issues as "how the mechanism designer handles the population uncertainty", "roles that the mechanism design can play when the government faces uncertainty" and "the frontier theories and leaders in mechanism design". The communication between Professor Maskin and the young professor of Jiao Tong University enabled the students to broaden their horizons and inspire their divergent thinking. Several students' representatives from the Graduate School of the university also had the honor to talk to Professor Maskin and asked the professor some questions related to their academic research, and the professor answered them one by one with patience.

At the end of the forum, the host expressed sincere gratitude to the professor for coming and his wonderful speech on behalf of the audience, and also expressed heartfelt thanks to the co-organizers of the event - Cardinal Pitch Club (CPC) and Hangzhou Turing Workstation.

This lecture attracted over 3,000 audiences online. ACEM will continue to launch high-quality academic activities to nurture the minds of students and alumni of Jiao Tong University.

【Co-Organizer】

Cardinal Pitch Club(CPC) ：Founded at Stanford in April 2015, Cardinal Pitch Club (CPC) empowers people with big dreams, ideas and a desire to pitch, and aims to build an elite community of Stanford Alumni and San Francisco Bay Area’s top talents. CPC currently has more than 2,000 members, 164 companies in the field of AI, Blockchain, AR/VR, Fintech, Healthcare, and Enterprise.

 Hangzhou Turing Center：Hangzhou Turing Center is the first Turing Center established in China. It is a collaboration between the Hangzhou High-Tech Zone and Cryptic Labs, providing mentor, funding, and policy support for outstanding entrepreneurs, innovative talents and startups in the digital economy area.