Alberto Maria Metelli

Alberto Maria Metelli

Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano

Jobs Opportunities

Having recently received an FIS2 Starting Grant, I will be hiring PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in 2025.

About the Project

The Human Learning from Diverse Feedback (HUmLrn) project broadly focuses on developing learning algorithms that utilize human feedback to improve the learning process of artificial agents. This includes cases in which humans provide demonstrations, corrections, preferences, and proxy rewards. The objectives of this project include, but are not limited to, developing a formal unified framework for human feedback, designing learning algorithms and proving formal guarantees, studying the computational and statistical hardness of learning problems, developing practical deep learning algorithms, and validating these approaches in simulated autonomous driving environments.

Postdoctoral Positions

I am seeking postdoctoral research fellows to work on reinforcement learning, starting from fall 2025. These are fully funded, full-time research positions with no mandatory teaching duties (though teaching is possible) and an expected duration of two years. Successful candidates will work under my direct supervision at the RL3 research group at Politecnico di Milano, with opportunities to collaborate with other researchers in the group.

Ideal candidates should have a strong track record of top-quality research in machine learning, consistent with the standards of venues such as ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, AISTATS, COLT, and JMLR. Demonstrated experience in reinforcement learning theory, bandit problems, and online learning theory will be highly valued. Good programming skills and experience with frameworks like PyTorch are appreciated. Strong communication skills in both written and spoken English are also important.

Candidates should send the following materials to rl3polimi.applications@gmail.com with the subject line [Postdoc Application – YOUR LAST NAME]:

  • An up-to-date CV, including a list of publications.
  • Contact details for at least two references.
  • A motivation letter explaining your research interests. (Hint: It is a good idea to describe how your interests align with this project or my research in general.)
  • Links to 1–2 papers from your previous work that you are most proud of.
  • Any other documents relevant to your application.

Please apply by May 31, 2025. I expect to review applications and begin interviewing shortlisted candidates in early June. If you do not receive a response by mid-June, it means you have not been shortlisted.

PhD Positions

I am seeking PhD students to work on reinforcement learning, starting in fall 2025. These are fully funded, full-time research positions with no mandatory teaching duties (though teaching is possible) and an expected duration of three years. Successful candidates will work under my direct supervision at the RL3 research group at Politecnico di Milano, with opportunities to collaborate with other researchers in the group.

I am looking for candidates interested in either theoretical or experimental research. Ideal candidates for theoretical research should have a strong background in mathematics, including calculus, linear algebra, probability, and statistics. Ideal candidates for experimental research should have a strong background in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, and programming, as well as experience with frameworks like PyTorch and familiarity with using GPUs. In both cases, a minimal background in both fields is required. Additionally, some familiarity with machine learning is expected, and knowledge of reinforcement learning will be considered a plus. Strong communication skills in both written and spoken English are also important.

Candidates should send the following materials to rl3polimi.applications@gmail.com with the subject line [PhD Application – YOUR LAST NAME]:

  • An up-to-date CV.
  • Academic transcripts from previous studies.
  • Contact details for at least two references.
  • A motivation letter explaining your research interests. (Hint: It is a good idea to describe how your interests align with this project or my research in general.)
  • A sample of your technical writing (e.g., BSc or MSc thesis, a preprint, or a published paper).
  • Any other documents relevant to your application.

There are also formal requirements for enrolling in the PhD program. While these are not necessary at the time of application, they should be available by the starting date:

  • An MSc degree obtained with a minimum score.
  • An English language certificate.

See this call as an example of the precise formal requirements. Please apply by May 31, 2025. I expect to review applications and begin interviewing shortlisted candidates in early June. If you do not receive a response by mid-June, it means you have not been shortlisted.

About the Environment

Politecnico di Milano is a public university in Milan, Italy. According to international rankings (QS World Ranking), it is the top university in Italy and is ranked 111th worldwide. The RL3 research group is part of the Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering and consists of 4 faculty members, 1 postdoctoral researcher, and 15 PhD students. It is the most active research group on reinforcement learning in Italy. We are consistently engaged in publishing at top-tier venues, including ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, AISTATS, COLT, and JMLR (see https://rl.airlab.deib.polimi.it/publications-all/).