Howdy!  I’m a Ph.D. student in computer science under Dr. Ron Cytron in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University.  My research is on the computational theory of voting systems, especially regarding the manipulation of voting systems and the design of manipulation-resistant systems such as Declared-Strategy Voting.  I have now successfully defended my dissertation, Computational Aspects of Approval Voting and Declared-Strategy Voting.  I also work as a graduate research assistant in the DOC Group.  I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science at Texas A&M.  I can be reached through e-mail at legrand@cse.wustl.edu.

This semester I am the teaching assistant for CSE 431S (Translation of Computer Languages); I was the TA for CSE 531S (Theory of Compiling and Language Translation) last fall.  In December 2006 I attended the 1st International Workshop on Computational Social Choice in Amsterdam to present a paper (listed below).  In spring 2005 I taught CSE 436S, Software Engineering Workshop; in fall 2005 I participated in CSE 7201 (Programming Language Seminar: GCC internals) and the PL Reading Group.

Here you can find:

• On the Connection between Functional Programming Languages and Real-time Java Scoped Memory (2007), a paper I co-authored with Delvin Defoe and Ron Cytron (presented at JTRES '07)
• Approval Voting: Local Search Heuristics and Approximation Algorithms for the Minimax Solution (2006), a paper I co-authored with Vangelis Markakis and Aranyak Mehta (presented at COMSOC '06 and then at AAMAS '07)
• Asymptotic Analysis for Real-time Java Scoped-memory Areas (2006), a paper I co-authored with Delvin Defoe and Ron Cytron (won best paper of its session at CCCT '06; also published in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics)
• Static Determination of Allocation Rates to Support Real-Time Garbage Collection (2005), a paper I co-authored with Tobias Mann, Morgan Deters and Ron Cytron (presented at LCTES '05)
• my technical report (WUCSE-2004-67; 2004) on a minimax procedure for negotiating multilateral treaties by Steven J. Brams, D. Marc Kilgour and M. Remzi Sanver
• my dissertation defense slides
• my dissertation proposal writeup
• my dissertation proposal defense slides
• my presentation slides for COMSOC '06
• my oral qualifying examination slides on voting and complexity
• my Doctoral Research Seminar slides (2006) on the strategy of voting in a Rotten Tomatoes context
• my Doctoral Research Seminar slides (2004) on the minimax procedure
• CSE department tennis tournament webpage

There will be more pages on voting topics to come.  Also see my modest ranked-ballot voting methods study, which predates my time at Washington U.

A few handy links: