Ultimately, I aim to make deep RL work (and maybe even make it work well).

I’m broadly interested in the intersection of physics and machine learning, which has historically proven to be a productive way to model complex systems, understand learning, and advance algorithms.

I focus on the connections between reinforcement learning (RL) and statistical mechanics. What once seemed like a simple application of statistical mechanics to RL has now blossomed into a rich field of research, with many open questions and exciting connections to other disciplines – now I am deep down the rabbit hole 🕳️🐇 and having fun exploring the diverse field of reinforcement learning.

Bio:

I started at Lorain County Community College, graduating with an A.S. before transferring to Cleveland State University, where I began my research journey and completed honors B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics.

In fall 2020, I started my PhD at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where I have taken on several roles: I served as a tutor, Teaching Assistant, and Adjunct Faculty for the physics department. Now I am a full-time Research Assistant supervised by Professor Rahul V. Kulkarni. As of fall 2022, I was promoted to PhD candidacy, and I am aiming to graduate at the end of 2025.

I am a member of the NSF’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI). I am also an intern at Sony AI, where I work on average-reward deep RL algorithms, with applications to video games.

You can find my CV here.

Today, I have many wide-ranging interests including reinforcement learning, statistical physics, thermodynamics, gene expression networks, superconductivity, polymer physics, graph theory, and applications of mathematics to machine learning and physics.

My current research efforts are focused on the connection between reinforcement learning and statistical mechanics. You can find more about my past and current research here.

I enjoy traveling (mostly afforded by academic means) and I’m recently getting into hiking (Adirondacks, Alps, Mt. Hollyburn, Mt. Strachan, Mt. Fromme, Mt. Wachusett). I’ve been learning French on and off. In a past life, I studied / “implemented” options trading techniques which eventually taught me to buy and hold (hodl).