Joining

I'm excited about how to support human+AI discovery and decision-making, from questions of explainability and sensitivity in reinforcement learning, inverse problems in reinforcement learning, decision-making when the human and the agent have different information, interpretability and interaction paradigms to support human+AI decision-making. I'm particularly interested in ways in which RL/AI agents can enhance human agency toward beneficial goals.

If you think that I'd be a good mentor, please get in touch after reading the FAQs below.

Are you taking undergraduate students?  In general, I only have the capacity right now to work with students from Harvard and local collaborations such as MIT and Wellesley.  Experience with some kind of numerical computing (e.g. Matlab/numpy/scikit-learn, at the level of CS181) is a must, and additional statistics will allow for more interesting projects.  In most cases, I ask for a two-term or thesis level of commitment, and I have a strong preference for several students working together on a joint project aimed toward a publication or product.  Usually the best time to reach out is in the spring for the following fall.  I only advise students on projects that are related to the core directions of my lab -- it really isn't fair to anyone if I don't have the brainspace to think about your project! --  but students are always welcome to come by at office hours to discuss ideas.

Are you taking PhD students? What are you looking for?

I'm open to potentially expanding my lab for students where we have exceptional alignment.

I'm looking for a combination of initiative, intellectual curiosity, and strong technical/reasoning skills. What's both tough and exciting about a PhD is that you get to explore new questions -- it's important that you find joy and excitement in exploring new directions, that you have or are ready to build skills not only to keep going when directions fail but also to fail fast and fail smart to pivot you toward the next direction. I'll be there as mentor and collaborator, but that keenness must come from you.

On the skills side, I expect my graduate students to already have taken some courses in probability/statistics, linear algebra, and numerical computing -- and be excited about seeing a lot more of these areas during their PhD! Reinforcement learning experience not required, but you should know what it is and find decision making fundamentally interesting. I also expect strong logical reasoning skills -- think the skills needed to debug code, make and test a conjecture, or design a carefully controlled experiment. I'm also expanding into HCI-related areas in collaboration with my HCI colleagues.  

Note that while you must be accepted to Harvard SEAS for me to consider you in the group, it may be useful for you to drop me a note also in advance (finale-lab@g.harvard.edu ).  If you get in touch before applying, please share your CV, transcript, any relevant experience (e.g. if you've coded up your inference for a class or project), and some research direction you're excited or curious about to give me a sense of your background and interests.

Finally, there are some areas that I do not work in -- omics, video games, robots; selective re vision -- if you have experience in these areas, that totally counts as research cred! But if you're hoping to focus on such areas in your PhD, I'm probably not the lab for you.

Are you taking Masters students?  I do not take Master's students directly, nor do I have particular sway in admissions to the data science master's program (where my role is most associated with curriculum and staffing).  If you are admitted into the master's programs and want to chat, please reach out then at finale-lab@g.harvard.edu or come by my office hours.

Are you taking postdocs or interns?  

I'm not immediately seeking postdocs, but I am eager to be cultivating relationships for future postdocs. 

I expect postdocs to have completed their PhD in machine learning, math, stats, physics, or some other technical area that is relevant to the work in my lab. Your role will involve mentoring 2-3 students on their projects -- a great chance to taste what it's like to be in academia! -- and working on 1-2 of your own projects with me. 

Unfortunately, I do not have the capacity to mentor shorter term postdocs, interns, or other short-term projects.

What other skills do I need?  I expect all of my students to have excellent communication skills and the ability to write software independently (i.e. I'm always happy to help, but I'm not going to be teaching you how to code).  As I note in the PhD section above, however, more than any other specific skills, however, I'm looking for passion and grit to learn from failures and persevere when tackling tough, meaningful problems.  If you're reaching out to me, feel fee to include a personal story of working through something really exciting and really hard, which may or may not have worked out :)

What are your collaboration expectations?  My most important expectation is that I expect my collaborators to communicate their interests and passions, and in particular, expose small problems before they become big ones. If you share a technical or personal concern, I will do my best to work with you to find a solution. But I can't help fix what I don't know. More broadly, I strongly appreciate communication and organization, including regular research updates.  

Anything else before getting in touch?  Please show me that you've read the text above by structuring your subject line as  "Purple Unicorn: [ FILL IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE ]"