A native daughter of Yuvalim, a village in the lower Galilee, Gali Noti’s undergraduate work in computer science and cognitive sciences at the Hebrew University focused on people’s decision-making processes. She was inspired by the classic studies in the field, led by Tversky and Kahneman, who demonstrated how mathematical, rational models fail to explain human decision making. Realizing that their ideas had not yet entered the discourse in computer science, and that analyses in core real-world applications were still based on unrealistic behavioral assumptions, Gali decided that the subject called for further investigation.

She continued to a MSc in computer science at the Hebrew University’s Center for the Study of Rationality, where her cross-disciplinary approach was encouraged. Under the supervision of Prof. Noam Nisan (CS) and Prof. Ilan Yaniv (Department of Psychology), she demonstrated the importance of addressing behavioral features in algorithmic environments, and specifically that in the context of Internet ad-auctions, the gap between theoretical and actual behavior might be worth billions of dollars!

In her PhD studies, Gali aims to bridge the gap between the theory and the actual human play in computerized systems in order to design effective algorithms that will achieve their desired outcomes in interactions with humans. She applies insights from psychology and behavioral economics in the framework of algorithmic game theory, machine learning and data science.  Gali is also involved in an applied research project at Microsoft Research, where she is developing an algorithmic framework to sell cloud resources, based on principles of economics.

Gali’s goal is that her scientific work will contribute to the understanding of the algorithmic systems that underlie the interactions of real people. This, she believes, will promote interdisciplinary approaches in computer science and lead to further research that emphasizes the links between computers, people and society.